First Look at the Web Report Designer

When you first create a brand new report in the Web Report Designer, you will be taken to the design view for your report. 

This article will go through the different tools available to you when creating a report. For more details, please refer to the documentation on DevExpress. 

Main Toolbar

You can access report editing commands in the main toolbar.

1. Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete
2. Undo and Redo
3. Zoom
4. Validate Data Bindings - Highlights report controls with invalid data bindings or incorrect expressions.
5. Fullscreen
6. Scripts
7. Preview Report

Toolbox

The Toolbox lists all available controls you can add to your report.

1. Label - displays plain text in a report
2. Check Box - displays the checkbox's state
3. Rich Text - displays formatted text (static, dynamic or mixed) in your report
4. Picture Box - embed static (stored with the report) or dynamic (obtained from a data source) images into a report
5. Panel - a container that frames separate report controls and allows you to move, copy and paste them
6. Table - displays information in a tabular format and allows you to create table reports
7. Character Comb - displays text so that each character is printed in an individual cell
8. Line - draws a line in a specified direction, style, width, and color
9. Shape - allows you to draw various shapes in a report
10. Bar Code - insert a bar code into a report
11. Chart - add charts and pivot grids to reports
12. Gauge - embed graphical gauges into your report
13. Sparkline - displays a compact chart that is commonly used to illustrate the data flow for every row in a report
14. Pivot Grid - displays complex multi-dimensional data, such as summary statistics, surveys, and market research information
15. Table of Contents - once bookmarks have been assigned to specific report elements, you can generate a table of contents
16. Page Info - display auxiliary information on report pages, such as date, time, page numbers or user name
17. Page Break - insert a page delimiter at any point within a report
18. Cross-Band Line - draw lines through several report bands
19. Cross-Band Box - draw rectangles through several report bands

Properties Panel

The Properties Panel allows you to access the settings of the report. It will also display the settings of any individual control selected.

At the top of the panel, there is a dropdown where you can select an element within your report. This will bring up the properties for that element.

The icons beside the dropdown allow you to:

1. List the properties alphabetically
2. List the properties grouped into categories
3. Filter the list of properties depending on a search term

On the right, is a black bar with three icons:

1. Properties Panel - display and access the properties of a selected element
2. Field List - access any field in the Base and Detail tables
3. Report Explorer - Access any of the report's elements