VCL Reports: Getting Started

• Jun 05, 2026
• 4 minutes to read

This section lists help topics and sample projects designed to help you get started with the TdxReport component.

In this topic…

• Prerequisites
• Report Viewer Project and Form Templates
• Tutorials
• Sample GitHub Projects
  • Store Report Templates/Layouts
  • Filter Report Data
  • Generate & Export Reports Without User Interaction
  • Report Viewer/Designer UI Localization
• Related Compiled Demo

Prerequisites

Note

• ExpressReports will require the purchase of our VCL Subscription + OR an active VCL Subscription (regular) with any active .NET subscription that includes DevExpress Reports for ASP.NET/JavaScript (these subscriptions include: Reporting, ASP.NET & Blazor (includes DevExtreme), DXperience, or Universal).
• ExpressDashboards will also require the purchase of our VCL Subscription + OR an active VCL Subscription (regular) with an active Universal Subscription that includes DevExpress Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboard.

Ensure that your development environment meets ExpressDashboards and ExpressReports prerequisites:

1. Microsoft Windows 10 or newer.
2. Embarcadero RAD Studio IDE 12.3 or newer (Community Edition IDEs are not supported).
3. DevExpress VCL v26.1.x.
4. The EdgeView2 SDK package installed from the GetIt package manager.

Report Viewer Project and Form Templates

The VCL Template Kit ships with automatically installed Project and Form templates for the ExpressReports Suite. These templates are designed to reduce time spent on repetitive project and form setup as well as improve onboarding for new VCL developers and boost productivity in experienced teams.

Tip

Refer to the following help topic for detailed information: Use Report Viewer Project and Form Templates.

Tutorials

Read Tutorial: Create a Table Report

Basic Tutorial. Follow this tutorial to create a table report and display it in a VCL application. The tutorial loads JSON data from a remote source, defines a table report layout, and binds it to data using the Report Wizard dialog at design time.

Featured Components: TdxReport | TdxBackendDataConnectionManager | TdxBackendInMemoryJSONConnection

Read Tutorial: Bind a Report to FireDAC Data

Follow this tutorial to create a table report and bind it to data using standard FireDAC components (TFDQuery and TFDConnection) shipped with the RAD Studio IDE.

Featured Components: TdxReport | TdxBackendDataConnectionManager | TdxBackendDataSetJSONConnection

Read Tutorial: Bind a Report to a Stored Procedure

Follow this tutorial to create a table report, bind it to a stored database procedure, and pass a report parameter to that procedure using Report Designer and Report Wizard dialogs at design time.

Featured Components: TdxReport | TdxBackendDataConnectionManager | TdxBackendDatabaseSQLConnection

Read Tutorial: Create a Master-Detail Report with a Detail Band

Follow this tutorial to create a master-detail relationship between two tables in a relational SQL database and display hierarchical data in a table report.

Featured Components: TdxReport | TdxBackendDataConnectionManager | TdxBackendDatabaseSQLConnection

Sample GitHub Projects

This section lists all public GitHub repositories (DevExpress-Examples) that demonstrate the primary usage scenarios for VCL Reports:

Store Report Templates/Layouts

View Example: Import and Save Report Layouts to XML Files View Example: Store Report Layouts in a Database

These examples demonstrate two report layout storage techniques (as XML files and records for a BLOB dataset field). Both examples allow users to create, modify, save, and load report template layouts in the XML-based REPX format.

Filter Report Data

View Example: Data Record Filtering in a Report

This example allows you to select individual dataset records in a DevExpress VCL Data Grid control and display selected records in a built report using the Report Viewer dialog. Source data is stored in a memory-based dataset (TdxMemData).

Generate & Export Reports Without User Interaction

View Example: Generate Reports in a Backend/Service Application

This example bypasses the Report Viewer dialog and generates a report using the DevExpress Reports Backend. You can use the demonstrated technique to implement REST/Web API backends, Windows Services, workflows, and scheduled jobs for the following usage scenarios:

• Bulk export reports to PDF, DOCX, image, and other supported formats.
• Share, email, and print report documents without user interaction.
• Implement custom report management UIs.

Report Viewer/Designer UI Localization

View Example: Localize the DevExpress Viewer and Report Designer

This example allows users to switch between English (default) and German (localized) versions of two built-in DevExpress dialogs: Report Designer and Report Viewer.

Related Compiled Demo

To see the TdxReport component in action, run the Report Designer/Viewer demo in the VCL Demo Center installed with compiled DevExpress VCL demos. Click different items in the sidebar on the left to switch between demo features.

Download: Compiled VCL Demos

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\