New version of FastReport .NET 2021.4 is released

What's new in version 2021.4 of FastReport .NET?

 

Important! Editions changes

The WinForms and Win+WebForms editions will no longer be supported. Instead, we added a new Standard edition that includes Windows Forms components, ASP.NET components, and .NET Core / .NET 5 / Blazor support.

New features

Added new Visual Studio-styled icons. You may switch between icon packs in the "View/Options/User Interface" window (or, "File/Options/User Interface" if you use ribbon UI):

 

 

The new icons are well suited for hiDPI screens.

Added ability to reset the FastReport configuration stored in the FastReport.Config file in the user's profile. It can be done in the "View/Options/User Interface" window, the "Reset config" button. Restart of the designer is required in order to apply changes.

Added ability for the Text object to display DB filed names in a simplified form when designing a report. You can activate this option in the "View/Options/Objects appearance" window. This option is off by default. When you turn it on the Text object with a single DB field will display the field name part only, with no datasource name:

 

It makes the report look cleaner especially when it contains a lot of small objects. You still can see a full text of object in the status bar.

Added ability to set up each cell in the Matrix object's corner area. To do this use the cell's context menu and its commands "Split cell", "Merge cells":

 

Added ability to connect to ElasticSearch. Connection is available in data wizard and from code.

Added barcode Japanese Post 4 - State Code.

 

Added the collapse all/expand all buttons and, a search field for the report tree and data tree in the designer. When clicking on + tree will expand. On - tree will collapse.

 

These changes should simplify working with reports containing many objects and/or data sources.

The RicthText to report objects converter has been significantly improved and optimized.

The number of available exports in WebReport Core/Blazor Server has increased significantly.

Added FastReport Business Graphics integration objects (\Extras\Objects\FastReportBGObjects).

Universal plugins FastReport.Data

Packages with FastReport.Data plugins have been updated. Now they include plugins for different FastReport editions (.NET, Core, CoreWin, OpenSource) and automatically connect the necessary library, depending on the product you use. The FastReport edition 2021.3.0 or higher is required for correct work.

The FastReport.Core.Data, FastReport.CoreWin.Data, and FastReport.OpenSource.Data plugins are declared obsolete and are no longer supported.

Improvements in publishing user applications using FastReport

For user applications on .NET Core 3.0+ and .NET 5+ using FastReport.Core, FastReport.CoreWin, FastReport.OpenSource has been added Single File Applications (SFA) support.

Also, added support for publishing application with trimmed unused libraries - MSBuild property - PublishTrimmed*.

Warning! In some cases, you may need to explicitly specify the list of builds that .NET should not trim. This may be useful if your report script uses these libraries, but your application's code does not make use of them.

This is done using the TrimmerRootAssembly property. In this case, for example, it's explicitly stated that the System.Security library doesn't need to be trimmed:

 

 

 

Localizations

In the logic of the localization change, small changes were made.

Added package FastReport.Localization. This package contains localization files for FastReport.NET, FastReport.Core, FastReport.CoreWin, FastReport.Mono, FastReport.OpenSource products and creates the Localization directory in the output directory of the user project when adding this package.

Added new API for changing the localization using the CultureInfo type - FastReport.Utils.Res.LoadLocale(CultureInfo culture).

When this method is called, FastReport searches for the appropriate localization for the selected culture. Loaded locales are cached. For this method to work correctly, you must install the FastReport.Localization package from step 1 in your project or set the path to the folder with the localization files in the FastReport.Utils.Res.LocaleFolder property.

Changes and improvements in the WebReport Core/Blazor toolbar

Toolbar settings were moved from WebReport class to WebReport.Toolbar property of ToolbarSettings class.

Added toolbar settings: Position, color of dropdown menu, font, transparency of icons, changing icon color, changing content position. These properties are available in the webReport.Toolbar.

During report loading, the toolbar is no longer displayed.

Added the ShowOnDialogPage property to the Toolbar object (true by default), which will allow to turn off the toolbar rendering if a dialog window is currently open

Added more exports to the toolbar dropdown menu. These properties are available in webReport.Toolbar.Exports.ExportTypes. List of added exports: HTML, Hpgl, Dxf, Json, LaTeX, Ppml, PS, Xaml, Zpl, Excel97, Svg.

 

 

 

 

Added support of MaxLength property for TextBox

Added support for the Enabled property

Added support for background-color

 

 

Fixes

Fixed bug with Dock and Anchor properties of the objects that are inside the Table/Matrix cell.

Fixed stack overflow bug when you add Subreport object to the page footer band.

Fixed bug with SVG export if the system's DPI setting is greater than 96DPI.

 

[Engine]

+ added connection to ElasticSearch;

+ added a new barcode - Japanese PostNet;

+ added the Res.LoadLocale (CultureInfo) method, which changes the selected locale by the CultureInfo argument. Loaded locales are cached. For correct operation, the added FastReport.Localization package is required;

 

* optimized and unified converter RichText to report objects;

- fixed a bug with incorrect tab width when TextObject.TextRenderType = TextRenderType.HtmlTextRenderer;

- fixed a bug with SubreportObject on a page footer band which caused StackOverflow exception;

- fixed a bug with Dock and Anchor properties of objects inside table/matrix cells;

- fixed a bug leading to System.ArgumentException when drawing PictureObject located outside the band;

- fixed a bug with incorrect work of right anchor (Anchor = AnchorStyles.Right) when page has unlimited width;

- fixed a bug with replacing a custom font with a default font when preparing a report;

- fixed a bug with vertical alignment when converting RTF (by default, now Top instead of Center);

- fixed a bug with converting RTF tables to report objects.

 

[Designer]

+ added simplified display of DB field names in the designer;

+ added collapse all/expand all button and search field for Report tree and Data tree;

+ new icons added. Use the designer's "View|Options|User interface" dialog to switch between icon packs;

- fixed a bug leading to the crash of the report designer with an incorrect table in the data source.

 

[Preview]

- fixed a bug with saving prepared reports containing converted RichObject.

 

[Exports]

+ added option when export to Word 2007 "Do not add section breaks on page breaks". By default, both page breaks and section breaks are added;

- fixed page-break in Html export (PageBreaks property);

- fixed SVG export with "Multiply export" parameter;

- fixed SVG export bug on hidpi monitor;

- fixed the names of files saved in the zip archive;

- fixed tab symbols width when export RichObject;

- fixed XPS export bug where documents exported on Linux would not open on Windows;

- fixed bugs with incorrect work of Anchor and Dock properties when exporting pages with unlimited width;

- fixed a bug in Excel 2007 export of text objects with enabled HtmlParagraph render type. Disable WYSIWYG export option to export text instead of images.

 

[WebReport]

+ added support for Blazor components for FastReport.Core3.Web package;

+ added background-color support for dialogs in WebReport;

+ added support for the Enabled property for dialogs in WebReport;

+ added support for the MaxLength property for the TextBox dialog component in WebReport;

 

* optimized loading of localization for Toolbar;

- fixed incorrect output of multiline text in Blazor (Interactive Forms & TextBox);

- fixed incorrect page background-color for HTML/Blazor export on Safari browsers;

- fixed missing line breaks for the Label dialog component in WebReport;

- fixed a bug with hanging of online designer save call-back in WebReport with sessions;

- fixed bugs with incorrect work Anchor and Dock properties on pages with unlimited width.

 

[Online Designer]

- fixed save/preview from OnlineDesigner with page in Landscape orientation.

 

[.NET Core]

+ added support for Single File Application;

* updated dependencies for FastReport.Compat and FastReport.DataVisualization. FastReport.Compat now correctly detects the possibility of using the WinForms API. FastReport.DataVisualization now has no dependency on System.Data.SqlClient and System.Drawing.Common;

- fixed a bug where the report did not work with data from the custom library, although it was registered with ReferencedAssemblies in CoreWin;

- fixed application crash when loading a report with unknown Font in multiple threads on Linux;

- fixed a bug "Could not load type 'System.Drawing.Design.UITypeEditor'";

- fixed loading of table names in XmlDataConnection;

- fixed a bug due to which the report and resources were not loaded when publishing/debugging using IIS/IIS Express. For correct work, you need to call the `UseFastReport()` method before 'UseMvc/UseEndpoints'.

 

[WebReport Core]

+ added xml comments (DocumentationFile) to Web libraries;

+ added a property to disable showing of the toolbar on the dialog page of the report: webReport.Toolbar.ShowOnDialogPage;

+ added more exports to the toolbar dropdown menu. These properties are available in webReport.Toolbar.Exports;

+ added the ability to customize the toolbar: Position, color of the drop-down menu, font, transparency of icons, change the color of icons, change the position of content. These properties are available in webReport.Toolbar;

+ dialog DateTimePicker for WebReport has been improved. In DateTimePicker.Format.Time mode, it displays only time, in DateTimePicker.Format.Short mode - only date, DateTimePicker.Format.Long - both date and time.

 

[Extras]

+ added package 'FastReport.Localization', which includes FastReport localization files in your project for working with different languages;

+ added FastReport Business Graphics integration objects (\Extras\Objects\FastReportBGObjects).

 

[Demos]

+ implemented transition to list of reports, when clicking on the arrow on folder in new demo;

* changed target framework for new demo to 4.7.2;

* changed color of inactive buttons in the thumbnail view mode of new demo;

* changed background color of the zoom slider in new demo;

* changed background color when displaying dialog forms in the new demo;

* changed background color of interactive reports tabs in new demo;

* changed the location of the folder with report thumbnails for the demo application. Now, this folder is located not in Program Files but in AppData\Local;

- fixed problems with displaying interface elements of the new demo application;

- fixed a bug that caused saving a prepared report when clicking on the drop-down items in the save menu of the new demo application;

- fixed a bug with alignment of reports in preview window of the new demo;

- fixed a bug with double launching dialog formа when selecting a report in new demo;

- fixed a bug with stretching thumbnails in the new demo;

- fixed a bug leading to a lag when moving the window of new demo;

- fixed a bug in the new demo with simultaneous displaying of thumbnails in folder and report bars.

 

[Plugins]

* packages with plugins-connectors FastReport.Data.** have been updated. Now they include plugins for different FastReport editions (.NET, Core, CoreWin, OpenSource) and automatically include the necessary library, depending on the product used;

* postgres npgsql version downgrade from 4.0.3 to 3.2.7.