How to: Use a Custom XtraReport Descendant as the Base Class for New Reports

• Jul 05, 2019
• 2 minutes to read

In certain scenarios you may want to customize the base reports class to provide custom functionality available in all new reports. This topic describes how you can register a custom XtraReport descendant that will be used when an end-user creates a report at runtime.

Assume you have the following custom report class.

C#

public class MyXtraReport : XtraReport {
   // ...
 }

VB.NET

Do the following to use MyXtraReport instead of XtraReport in new user-defined reports.

• In the module project, inherit the ReportsStorage class and override the CreateReport method.

  C#

  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.ReportsV2;
  // ...
  public class CustomReportStorage : ReportsStorage {
      protected override XtraReport CreateReport() {
          return new MyXtraReport();
      }
  }
  

  VB.NET

  Imports DevExpress.ExpressApp.ReportsV2
  ' ...
  Public Class CustomReportStorage
      Inherits ReportsStorage
      Protected Overrides Function CreateReport() As XtraReport
          Return New MyXtraReport()
      End Function
  End Class
  

• In the module’s constructor, assign an instance of your ReportsStorage descendant to the static ReportDataProvider.ReportsStorage property.

  C#

  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.ReportsV2;
  // ...
  public sealed partial class MySolutionModule : ModuleBase {
      public MySolutionModule() {
          // ...
          ReportDataProvider.ReportsStorage = new CustomReportStorage();
      }
      // ...
  }
  

  VB.NET

  Imports DevExpress.ExpressApp.ReportsV2
  ' ...
  Public NotInheritable Partial Class MySolutionModule
      Inherits ModuleBase
      Public Sub New()
          ' ...
          ReportDataProvider.ReportsStorage = New CustomReportStorage()
      End Sub
      ' ...
  End Class
  

To check the result, run the application and create a report.