House-keeping first: source code can be found in the /Reports branch (a branch of version 4.0 of SharpDevelop), an integration build is available on the build server under the heading "Mirador Reports Branch".

Back to the scheduled programming - in the near future I will work on the following tasks:

The Exporter

It is used by the ReportViewer as well as for creating PDFs (et cetera) - and it will be rewritten. The reason for this is:

For each BaseReportItem I have to maintain 3 classes. First the Base…Item in Reports.Core, then, one in Reports.Addin to use in the Designer and third I have to convert the BaseReportItem in a new class derived from BaseExportColumn. I will remove the third part and use only classes derived from BaseReportItem. This will bring me to a codebase that is used in the standard printroutine as well.

Advantages:

• Less code to support
• Same codebase as in the standard printing (preview)
• Less conversation

So, to make things easy I will rewrite the Exporter.

Sub Reports

Next, I will start working on subreports to support grouping. This will touch the ReportWizard, the Designer and the DataManager. I will use the already existing TableLayout as a base for SubReports.

For those of you that haven't followed the development of SDR in the past, a quick introduction on how to get started.

There is a Wiki dedicated to SDR: http://sharpdevelopreports.net/ (please note that it hasn't been updated yet for the fact that SDR is now back in the fold with SharpDevelop)

It contains a feature tour (with screenshots) to give you an idea how to get up and running quickly. I'd also recommend reading the what's new blog post from the SDR beta, as it contains information on the newly added functionality (such as expression support).

Speaking of support: there is a dedicated forum for SDR on our community site, please let me know about problems, ideas, fixes et al there!

As of today, SharpDevelop Reports (SDR) is once again an integral part of SharpDevelop!

It will be shipped with SharpDevelop 3.2 (~spring 2010), but it is already available on the build server as part of the SharpDevelop integration builds. Please note that the standalone designer build is no longer available on the build server.

Sample reports can be found in the source download of SharpDevelop in the folder Samples\SharpDevelopReports.

Upcoming changes before the CTP of SharpDevelop 3.2: iTextSharp will be updated to version 5.0, and we no longer include the source code for it in the repository (only as a zip in the vendor directory, which is not part of the source download).

Next tasks: more samples, more documentation, bug fixing.

Features:

• The Designer is using the infrastructure from Windows.Forms.Designer
• Run Expressions inside a Report; based on the work of  Irony and Simpleexpressionevaluator
• UnitTests for many  (increasing number) of Classes

The Designer in Action:

 TextEditor, useful to enter some text and/or expressions:

A very simple report in List layout with PageNumber in the PageFooter section and Aggregate function count() in ReportFooter:

Some more functions:
Line 1 (middle):   nothing to evaluate – (right) concat two fields
Line2 (middle and right):  Userfunctions
Line 3 (middle and right) : Globalfunctions
Line 4 :     show parameters inside report, useful for queries
Line 5:     simple calculation
Line 6:     etc, some more functions

 The Result:

SharpDevelop Reports is currently only available from our build server, it isn't yet reverse integrated with SharpDevelop 3.0. This post reports on its status as of version 3.0.0.390. 

Strike-through means "done".

Working Features:

• The Report Designer is a real Windows Forms Designer
• Creating reports using *.XSD files
• SharpQuery is back

Coming Soon:

• Create PushModel Reports
• Polish the Report Wizard

To Do (Planned Improvements):

• More exact printing in PDF
• TableControl (list with calculated fields)
• Parameters for user-defined values
• Calculated fields, for example   '={Fields["aa"] * 1.19}'  - translates to: multiply the value in field "aa" by 1.19 ( the German VAT)
• Modify the ReportWizard to create reports from collections