Reports can depend on external resources. ActiveReports provides the possibilities to resolve reporting tasks, related to using any resources that your report may require. With the ActiveReports custom resource locator, you can place any resources - themes, image files, subreports, CSS, etc, to any location in your file system.
In ActiveReports, you can place resources such as themes, image files, subreports, CSS, to any location with some exceptions:
Page and RDLX reports can resolve resources from your file system using file paths, but sometimes resources are preserved in very specific sources, such as a database. With RDLX report, you can create a custom resource locator to read any resources that might be required by your reports from any type of location. You can use it for resources such as images and theme files, or for reports to use in drillthrough links, subreports, or master reports.
The Custom Resource Locator sample demonstrates a custom resource locator that looks for files in the current user’s My Pictures folder by looking for a special MyPictures protocol. The custom resource locator in the sample is implemented by deriving from GrapeCity.ActiveReports.ResourceLocator class and overriding the GetResource method. The GetResource method returns ParentUri and Value properties. The Value property contains the located resource as a memory stream. The ParentUri property contains the string URI of the parent of the resource within the resource hierarchy.
You can customize the resource locator for all report types in the following ActiveReports components:
See the ResourceLocator property for details.
Note: The WebDesigner uses a completely different mechanism to access resources. See the WebDesigner_CustomStore sample for details.
Page reports can get resources from your file system using file paths, but sometimes resources are preserved in very specific sources, such as a database. With Page reports, you can create a custom resource locator to read any resources that might be required by your reports from any location.
The following steps illustrate how to load pictures from the user's My Pictures or Pictures directory based on the Custom Resource Locator sample.
When you complete these steps, you get a layout that looks similar to the following at run time.
| Property Name | Property Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Image1 |
| Location | 0.1in, 0.1in |
| Size | 2.8in, 2.8in |
| Value | MyPictures:Penguins.jpg |
| Property Name | Property Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Image2 |
| Location | 3.1in, 0.1in |
| Size | 2.8in, 2.8in |
| Value | MyPictures:Desert.jpg |
To write the code in Visual Basic.NET
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Imports System Imports System.Drawing Imports GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility Imports System.Globalization Imports System.IO Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices |
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| VB code. Paste INSIDE the class |
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Inherits ResourceLocator
Private Const UriSchemeMyImages As String = "MyPictures:"
' Obtain and return the resource.
Public Overrides Function GetResource(resourceInfo As ResourceInfo) As Resource
Dim name As String = resourceInfo.Name
If name Is Nothing OrElse name.Length = 0 Then
Throw New ArgumentException("The name of resource to be obtained should be non-empty string.", "name")
End If
Dim uri As New Uri(name)
Dim stream As Stream = GetPictureFromSpecialFolder(name)
If stream Is Nothing Then
stream = New MemoryStream()
End If
Return New Resource(stream, uri)
End Function
' Returns the specified image from Public Pictures folder.
Private Shared Function GetPictureFromSpecialFolder(path As String) As Stream
Dim startPathPos As Integer = UriSchemeMyImages.Length
If startPathPos >= path.Length Then
Return Nothing
End If
Dim pictureName As String = path.Substring(startPathPos)
Dim myPicturesPath As String = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("public") & "\Pictures"
If Not myPicturesPath.EndsWith("\") Then
myPicturesPath += "\"
End If
Dim picturePath As String = System.IO.Path.Combine(myPicturesPath, pictureName)
If Not File.Exists(picturePath) Then
Return Nothing
End If
Dim stream As New MemoryStream()
Try
Dim picture As Image = Image.FromFile(picturePath)
picture.Save(stream, picture.RawFormat)
stream.Position = 0
Catch generatedExceptionName As OutOfMemoryException
' The file is not valid image, or GDI+ doesn't support such images.
Return Nothing
Catch generatedExceptionName As ExternalException
Return Nothing
End Try
Return stream
End Function
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To write the code in C#
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using System; using System.Drawing; using System.Globalization; using System.IO; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; using System.Windows.Forms; using GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility; using your_project_name.Properties; |
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| C# code. Paste BELOW the Using statements |
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namespace your_project_name
{
// Look for the resources in My Pictures folder.
internal sealed class MyPicturesLocator : ResourceLocator
{
private const string UriSchemeMyImages = "MyPictures:";
// Obtain and return the resource.
public override Resource GetResource(ResourceInfo resourceInfo)
{
string name = resourceInfo.Name;
if (name == null || name.Length == 0)
{
throw new ArgumentException("The name of resource to be obtained should be non-empty string.", "name");
}
Uri uri = new Uri(name);
Stream stream = GetPictureFromSpecialFolder(name);
if (stream == null)
{
stream = new MemoryStream();
}
return new Resource(stream, uri);
}
// Returns the specified image from Public Pictures folder.
private static Stream GetPictureFromSpecialFolder(string path)
{
int startPathPos = UriSchemeMyImages.Length;
if (startPathPos >= path.ToString().Length)
{
return null;
}
string pictureName = path.ToString().Substring(startPathPos);
string myPicturesPath = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("public") + \\Pictures;
if (!myPicturesPath.EndsWith("\\")) myPicturesPath += "\\";
string picturePath = Path.Combine(myPicturesPath, pictureName);
if (!File.Exists(picturePath)) return null;
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
try
{
Image picture = Image.FromFile(picturePath);
picture.Save(stream, picture.RawFormat);
stream.Position = 0;
}
catch (OutOfMemoryException) // The file is not valid image, or GDI+ doesn't support such images.
{
return null;
}
catch (ExternalException)
{
return null;
}
return stream;
}
}
}
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| Property Name | Property Value |
|---|---|
| Name | PreviewForm |
| Text | Preview Form |
| Size | 1015, 770 |
| Property Name | Property Value |
|---|---|
| Name | reportPreview1 |
| Dock | Fill |
To write the code in Visual Basic.NET
| VB code. Paste BELOW the Import statements |
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Imports GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document Imports System.IO Imports GrapeCity.ActiveReports |
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| VB code. Paste INSIDE the Load event |
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Dim myPicturesPath As String = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("public") + _Pictures
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To write the code in C#
| C# code. Paste BELOW the Using statements |
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using GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document; using System.IO; using GrapeCity.ActiveReports; |
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| C# code. Paste INSIDE the Load event |
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string myPicturesPath = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("public") + \\Pictures;
Stream reportData = GetType().Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("your_project_name.DemoReport.rdlx");
reportData.Position = 0;
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(reportData);
PageReport def = new PageReport(reader);
def.ResourceLocator = new MyPicturesLocator();
PageDocument runtime = new PageDocument(def);
reportPreview1.ReportViewer.LoadDocument(runtime);
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