Released: Apr 30, 2020

Updates in 20.1.3

Features

All Platforms

• Report Designer - Report Localization - With this release, you can localize a report so that it incorporates design and text variations for different languages and cultures. Localized values are stored in REPX files. The Localization Editor was designed to expedite the report translation process.
• Report Designer - Merge Reports with PDF Documents - Added a new XRPdfContent report control to the Report Designer. This control allows you to embed pages from an external PDF file into a report document. PDF content is rendered on separate pages and uses its own page size.
• Expression Bindings - Use Dots in Data Field Names - Enhanced the criteria language parser. You can now use dots in query and field names.
• Excel Export - Html-inspired and RTF Content Support - XRLabel (with the AllowMarkupText property enabled) and XRRichText controls (bound to RTF and/or HTML data) now preserve content formatting when exporting a report to Excel.
• PDF Export - Export Image Editable Fields to PDF Form Fields
• JSON Data Source Parameters - Wizard and Expression Support - Updated the JSON Data Source Wizard. You can now add path, query and header parameters to JSON web service endpoints. Also added support for expressions in JSON parameter values so you can pass report parameter values to resulting requests.
• JSON Data Source - Schema Discovery Enhancements - Enhanced the JSON Data Source schema discovery. The JsonDataSource class has a SchemaDiscoveryMaxItemCount property that specifies how many records to analyze in order to build the data source schema (on each level, so you don't need to worry about nested records). The default value is 100. You can modify this value to find the best balance between performance and the schema accuracy.
• Parameters - Select All Values for Multi-Value Parameters - Use the Parameter.SelectAllValues property to pre-select all values for a multi-value lookup parameter.

ASP.NET Core Reporting

• Document Rendering Enhancements for Linux and MacOS - Use the DevExpress.CrossPlatform.Printing.DrawingEngine NuGet package to enhance document rendering quality on Linux or macOS. This development cycle focused on parity in terms of document rendering quality and PDF export regardless of target platform (be it .NET Core or .NET Framework) or operating system used to host Reporting apps. This release uses Cairo and Pango to implement this drawing engine.

Azure Web Apps

• Export to PDF Enhancements - Enhanced the PDF export engine for those using Azure Web App hosting. New features include:
  • Font Embedding (including CJK fonts).
  • Bidirectional Text Support.
  • Complex Text Layout Support.
• Azure Support for .NET Standard - Published the DevExpress.AspNetCore.Reporting.Azure NuGet package - .NET Standard-specific analog of the DevExpress.Web.Reporting.Azure package. It allows you to store temporary document data within Azure Storage.

WinForms Reporting

• Report Designer - New Add Parameter Dialog.

WinForms / WPF Reporting

• Report Designer - Easier Navigation - The desktop designer offers a new "Navigate To Control" option that will navigate you to the target component. This will help you find a specific control within a complex report layout. Any necessary scrolling / expansion will be performed automatically.
• Report Designer - Easier Alignment - The Report Designer now allows you to convert multiple labels into a single table. This will help you to create a better aligned Excel file.
• Report Designer - Expand / Collapse All Bands - You can now quickly expand and collapse all report bands using context menu and Ribbon commands:
• Asynchronous Document Generation and Export API - The Document Viewer components can now create, print, and export report documents in a separate thread. This feature is enabled by default for the DevExpress Visual Studio Report Designer and WinForms End-User Report Designer preview tab.
• SqlDataSource Filtering - Compare a Multi-Value Report Parameter with Null Value - You can now use the following filter string for 'SelectQuery' either to display the entire set of data source records or only those selected in a multi-value parameter drop-down editor.

Web Reporting

• Web Report Designer - Field List Performance Enhancements
  • The Report Designer now sends a single request to a web-server at initial rendering (to discover Field List nesting levels).
  • The Field List now loads its elements on demand. This reduces possible delays when searching through field list items and helps avoid browser lock-up for extremely large and complex data sources.
• Expression Editor - Comments and Line Breaks - Expression text can now contain comments, newline and space characters to improve readability for complex expressions.
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
  • The Web Report Designer's Data Source Wizard allows you to search through the list of available connections.
  • Updated CSS styles used in Document Viewer and Report Designer to address conflicts with Bootstrap CSS styles. As a result, both components will now appear and render correctly when used in a Bootstrap-based application.