VCL Reports
- 3 minutes to read
DevExpress VCL Reporting (ExpressReports) is an AI-powered Reporting Platform solution based on the DevExpress JavaScript Report Designer and Viewer for use in native VCL apps (using modern web-based design capabilities based on WebView and ASP.NET Core). All required .NET and JS dependencies are embedded into a single self-contained EXE file transparently.
Note
ExpressReports is available as a Community Technology Preview (CTP). Please review our pre-release software notes if you plan on using ExpressReports.
Tip
ExpressReports requires the purchase of our new VCL Subscription+ or an existing active VCL Subscription with any .NET subscription that includes DevExpress Reporting for ASP.NET Core/JavaScript (relevant subscription SKUs include Reporting, ASP.NET and Blazor (includes DevExtreme), DXperience, and Universal). A 30-day trial is also available for ExpressReports.
ExpressReports Prerequisites
- Microsoft Windows 10 or newer.
- Embarcadero RAD Studio IDE 12.3 or newer (Community Edition IDEs are not supported).
- The EdgeView2 SDK package installed from the GetIt Package Manager.
ExpressReports Components
The ExpressReports Suite ships with the following main components:
- TdxReport
- An AI-powered Report Generator component. Includes fully-functional Report Designer and Report Viewer dialogs available at both design time and runtime.
- TdxReportDataConnectionManager
- An auxiliary component designed to manage data connection components available as sources for a TdxReport component.
Data Connection Components
The Report Generator can populate template placeholders with data obtained from multiple sources. The following data connection components implement different data access modes available for TdxReport:
- TdxReportInMemoryJSONConnection
- A component designed for interaction with data stored in memory.
- TdxReportDataSetJSONConnection
- A component designed to work with data in one or multiple datasets (TDataSet descendants).
- TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection
A component designed to fetch data from an SQL database (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc.).
Tip
This component relies on our ASP.NET Core Reporting engine based on the XPO ORM (powered by ADO.NET). Refer to the following topic for connection string examples: Specify a Connection String.
ExpressReports AI-Powered Extensions
The TdxReport component supports the same AI-powered extensions available for DevExpress Web Reports – Summarize, Translate, Preview Generation, etc.
Refer to the following topic for detailed information in this regard: AI-Powered Extensions for DevExpress Reporting.
Enable DevExpress AI-Powered Extensions for ExpressReports
You can enable DevExpress AI-powered Extensions in your ExpressReports-based application in the Project Settings dialog (the Reports tab).
Note
DevExpress AI-powered Extensions follow the bring your own key principle. DevExpress does not offer a REST API and does not ship any built-in LLMs/SLMs. You need an active Azure/OpenAI subscription to obtain the REST API endpoint, key, and model deployment name.
ExpressReports App Deployment
An ExpressReports-powered app requires WebView2Loader.dll from the EdgeView2 SDK GetIt package to run on client machines. You need to redistribute your 32- or 64-bit executable file along with the corresponding WebView2Loader.dll version in the same folder: Distribute your app and the WebView2 Runtime.
Related Compiled Demo
To see the TdxReport component in action, run the Report Designer/Viewer demo in the VCL Demo Center installed with compiled VCL DevExpress demos. Click different items in the sidebar on the left to switch between demo features.
Tip
You can find full source code for the installed compiled Report demo in the following folder:
%PUBLIC%\Documents\DevExpress VCL Demos\MegaDemos\Product Demos\ExpressReports