FastReport Open Source Blog

Recently, the open source version of FastReport.Core - FastReport.OpenSource appeared. And here's a new one - FastReport.Community which is a free report designer for FastReport.Net. This is a desktop application for the Windows platform for creating and editing reports. FastReport.Net is also bundled with a desktop application with a report designer. What is the difference between a free report designer and a paid one? In this article we will compare them and find out the differences. 

How to make a report viewer on Avalonia and FastReport Open Source. Part 2 In the first part of the article, we began developing a report viewer. We created a toolbar and implemented the report loading and display. To be displayed, the report must be in fpx format. Then, we export it to png format and display it in an Image object. Forms in Avalonia are encoded using XAML. It would be logical to display the report in the same format, but FastReport Open Source does not support export to XAML. Therefore, we will use the available export in image format.

The well-known WPF platform allows .Net developers to create their own non-standard program interfaces by using the XAML language in form design. Many developers have liked this, but the trouble is that WPF does not fit into the modern concept of cross-platform. To fill this gap, there was created a UI (user interface) framework that allows you to create applications on the .Net Framework with a graphical interface on XAML for all popular platforms: Windows, Linux, OSX, and in the future Android, iOS. In essence, this is a cross-platform implementation of the WPF approach. Avalonia is evolving, new controls that are in WPF are constantly appearing. Of course there are differences in the use of Avalonia compared to WPF, however, they are not radical. We now turn to the topic of the article.

In the first part of the article, we have implemented the report loading into the Image object. This was done by exporting the report to png format. As a result of exporting the report, an image file is generated, and if there are several pages in the report, then several files will be created. We should delete the export files before opening another report.

Since WPF technology works with the .Net Framework, it is logical to assume that you can also use FastReport.Net. Indeed, the delivery package FastReport.Net even has a demo that demonstrates how to create a report viewer in a WPF project. However, there is a more popular version of FastReport.Net - FastReport Open Source. Here it is necessary to clarify that FastReport Open Source almost completely repeats the usual FastReport.Net, but there are still significant differences. The main difference is heavily curtailed exports in the open source version. Yes, FastReports spends a lot of time and effort on developing exports. It is logical that they were left in the paid version. However, we still have exports in different image formats and in HTML.

Most recently, FastReport Open Source has appeared. In essence, this is the same FastReport.Core, but with open source. In terms of functionality, the difference is only in the range of exports. In the open version, exports are available only in such formats: HTML, BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, EMF. But we will not go into the details of the product description, this is a topic for a separate article. And now we will look at how to install FastReport Open Source.

FastReport Open Source has gained a lot of interest among many developers. This is a great report generator with a long history. The open source version is FastReport.Core, which appeared at the beginning of 2018, but with some restrictions. Namely - curtailed exports. Thus, only the following formats are available to us: HTML, BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, EMF. Of course, this is very little. The WebReport object displays the report in html format, so it was left. It is noteworthy that in the WebReport object, we can only save the report to the fpx preview format.

Probably, you are already aware of the advent of the open source report generator FastReport Core. Now you can save on the purchase of FastReport Core if you do not need exports (in the open version, the list of available export reports is severely cut ). However, if we want to use the online designer for FastReport Core, we can purchase it separately. In this article we will look at the way to use an online designer with FastReport Open Source.

Recently, the disclosure of software source codes has become widespread. No small role in this was played by the current concept of "openness" of Microsoft. Let's see what is Open Source and what is its appeal. Firstly, it’s needed to say a few words about the "closed source code". Such software is usually called proprietary. This means that according to law only the authors of the code can change, copy and distribute it. This is the majority of software.

Open Source is very popular in our time. The global giants of the software market played considerable role in its popularization. After all, these companies are developing high-end commercial software, and their open source projects are based on proven solutions and best practices. And development is lead by professional programmers. All this increases the credibility of such open source projects. No, I do not want to say that projects created by a community of like-minded people are worse. Often they turn into cult, for example, the well-known Linux. However, such projects often attract inexperienced developers eager to gain new experience, which affects the quality of the product. Anyway, more and more commercially successful software companies are trying to benefit the public, creating open source projects. FastReports has not become an exception. One of its most successful projects, the FastReport .NET report generator, is now open source. To tell the truth , this is not a f

If you use FastReport.Net in your ASP.Net Core applications and want to switch to a single-page application (SPA), then this article is for you. Thanks to the symbiosis of Angular and ASP.Net Core, you can use your familiar MVC application architecture. Let's take a look at the way to create a SPA application. This will be useful for those who are just going to learn Angular. To work with Angular, you need to install Node.js, a platform for executing JavaScript code on the server side. The easiest way is to download the installer from the developer’s website https://nodejs.org/en/. It also requires .Net Core SDK 2.0 or newer versions. If you have Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 installed, then the SDK is already installed.

In this article we will look at the way to use an online designer in a SPA application based on the angular framework and ASP .Net Core. Thanks to ASP .Net Core, we can use the FastReport library in “normal mode”, that is, as in the usual .Net Core MVC application. In addition, we will use the free FastReport OpenSource library. Its use is no different from the usual FastReport.Net library. We will not consider the use of Angular 1, since it has long been outdated, and it is unlikely that anyone will be going to write a new project on it. So take the latest, seventh version of Angular.