Generating Reports Locally with Code

Telerik Reporting allows you to use the embedded report engine and generate your reports locally.

Requirements

To export a report, you can use the RenderReport method of the ReportProcessor class. This method converts the contents of the report to a byte array in the specified format, which you can then use with other classes such as MemoryStream or FileStream.

The RenderReport method has two overloads, the first is used when rendering a single stream, the second when rendering multiple streams. The available extensions used as first argument of the RenderReport method are listed in the Export Formats article.

Exporting a report to a single document format

Some formats (MHTML, PDF, XLS(X), RTF, DOCX, PPTX, CSV) produce a single document which is handled by the first overload of the RenderReport:

var reportProcessor = new Telerik.Reporting.Processing.ReportProcessor();

// set any deviceInfo settings if necessary
var deviceInfo = new System.Collections.Hashtable();

// Depending on the report definition choose ONE of the following REPORT SOURCES
//                  -1-
// ***CLR (CSharp) report definitions***
var reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.TypeReportSource();

// reportName is the Assembly Qualified Name of the report
reportSource.TypeName = reportName;
//                  -1-

////                  -2-
//// ***Declarative (TRDP/TRDX) report definitions***
//var reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.UriReportSource();

//// reportName is the path to the TRDP/TRDX file
//reportSource.Uri = reportName;
////                  -2-

////                  -3-
//// ***Instance of the report definition***
//var reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.InstanceReportSource();

//// Report1 is the class of the report. It should inherit Telerik.Reporting.Report class
//reportSource.ReportDocument = new Report1();
////                  -3-

// Pass parameter value with the Report Source if necessary
object parameterValue = "Some Parameter Value";
reportSource.Parameters.Add("ParameterName", parameterValue);

Telerik.Reporting.Processing.RenderingResult result = reportProcessor.RenderReport("PDF", reportSource, deviceInfo);

if (!result.HasErrors)
{
    string fileName = result.DocumentName + "." + result.Extension;
    string path = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath();
    string filePath = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, fileName);

    using (System.IO.FileStream fs = new System.IO.FileStream(filePath, System.IO.FileMode.Create))
    {
        fs.Write(result.DocumentBytes, 0, result.DocumentBytes.Length);
    }
}

Dim reportProcessor As New Telerik.Reporting.Processing.ReportProcessor()

'set any deviceInfo settings if necessary
Dim deviceInfo As New System.Collections.Hashtable()

' Depending on the report definition choose ONE of the following REPORT SOURCES
'                  -1-
' ***CLR (VB) report definitions***
Dim reportSource As New Telerik.Reporting.TypeReportSource()

' reportName is the Assembly Qualified Name of the report
reportSource.TypeName = reportName
'                  -1-

''                  -2-
'' ***Declarative (TRDP/TRDX) report definitions***
'Dim reportSource As New Telerik.Reporting.UriReportSource()

'' reportName Is the path to the TRDP/TRDX file
'reportSource.Uri = reportName
''                  -2-

''                  -3-
'' ***Instance of the report definition***
'Dim reportSource As New Telerik.Reporting.InstanceReportSource()

'' Report1 Is the type of the report. It should inherit Telerik.Reporting.Report
'reportSource.ReportDocument = New Report1()
''                  -3-

Dim parameterValue As Object = "Some Parameter Value"
reportSource.Parameters.Add("ParameterName", parameterValue)

Dim result As Telerik.Reporting.Processing.RenderingResult = reportProcessor.RenderReport("PDF", reportSource, deviceInfo)

If Not result.HasErrors Then
    Dim fileName As String = result.DocumentName + "." + result.Extension
    Dim path As String = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath()
    Dim filePath As String = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, fileName)

    Using fs As New System.IO.FileStream(filePath, System.IO.FileMode.Create)
        fs.Write(result.DocumentBytes, 0, result.DocumentBytes.Length)
    End Using
End If

When you export programmatically to XPS, you should use a separate STA thread which is required by the underlying WPF UI elements that we use to create the XAML representation of the report.

Exporting a report to a multi document format

Some formats produce multiple files, for example HTML outputs all pages and related resources (images) in separate streams. In order to render a report in a non-single document format (HTML and IMAGE except TIFF) one should use the second RenderReport overload that accepts a CreateStream callback.

When exporting a ReportBook with the ReportProcessor in TIFF format you have to use the multi document format.

For this example we're going to render to JPEG, but you can render a report in all graphic formats that GDI+ supports natively - this includes BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and metafile (EMF). The Windows Forms Application uses internally metafile for rendering the reports for viewing, and TIFF for exporting. The rest of the formats are available only through code using the ReportProcessor.Render method where you should specify "IMAGE" as export format and the additional output format that is the actual graphic format - BMP, GIF, JPEG. Here is an example that renders a report as a JPEG image:

System.Collections.Generic.List<System.IO.Stream> streams =
    new System.Collections.Generic.List<System.IO.Stream>();

public bool RenderReport(string reportName)
{
    Telerik.Reporting.Processing.ReportProcessor reportProcessor = new Telerik.Reporting.Processing.ReportProcessor();

    string documentName = "";

    // specify the output format of the produced image.
    var deviceInfo = new System.Collections.Hashtable();

    deviceInfo["OutputFormat"] = "JPEG";


    // Depending on the report definition choose ONE of the following REPORT SOURCES
    //                  -1-
    // ***CLR (CSharp) report definitions***
    var reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.TypeReportSource();

    // reportName is the Assembly Qualified Name of the report
    reportSource.TypeName = reportName;
    //                  -1-

    ////                  -2-
    //// ***Declarative (TRDP/TRDX) report definitions***
    //var reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.UriReportSource();

    //// reportName is the path to the TRDP/TRDX file
    //reportSource.Uri = reportName;
    ////                  -2-

    ////                  -3-
    //// ***Instance of the report definition***
    //var reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.InstanceReportSource();

    //// Report1 is the class of the report. It should inherit Telerik.Reporting.Report class
    //reportSource.ReportDocument = new Report1();
    ////                  -3-

    // Pass parameter value with the Report Source if necessary
    object parameterValue = "Some Parameter Value";
    reportSource.Parameters.Add("ParameterName", parameterValue);

    bool result = reportProcessor.RenderReport("IMAGE", reportSource, deviceInfo, this.CreateStream, out documentName);

    this.CloseStreams();

    return result;
}

void CloseStreams()
{
    foreach (System.IO.Stream stream in this.streams)
    {
        stream.Close();
    }
    this.streams.Clear();
}

System.IO.Stream CreateStream(string name, string extension, System.Text.Encoding encoding, string mimeType)
{
    string path = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath();
    string filePath = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, name + "." + extension);

    System.IO.FileStream fs = new System.IO.FileStream(filePath, System.IO.FileMode.Create);
    this.streams.Add(fs);
    return fs;
}

Dim streams As New System.Collections.Generic.List(Of System.IO.Stream)()

Public Function RenderReport(reportSource As ReportSource) As Boolean
    Dim reportProcessor As New Telerik.Reporting.Processing.ReportProcessor()
    Dim documentName As String = ""

    'specify the output format of the produced image.
    Dim deviceInfo As New System.Collections.Hashtable()
    deviceInfo("OutputFormat") = "JPEG"

    Dim result As Boolean = reportProcessor.RenderReport("IMAGE", reportSource, deviceInfo, AddressOf Me.CreateStream, documentName)
    Me.CloseStreams()

    Return result
End Function

Private Sub CloseStreams()
    For Each stream As System.IO.Stream In Me.streams
        stream.Close()
    Next
    Me.streams.Clear()
End Sub

Private Function CreateStream(name As String, extension As String, encoding As System.Text.Encoding, mimeType As String) As System.IO.Stream
    Dim path As String = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath()
    Dim filePath As String = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, name + "." + extension)

    Dim fs As New System.IO.FileStream(filePath, System.IO.FileMode.Create)
    Me.streams.Add(fs)
    Return fs
End Function

See Also

• RenderReport