Retrieve and Present Data from Various Sources

June 9, 2025

Built-in support for varied data sources, such as MongoDB, XML, JSON or Excel, makes it easy to bind and visualize live information in your reports.

Data connectivity is a foundational aspect of modern reporting components, enabling applications to retrieve and present data from a wide variety of sources. Whether integrating with relational databases, cloud services, or flat files, effective data connectivity ensures that reports reflect current, accurate information. Reporting components are designed to abstract the complexity of accessing these data sources, providing developers with flexible APIs and tools to bind data into visualizations and formatted reports.

Common features include:

Entity Framework ORM integration simplifies data access by enabling reporting on strongly-typed entities directly from the application's data model.
Excel / CSV support is essential for importing user-generated data or integrating with business workflows where spreadsheets are common.
IEnumerable provides broader compatibility with LINQ and deferred execution, enabling more dynamic and efficient data querying.
IList support allows reporting tools to bind directly to .NET collections, making it easy to create reports from in-memory objects.
JSON data binding supports modern web APIs and microservices, allowing developers to build reports from real-time or external data feeds formatted in a lightweight, widely-used structure.
MongoDB integration enables reporting over NoSQL data structures, particularly useful for applications relying on flexible, document-oriented databases.
OLEDB connectivity facilitates access to legacy systems and a wide range of data providers through a standardized interface.
XML data sources are often used for structured data interchange and provide a versatile method for both hierarchical and flat data binding.