You can bind your Page/RDLX reports to a data provider like Entity Framework, NHibernate, etc.

To connect to the Entity Framework data source in ActiveRepors, follow these basic steps:

1. Initialize a selected data provider.
2. Сreate a data layer that uses the selected data provider.
3. Bind the data that you want to link to the report, using the data binding mechanism with objects. For more information, see the Object Provider section below.

Below is the example that illustrates binding to the Entity Framework in details. The example assumes that you have a database with the Product entity, which has ProductName and ProductID fields. A tuple of data retrieved from the database needs to be mapped to a table in a report.

1. Initialize Entity Framework as a data provider.

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   // Your binding model private class Product { // Key public int ProductID { get; set; } // Fields public string ProductName { get; set; } } // Your database context private class ProductsDatabaseContext : DbContext { public ProductsDatabaseContext(string connectionstring) : base(connectionstring) { } public DbSet<Product> Products { get; set; } }

2. Create a data layer.

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   // Your data layer private class ProductDataLayer { private ProductsDatabaseContext _context; internal ProductDataLayer() { _context = CreateDataProvider(); } private ProductsDatabaseContext CreateDataProvider() { // Your connection string to database string connectionString = ""; return new ProductsDatabaseContext(connectionString); } internal IEnumerable<Product> GetProducts() => _context?.Products; }

3. Bind data by the data binding mechanism that uses objects.

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   private PageReport LoadReport() { // Your path to the report string path = ""; PageReport report = new PageReport(new FileInfo(path)); report.Document.LocateDataSource += OnLocateDataSource; return report; } private void OnLocateDataSource(object sender, LocateDataSourceEventArgs args) { ProductDataLayer dataLayer = new ProductDataLayer(); args.Data = dataLayer.GetProducts(); }

This approach allows you to work with any data provider and gives you the flexibility to customize your applications when working with reports. 

DataSet Provider

To bind your Page/RDLX report to a DataSet, you must subscribe to the event that occurs when a report needs to locate a data source from the calling application:

report.Document.LocateDataSource += new LocateDataSourceEventHandler(OnLocateDataSource);

To connect to an unbound data source at run time, you can use the DataSet provider with the LocateDataSource event. The reporting engine raises the LocateDataSource event when it needs input on the data to use.

private PageReport LoadReport()
{
    string path = ""; // Your path to the report
    PageReport report = new PageReport(new FileInfo(path));
    report.Document.LocateDataSource += new LocateDataSourceEventHandler(OnLocateDataSource);
   
    return report;
}
private void OnLocateDataSource(object sender, LocateDataSourceEventArgs args)
{
    DataTable dataTable = new DataTable("Example");
   
    // Add the desired data to the dataset
    //
    // dataTable.Columns.Add(...);
    // dataTable.Rows.Add(...);
    //
   
    args.Data = dataTable;
}

The DataSet provider has the following limitations:

• Relationship names with periods are not supported.
• Fields in nested relationships only traverse parent relationships (e.g. FK_Order_Details_Orders.FK_Orders_Customers.CompanyName).

To request a field from a parent table, prefix the field name with the name of the relation(s) that must be traversed to navigate to the appropriate parent table. Separate field names and relations with periods.

For example, consider a main table named OrderDetails with a parent table named Orders. A relation named Orders_OrderDetails defines the relationship between the two tables. Use a field with the syntax below to access the OrderDate from the parent table: Orders_OrderDetails.OrderDate.

Use this same technique to traverse multiple levels of table relations. For example, consider that the Orders table, used in the example above, has a parent table named Customers and a relation, binding the two, called Customers_Orders. If the CommandText specifies the main table as OrderDetails, use the following syntax to get the CustomerName field from the parent table: Customers_Orders.Orders_OrderDetails.CustomerName.

Object Provider

Use the API to bind a Page/RDLX report to the Object data source.

In the example below, the report calls the LocateDataSource event, used to set data into the report. To do this, we create the OnLocateDataSource event handler and pass in it the data that will be transmitted to the report. The data is added as a new data source in the LocateDataSource event handler.

private PageReport LoadReport()
{
    string path = ""; // Your path to the report
    PageReport report = new PageReport(new FileInfo(path));
    report.Document.LocateDataSource += new LocateDataSourceEventHandler(OnLocateDataSource);
    return report;
}
private void OnLocateDataSource(object sender, LocateDataSourceEventArgs args)
{
    ArrayList data = new ArrayList();
   
    // Add the desired data to the collection
    //
    // data.Add(...);
    //
   
    args.Data = data;
}