Open Source RDL: My-FyiReporting

[geek648]

It appears that My-FyiReporting is the sole active fork of the old (now defunct) FyiReporting, so I've started a new thread to share my findings.

It seems to me that it has great promise if the potential users could be assured of continued development and support.
For those of us wishing to avoid the cost and complexity of full blown reporting options, this simple option may suit us perfectly. It just needs to gain a critical mass of followers to snowball onwards.

I have emailed the project maintainer Peter, and he says, promisingly :
"I am hosting my code https://github.com/majorsilence/My-FyiReporting and hopefully that will encourage some more active development from others.
I will generally only be fixing bugs that affect me or adding features that I need. However patches from others is very much encouraged."

Now, the good news is that it costs nothing to play with it. There are both .MSI and .ZIP downloads at
https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...ting/downloads
and I unzipped 4.5.0-my-fyi-build-dot-net-4-x86.zip into a test folder and found that it works without installing or registering anything, so it won't work its tentacles into your setup if you're nervous about such things!

The zip file contains 18 files, a collection of .EXE and .DLL along with some config XML files. I'm ignoring the server and map stuff, as I just want to design a report and then make it appear from my vb.net app.

Designer : RdlDesigner.exe

The standalone designer loads the previously loaded report, or has a new report wizard. It looks like this:


In the wizard, I kept the default SQL option and dialled in a connection string like :
server=MYSERVER; database=MyTest; Integrated Security=SSPI
- and it connected straight away, and listed the tables and fields. It was easy to write a SELECT query, using a button to copy field names, and as if my magic my report was there, looking like it would suit my requirements perfectly. The report was saved to a .RDL file containing XML as follows-

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Report xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2005/01/reportdefinition" xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner">
  <Description>
  </Description>
  <Author>
  </Author>
  <PageHeight>11in</PageHeight>
  <PageWidth>8.5in</PageWidth>
  <DataSources>
    <DataSource Name="DS1">
      <ConnectionProperties>
        <DataProvider>SQL</DataProvider>
        <ConnectString>server=MYSERVER; database=MyTest; Integrated Security=SSPI</ConnectString>
      </ConnectionProperties>
    </DataSource>
  </DataSources>
  <Width>7.5in</Width>
  <TopMargin>.25in</TopMargin>
  <LeftMargin>.25in</LeftMargin>
  <RightMargin>.25in</RightMargin>
  <BottomMargin>.25in</BottomMargin>
  <DataSets>
    <DataSet Name="Data">
      <Query>
        <DataSourceName>DS1</DataSourceName>
        <CommandText>SELECT field1, field2 FROM table1</CommandText>
      </Query>
      <Fields> .... etc...

RdlReader.exe

A report viewer control may be added your VB forms, but there is also a standalone reader. So I have been able to load an RDL file into that and there is my report.
This is looking good, IMHO, I will keep you updated as I go...

Reminder
This is Open Source under the Apache License, Version 2.0 ( http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 ) so you can use it in your project and supply it to customers.
Helpful documentation from the original project can be found at http://fyireporting.com/helpv4/
along with Peter's newer wiki at https://github.com/majorsilence/My-FyiReporting/wiki

[geek648]

If you're happier with Open Source if you can build the project yourself from the source code, that's an easy download from the Zip button at
https://github.com/majorsilence/My-FyiReporting/
I created a 'MyFyiR' folder under MonoDev, that one being one I added in the same folder as the VB projects folder, and I unzipped the source code there.

If you can't already work with C#, it works well with MonoDevelop, v3 can be downloaded from
http://monodevelop.com/Download (Win/Linux/Mac)
- you may need to install .NET Framework 4.0 and GTK# for .NET 2.12.10 (both easy to do from the links given)
I'm pleased to find I can drag and drop an .sln onto the MonoDevelop desktop shortcut icon and it loads - it didn't in a previous version from a year or two ago.

If you're only used to Visual Studio, MonoDevelop may seem slightly confusing at first. Project references are listed amongst the forms and modules, for instance. But you should find it possible to rebuild the RDLEngine using the relevant .sln solution in its folder, then set the references in other solutions so that they (referencing RDLEngine for 'fyireports.RDL' etc) build correctly.

It gives me peace of mind knowing I can play with the project myself, and if I come up with anything useful I might actually find I'm contributing to Open Source at last

[majorsilence]

While I usually use crystal reports in my day job I am fully committed to making sure that the fyiReporting project continues as https://github.com/majorsilence/My-FyiReporting. I find it a useful place to try out new ideas. If anyone is interested in the project I am available to answer questions.

As geek648 mentioned it can be built in monodevelop. It can also be built using visual studio or sharp develop. The current build script produces .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0 packages targeting x86 and x64. It includes a WPF (https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...005-WPF-Viewer), Winform, and GTK# https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...k-Viewer-Linux viewers. The designer is winforms and can be embedded in your applications.

For basic information on using My-FyiReporting see its wiki https://github.com/majorsilence/My-FyiReporting/wiki.

If a feature is missing or you want to fix a bug it is as simple as creating a fork on github and sending a pull request or opening an issue and attaching a patch. If you are interested in making changes to the code it is best to read https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...iki/Contribute first.https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...k-Viewer-Linux

[geek648]

Thank You majorsilence for all your hard work and for joining in here.

I'm delighted to share the news that with the latest version 4.5.2, we can now call RdlReader.exe from just about anywhere, passing it the report .rdl file as a parameter...

DOS Batch

C:\data\FyiTests\test452>RdlReader.exe test.rdl

VB

        Dim ID As Integer
        ID = Shell("""C:\data\FyiTests\test452\RdlReader.exe"" C:\data\FyiTests\test452\test.rdl", , True, 100000)

etc etc..... it should be possible to call it from any language that supports shelling out DOS commands... Powershell, Python, you name it

Much easier than building the control into your own project's own forms - to start with at least. Gets you started on the shallow part of the learning curve!

[geek648]

There have been updates to the Wiki, hopefully that makes it even more simple for newcomers.
https://github.com/majorsilence/My-FyiReporting/wiki

Guide to the New Report wizard
https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...ate-New-Report

Introduction to the Report Designer
https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...esigner-Basics

MS SQL connection strings
https://github.com/majorsilence/My-F...008-Connection

HTH