Adding External Data Provider to .NET 6 Standalone Designer

Environment

Product Version	16.2.22.914+
Product	Progress® Telerik® Reporting
Report Designer	.NET Standalone Designer

Description

With R3 2022, we started shipping a Stanadalone designer compiled for .NET 6.0 runtime which allows resolving assemblies that target .NET Core/5/6. The designer now has the ability to automatically discover assemblies which means that there is no need to reguster them in the configuration file. The designer can be found in the installation folder of Telerik Reporting -> Report Designer\.NET. In this article, you will learn how to add extertarnal data providers used for the SQL DataSource.

Solution

We will add the SqlClient Data Prover for this example. The approach can be used for any data provider.

1. Create a new console application targeting .NET6.
2. Add the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient NuGet package.
3. Build the project and go to the Bin folder.
4. Copy the DLLs related to the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient: Azure.Core.dll, Azure.Identity.dll, Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.dll and so on.
5. Paste them into the Standalone Designer for .NET 6 folder, by default this would be the installation folder of Telerik Reporting -> Report Designer\.NET.
6. Restart the designer if you have previously opened it.
7. Add a new SQL DataSource. You will see that the Data Provider is in the dropdown.