I have a single XamReportViewer that I am using to bind to multiple different reports at runtime by using binding. These different reports have different numbers and types of data sources. I have tried to swap out the data sources in my code-behind by using the ReportProcessingRequested and ProcessingStarted however if i try to modify the ClientRenderSettings.DataSources during those calls it forces the event into a loop. Is there some other event that I should be using or is there some other method I should be using to swap out the data sources on a XamReportViewer? I can always use a template selector to pick a specific instance of a XamReportViewer template but then I would be forced to define separate templates for each report.
Hi Jerry,
You have two choices:
1. You can assign a new instance of ClientRenderSettings to XamReportViewer.RenderSettings property, and this new instance would have the bindings to the new data source and report location.
2. Change the report data source at runtime using a Runtime Data Source provider.
Regards,Héctor
I tried setting the XamReportViewer.RenderSettings to a new instance of ClientRenderSettings however that wound up in the same loop as if i create a new instance of DataSources for the ClientRenderSettings.DataSources property. I am doing this in the ProcessingReportRequested event so I'm not sure if there is some other event I should be doing this in or if what I am doing is just not feasible with this method.
I'll see if I can use the other link you sent however I'm not sure I'll be able to get the kind of flexibility I will need with it.
Changing the datasource on the ReportProcessingRequested event is not feasible and it is part of the reason why IReportDataSourceProvider exists - to provide a way to change the data source of a report when it is being rendered. Regarding the flexibility you need, can you explain what you are trying to accomplish?
Sure -- I have two ContentPanes in a TabGroupPane of a XamDockManager that are involved with the report generation. The first is a search and report selection pane and the second is the report pane.
In the search pane the user will run a search against a backend service which provides data from a backend database. In the search pane also the user has a drop-down from which they can choose which report they want to run. The drop-down is populated from a list of reports which I have stored in the backend database as well and correspond to .igr files. Once a user chooses a report from the drop down, in the bottom of the pane is a XamTabControl, each tab of which represents a single section in the chosen .igr report. The user can then drag and drop whichever items from the search results into whichever section of the report they like. They can run multiple searches and drag items from those results into the report selection tab control.
Once the user is done dragging items into the report selection tab control, or if they want to see what the report looks like as they are adding items, they can look at the report pane which contains a XamReportViewer. So basically I need to be able to swap out the DataSources of the ClientRenderSettings of the XamReportViewer in the report pane at the time that the user chooses which report they want from a drop-down in the other search and report selection pane. I could probably do this through the MVVM Light messenger to communicate between views. I started out trying to do this by using some event on the XamReportViwer as a matter of convenience.
Alternatively I may be able to use the IReportDataSourceProvider but I'd need to look into exactly where to hook that into my infrastructure.
I am looking at the IReportDataSourceProvider and unfortunately because of the way that it works I don't think I could use this. The reporting engine automatically creates an instance of the matching IReportDataSourceProvider class object and then calls GetDataSource on it, however I would need the class that I write that implemented IReportDataSourceProvider to have a link to the ViewModel that actually contains all of the data that the user has chosen to add to the report. If I can't control the creation of the IReportDataSourceProvider that the engine uses then I can't ensure that the provider has a link to the information that the user has chosen to add to each section of the report.