WinForms and WPF Reporting - 2019 Roadmap - Your Vote Counts

We have a lot in store for DevExpress Reports in 2019. Please take a moment to review our list of planned features and vote for those you’d like to see us deliver in 2019.

Report Designer

We plan to incorporate the following new features in our v19.1 release.

• A new way to create cross-tab reports using report bands and controls instead of XRPivotGrid. This will allow you to use expression bindings to calculate data and define the appearance of each visual element within a cross-tab report without writing code.
• Give you the ability to combine multiple reports within the Report Designer, allow you to define print order and print all as a single document. This will address limitations associated with report merging (which is only available at runtime).
• The ability to create hierarchical data reports (tree structures) and define the offset of a given band’s content based on nesting level.

We hope to implement one of the following enhancements in v19.2. Review the list below and vote for the feature you’d like see us introduce late next year.

The ability to embed PDF documents into a report document

You’ll be able to insert a PDF file into a report and define its content boundaries within a document.

The ability to display empty table rows after existing data

You’ll be able to repeat empty rows until the bottom of the page is reached (to conform to a report’s structure). For more information on this feature, please refer to the following support tickets: T602604, T666620.

Move Bands to a "Background" Layer

Combine multiple bands so that content is rendered in a more compact manner. See example here.

As you can see, many of our proposed enhancements target document generation (cross-tabs, hierarchical data, merged documents). To help us deliver the best possible implementation, we need your assistance. If you are not constrained by legal restrictions, we’d love to take a look at your current report designs/layouts. We do not need any data – we are mainly interested in document structure. Feel free to forward your report samples to reportingteam@devexpress.com.

End-User Report Designer

We will extend the End-User Report Designer’s capabilities with the following new features in v19.1.

• Give you the ability to create and store report band templates within the Report Gallery (page headers, report titles). This will allow your customers to share gallery content and to generate reports with unified headers or footers.

• Help you bind a report to SalesForce data (we expect to introduce a new data source component).

• Support for token-based authentication for JsonDataSource. We will publish a workaround shorty and a built-in solution will ship in our v19.1 release.

We hope to implement one of the following enhancements in v19.2. Review the list below and vote for the feature you’d like see us introduce late next year.

The ability to re-order detail reports in Report Explorer

You’ll be able to move an entire detail report if it was created at the wrong report hierarchy level.

Backstage ribbon menu for the End-User Report Designer

The menu will include access to Save, Save As and Open commands, a list of recently opened documents and global designer user interface and document generation settings.

Data Blending

You’ll be able to define the relationship between different data source tables, queries, sheets and object lists.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have a requirement that is not currently implemented or a suggestions we’ve not considered in this blog post for the DevExpress End-User Report Designer.

Report Controls

In 19.1 we plan to extend the capabilities of our report controls as follows:

• Allow you to display HTML content in XRLabel. We expect to provide support for the subset of tags currently supported by our WinForms controls.

• Allow you to change the default glyph associated with XRCheckBox using a pre-defined SVG glyph list.

• A new report control for visual signatures in an exported PDF file.

We hope to implement one of the following enhancements in v19.2. Review the list below and vote for the feature you’d like see us introduce late next year.

Print Markdown content

You’ll be able to pass Markdown markup to a special report control. This control will convert the content to HTML when printing or exporting the report document.

Gradient Backgrounds for XRLabel, XRTableCell and XRPanel

You’ll be able to define the start and end gradient point, select two colors and define the gradient direction for a report control’s background.

Rounded Corners for XRLabel, XRPanel and XRTable

You’ll be able to define corner radius for the borders of these controls.

Report Parameters

We are considering the following enhancements to our Report Parameters in our v19.2 release cycle. Cast your vote for two features you’d like see us introduce late next year.

Date Range Parameter Type

Your end-users will be able to select a date range using a single editor in the parameters panel.

Separate Date and Time Parameter Types

You’ll be able to create a date or time parameter.

Define Parameter Values via Expression Binding

You’ll be able to define the default parameter value using an expression binding (use the DateTime.Now constant).

Group Parameters

You’ll be able to logically group multiple report parameters in the parameter panel (display editors in a Group Box).

Conditionally Hide Parameter Editors

You’ll be able to hide a parameter editor based on the value of a different parameter.

If you feel that something crucial is missing from our roadmap, feel free to comment below or contact our support team to describe your scenario or suggestion in detail.

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