The C1RdlReport control has several advantages over using the standard Microsoft Reporting Services. This control supports most of the features of RDL. However, the initial release of C1RdlReport includes some limitations too.

C1RdlReport Advantages:

The major advantages provided by C1RdlReport include:

• Support for the current RDL 2008 specification.
• Programmatic access to the RDL object model (which follows the 2008 RDL specification) - this allows you to modify existing or create new RDL reports completely in code.
• Generation of RDL reports that can consume any data source (such as .mdb files).
• A self-contained RDL reporting solution without external dependencies such as the need to access a Microsoft Reporting Services server.
• Seamless integration with C1PrintPreviewControl and with other Reports for WinForms reporting engines including C1Report and C1PrintDocument.

C1RdlReport Limitations:

The following objects are not supported:

• Gauge objects are not supported.

The following RDL properties are not currently supported:

• Document.AutoRefresh
• Document.Width
• Document.Language
• Document.DataTransform
• Document.DataSchema
• Document.DataElementName
• Document.DataElementStyle
• DataSet.CaseSensitivity
• DataSet.Collation
• DataSet.AccentSensitivity
• DataSet.KanatypeSensitivity
• DataSet.WidthSensitivity
• DataSet.InterpretSubtotalsAsDetails
• TextBox.UserSort
• TextBox.ListStyle
• TextBox.ListLevel
• TextRun.ToolTip
• TextRun.MarkupType

C1RdlReport can now load reports created with Report Builder 3.0 (MS SQL 2008 R2) that use the 2010 RDL spec, PROVIDED that the report definition contains only one ReportSection. If the report contains more than one ReportSection, an exception will be thrown.

Important Note for .NET 2.0/3.0 version users:

The C1.C1Report.4 assembly uses the System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.dll assembly that is only included in .NET Framework 3.5 and later. The assembly is installed on your system with when you install Reports for WinForms. It MUST BE INCLUDED with other Reports assemblies when you deploy your application that uses Reports for WinForms to other systems.

Also, if you update the Reports for WinForms DLLs manually and use charts in C1RDLReport you MUST put DataVisualization where those assemblies are, and make sure that your project references it. The DataVisualization dll is actually only needed for charts in C1RDLReport. So unless your report has charts, it is not needed. This does not apply to .NET 4.0 users as DataVisualization is already included in the Framework.