TdxReport.ShowDesigner Method

Displays the Report Designer dialog.

Declaration

procedure ShowDesigner;

Remarks

Call ShowDesigner and ShowViewer procedures to display Web-based Report Designer and Report Viewer dialogs. Global skin and palette settings defined using the Project Settings dialog or a TdxSkinController component affect both TdxReport dialogs.

The Report Designer dialog allows users to design and configure the current report template, including placeholder positions, source dataset fields, appearance settings, etc. All saved changes made in this dialog update the Layout property value and raise the OnLayoutChanged event. For example, you can handle this event to save report template changes to a file.

Note

A ShowDesigner procedure call always displays an empty report template in the Report Designer dialog if the ReportName property is unspecified. Every time you save pending changes in the Report Designer dialog, Layout and ReportName property values are updated automatically.

Code Examples

Related GitHub-Hosted Example Projects

View Example: Store report layouts within text files View Example: Store report layouts in a database View Example: Localize the DevExpress Viewer and Report Designer

Connect to an SQL Database and Display Report Designer

The following code example uses the TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection component to connect to a demo database (nwind.mdb), displays the Report Designer dialog, and saves all changes made to the UserReport.repx file:

Delphi

uses
  dxReport,  // Declares the TdxReport component and related types
  dxReport.ConnectionString.SQL;  // Declares the TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection component
// ...

procedure TMyForm.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  ADataConnection: TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection;
  AReport: TdxReport;
begin
  ADataConnection := TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection.Create(Self);
  try
    ADataConnection.Name := 'DataConnection';
    // Specify a connection string required to connect to a demo database (nwind.mdb)
    ADataConnection.ConnectionString := 'XpoProvider=MSAccess;Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;' +
      'Data Source=C:\Users\Public\Documents\DevExpress VCL Demos\' +
      'MegaDemos\Product Demos\ExpressPivotGrid\Data\nwind.mdb';
    AReport := TdxReport.Create(Self);
    try
      AReport.ShowDesigner;  // Displays the Web-based Report Designer dialog
      AReport.Layout.SaveToFile('UserReport.repx');  // Saves the report template state to a file
    finally
      AReport.Free;
    end;
  finally
    ADataConnection.Free;
  end;
end;

C++

#include "dxReport.hpp"  // Declares the TdxReport component and related types
#include "dxReport.ConnectionString.SQL.hpp"  // Declares the TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection component

// Add the following linker directives to the corresponding CPP source file:
#pragma link "dxReport"  // Required to use dxReport.hpp declarations
#pragma link "dxReport.ConnectionString.SQL"  // Required to use TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection declarations
// ...

void __fastcall TMyForm::Button1Click(TObject *Sender)
{
  TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection *ADataConnection;
  TdxReport *AReport;
  ADataConnection = new TdxReportDatabaseSQLConnection(this);
  try
  {
    ADataConnection->Name = "DataConnection";
    // Specify a connection string required to connect to a demo database (nwind.mdb)
    ADataConnection->ConnectionString = "XpoProvider=MSAccess;Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;"
      "Data Source=C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\DevExpress VCL Demos\\MegaDemos\\"
      "Product Demos\\ExpressPivotGrid\\Data\\nwind.mdb";
    AReport = new TdxReport(this);
    try
    {
      AReport->ShowDesigner();  // Displays the Report Designer dialog
      AReport->Layout->SaveToFile("UserReport.repx");  // Saves the report template state to a file
    }
    __finally
    {
      delete AReport;
    }
  }
  __finally
  {
    delete ADataConnection;
  }
}