Instead of printing the report, you may want to export it into a file and distribute it to your clients or co-workers. To export a file in FlexReportDesigner, select Export option from the File menu and use the Export Report to File dialog box to specify the location, File name and Save as type.

The FlexReportDesigner supports the following export formats:

Render FlexReport using PdfFilter class

FlexReport allows you to render a report to PDF format files or streams using PdfFilter class. To render a FlexReport in PDF format, use the following code. This example uses sample created in FlexReport Quick Start.

PdfFilter f = new PdfFilter();
f.FileName = @"C:\Reports\ProductReport.pdf";
flexreport.RenderToFilter(f);

You can also use the following properties of PdfFilter class:

Render FlexReport using HTMLFilter class

FlexReport allows you to render a report to HTML format using HtmlFilter class. The HtmlFilter class renders the report into HTML streams or files.

To render a FlexReport to HTML format, use the following code. This example uses sample created in FlexReport Quick Start.

HtmlFilter f = new HtmlFilter();
f.FileName = @"C:\Reports\EmployeeReport.html";
flexreport.RenderToFilter(f);

Render FlexReport using Different Export Filters for Images

FlexReport allows you to render a report into various image file formats, such as PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, and TIFF. Each format has a specific export filter class: PngFilter for PNG, JpegFilter for JPEG, GifFilter for GIF, BmpFilter for BMP, and TiffFilter for TIFF.

To render a FlexReport in PNG format, use the following code example from the FlexReport Quick Start guide.

PngFilter f = new PngFilter();
f.FileName = @"C:\Reports\Productreport.png";
flexreport.RenderToFilter(f);

Export FlexReport using RTFFilter class

FlexReport allows you to export a report to RTF format using RtfFilter class. The RtfFilter class exports the report into RTF streams or files.

To export a FlexReport to RTF format, use the following code. The example uses sample created in FlexReport Quick Start.

RtfFilter f = new RtfFilter();
f.FileName = @"C:\Reports\Productreport.png";
flexreport.RenderToFilter(f);

You can also use the following properties of RtfFilter class:

Export Reports using ExportFilter Class

As an alternative to using a specific format filter (for example, PdfFilter) for exporting a report to a particular format ( say, PDF format), FlexReport allows you to export a report to different formats using ExportFilter class. The ExportFilter class is an abstract base class for all exporter classes. An object of ExportFilter class is used to export a report to different formats. The ExportFilter class accesses the ExportProvider abstract class which describes supported export formats.

In the following code, we have used the ExportFilter class that accesses the ExportProvider class to list all the export formats in a ComboBox, which are described in the ExportProvider class. To do so, a ComboBox control is added in the design view to show the list of available export formats and its name is set to cbxExportFormat.

1. Add the following namespaces in the code as shown in the code below:

   C#	Copy Code
   using C1.Win.Document.Export; using C1.Win.FlexReport; using System.IO;

   Note: Replace C1.Win.Document.Export with C1.Win.C1Document.Export for .NET Framework 4.x version.
2. Add the following code in the code view to create an instance of FlexReport:

   C#	Copy Code
   C1FlexReport flexreport = new C1FlexReport();

3. Add the following code beneath InitializeComponent() method in the code window to load the ComboBox with the available formats:

   C#	Copy Code
   foreach (var e in flexreport.SupportedExportProviders) { cbxExportFormat.Items.Add(e.FormatName); } cbxExportFormat.SelectedIndex = 0;

4. Add a Button control in the design view for exporting a FlexReport to different formats using ExportFilter and ExportProvider class. Use the following code in its Click event:

   C#

   Copy Code

   string[] reports = C1FlexReport.GetReportList(@"..\..\..\productreportqs.flxr"); ExportProvider ep = flexreport.SupportedExportProviders[cbxExportFormat.SelectedIndex]; ExportFilter ef = ep.NewExporter() as ExportFilter; if (!Directory.Exists(@"C:\Reports")) Directory.CreateDirectory(@"C:\Reports"); foreach (string reportName in reports) { using (C1FlexReport rep = new C1FlexReport()) { rep.Load(@"..\..\..\productreportqs.flxr", "Product Report"); DataTable dt = GetMyDataTable(); rep.DataSource.Recordset = dt; ef.FileName = string.Format(@"C:\Reports\{0}.{1}", reportName, ep.DefaultExtension); try { rep.RenderToFilter(ef); MessageBox.Show("Report Exported"); } catch (Exception ex) { MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Exception while export [{0}] report:\r\n{1}", reportName, ex.Message),"Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error); } } }

You can also use the following properties available in ExportFilter class: