Business Objects Management

A common application design practice is to separate the presentation layer from business logic and encapsulate the business logic inside business objects. The Report Server can be integrated into such applications and/or use their business objects to provide data for reports. Custom .NET assemblies containing dedicated classes and data-retrieval methods can be added to the Report Server and the business objects data will be available during the design-time of reports via the ObjectDataSource Component.

How to Bind to a Business Object

1. Create an assembly containing custom business objects. The objects should conform to the Supported Object Types.

2. Copy the assembly to the bin folder of the Report Server Web Application. The default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Progress\Telerik Report Server\Telerik.ReportServer.Web\bin.

3. To enable access to the custom assembly when executing a scheduled task, copy the assembly to the folder containing the Report Server Windows Service. The default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Progress\Telerik Report Server\Services.

4. Declare the assembly in the configuration files of the Web Application (\Telerik Report Server\Telerik.ReportServer.Web\Web.config) and Windows Service (\Telerik Report Server\Services\Telerik.ReportServer.ServiceAgent.exe.config) according to the instructions in the Configuration section. In case the Report Server uses the 32-bit version of Service Agent, the configuration file that needs to be modified would be Telerik.ReportServer.ServiceAgent.x86.exe.config.

   When Report Server is upgraded to a newer version the Web.config and Telerik.ReportServer.ServiceAgent.exe.config files will be overwritten and any changes applied to them will be lost. It is recommended to perform a file backup before upgrading.

5. Allow user access to the custom business objects - after the assembly is present in the bin folder and declared in the configuration files, a read-only data connection entry will be displayed for it in the Data Connections View. This data connection entry can be used to control the user access to the assembly via User Roles.

6. Create New Report.

7. Create new ObjectDataSource Component and follow the ObjectDataSource Wizard to select a .NET class and data-retrieval method from that class, and configure any data source parameters. Only simple type parameters are supported (Boolean, DateTime, Integer, Float, String, and arrays of them).

   The custom .NET class will show in the ObjectDataSource Wizard only when the currently logged-in user has Read permissions for the corresponding business object.