Using Out-proc Session State Overview

This is a legacy report viewer and for new projects our recommendation is to use the latest WebForms Report Viewer - HTML5 Web Forms Report Viewer

The ReportViewer control uses the ASP.NET session state to preserve the report instance that is displayed, between page postbacks and different viewer operations. The session state, however, can be configured to run in different modes. By default it uses the memory of the worker process (InProc mode) and the report instance stays intact. However, in some cases it is more appropriate to use a StateServer, SqlServer or Custom session state mode. All of these modes are referred to as out-proc session state modes. The biggest difference between the two modes is that the session variables have to be serialized and deserialized when the session state is preserved and restored. In this case, the serialization process imposes the following limitations which have to be considered when designing Telerik reports:

The report should have a public default constructor as it is used to instantiate the report class during the deserialization process.
Data sources for the data items should be binary serializable.
Report events should be attached in the report’s default constructor.

The fields representing the report items in the Report class should not be used in the report events.

Instead the report item should be taken from the Items collection of the report. Consider the following examples:

Wrong

void Report1_WrongItemDataBinding(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    this.textBox1.Value = "New Value";
}

Private Sub Report1_WrongItemDataBinding(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.NeedDataSource
    Me.TextBox1.Value = "New Value"
End Sub

Correct

void Report1_CorrectItemDataBinding(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Report processingReport = (Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Report)sender;
    Telerik.Reporting.Report reportDef = (Telerik.Reporting.Report)processingReport.ItemDefinition;
    Telerik.Reporting.TextBox textBox = (Telerik.Reporting.TextBox)(reportDef.Items.Find("textBox1", true)[0]);
    textBox.Value = "New Value";
}

Private Sub Report1_CorrectItemDataBinding(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.NeedDataSource
    Dim processingReport = DirectCast(sender, Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Report)
    Dim reportDef = DirectCast(processingReport.ItemDefinition, Telerik.Reporting.Report)
    Dim textBox As Telerik.Reporting.TextBox = DirectCast(reportDef.Items.Find("TextBox1", True)(0), Telerik.Reporting.TextBox)
    textBox.Value = "New value"
End Sub

To utilize the events of the report items (NeedDataSource, ItemDataBinding, ItemDataBound) you have to attach them in the ItemDataBinding event of the Report. For example:

void Report1_ItemDataBinding(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Report processingReport = (Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Report)sender;
    Telerik.Reporting.Report reportDef = (Telerik.Reporting.Report)processingReport.ItemDefinition;
    Telerik.Reporting.Chart chart = (Telerik.Reporting.Chart)(reportDef.Items.Find("chart1", true)[0]);
    chart.NeedDataSource += new System.EventHandler(Chart_NeedDataSource);
}

void Chart_NeedDataSource(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    var processingChart = (Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Chart)sender;
    var chartDef = (Telerik.Reporting.Chart)processingChart.ItemDefinition;
    // . . .
}

Private Sub Report1_ItemDataBinding(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.ItemDataBinding
    Dim processingReport = DirectCast(sender, Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Report)
    Dim reportDef = DirectCast(processingReport.ItemDefinition, Telerik.Reporting.Report)
    Dim chart As Telerik.Reporting.Chart = DirectCast(reportDef.Items.Find("Chart1", True)(0), Telerik.Reporting.Chart)
    AddHandler chart.NeedDataSource, AddressOf Chart1_NeedDataSource
End Sub

Private Sub Chart1_NeedDataSource(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs)
    Dim processingChart = DirectCast(sender, Telerik.Reporting.Processing.Chart)
    Dim chartDef = DirectCast(sender, Telerik.Reporting.Chart)
    ' ...
End Sub

As the data sources are kept in the session state, it is highly recommended to use the built-in Data Source Components. As a last resort you can use the NeedDataSource event to populate the report with data. Otherwise, the session state will either become very large, especially when using large datasets or the data for the report will not be serialized at all if it cannot be binary serialized/deserialized (e.g. business objects, anonymous types, data adapters, etc.). You should restrain from setting an instance of your business object directly as a data source, as it would be serialized multiple times into the session.

It is highly recommended not to use events when designing reports. The reporting engine provides another powerful means to achieve the same functionality. For example, instead of using events to accomplish your goals, you can take advantage of Expressions, User Functions and Bindings.

More info about the differences between different state modes you can find in the ASP.NET Session State documentation article.

Using Out-proc Session State Overview

See Also

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