Reports

Code On Time has released the new update that includes several enhancements and bug fixes.

Reporting in has been enhanced to print a form-layout if report is activated from a form views. Reports will now print Charts and images. Reports support explicit portrait and landscape orientation and multiple font sizes. You can create a permanent report template and have it customized in Visual Studio. We are working on a tutorial covering all of these topics.

All web apps now offer “publish” option on the start page of the code generator. Publishing results in a production of file set ready for deployment to your web server.

Form-style layout and support for images were included in ASP.NET 4.0 version only. We expect to bring reporting capabilities of ASP.NET 3.5 web apps in line with ASP.NET 4.0 when SharePoint Factory is released to production.

• Version of the web application code generator is displayed in the status bar.
   
• Navigation between records in a form view will result in correct printing and exporting of the current record only. Previously complete list of records was included in the export record set and printed reports if user navigating between records in a form view.
   
• Code Generator now supports new expression stringFormatExpression.
   
• Report  template in ASP.NET 4.0 will produce a report for Chart views. This report will take in account any user defined filters.
   
• Pattern escaping for SQL Server has been implemented. Quick Find and other search operations resulting in LIKE comparison will have the value escapted to allow finding symbols %, _, and [.
  Read about it at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179859.aspx.
   
• Clearing of a user-defined filter in a view via "x" button in the filter description will only clear the filters from the fields that are not hidden. Previously this was causing incorrect behavior in Project Designer and some other instances.
   
• Custom report templates are now supported. Select any view in a data controller (gridf1, editForm1) and indicate that you want to have a report template. Generate the project. You will find the report template in ~/Reports folder of your application (Web Site Factory) or in the class library (Web App Factory and Azure Factory).  Click “develop” link next in the Actions column on the start page of the code generator and modify report template as needed. The report will be engaged whenever requested from the corresponding view.
   
• Report template for grid /data sheet views automatically determines the page orientation. You can choose a specific page orientation if you edit Orientation property of a data controller view.
   
• Report template now supports Font Size property. Select X-Small, Small, Medium, Large, or X-Large font size for a given data controller view.
   
• Upgrading of the product edition will cause the project to be re-generated to reflect new features.
   
• Web App Factory and Web Site Factory now support publishing. Select this option to produce a set of files ready for deployment to your server.  You can publish an app on the start page of the project wizard.
    
• "Small" and "toll" image thumbnails are fitted better in the image preview rectangle rendered for binary / image fields.
   
• Modal forms now support annotations. If you select a modal form then you will notice a clip icon next to form navigation buttons (up and down arrows).
   
• Annotations are now supported with Windows Authentication. 
   
• “Print” icon is now displayed in modal views next to form navigation buttons if any “ReportAs…” is available.
   
• Resizing of modal views with tabbed categories has been improved. Switching of tabs will allow the tab content to take the maximum available size and scroll if the content does not fit on 4/5 of the page height.
   
• VB.NET "Handles" clause in code-behind class methods is produced only for for master, aspx, or ascx pages to remove the conflict with certain name patterns in business rule methods.
   
• Context field values are now included in "Details" page link when a user click on the arrow next to lookup fields.
   
• Test Bench preview will start the preview with URL parameters that allows saving of the data in form views.
  

The follow-up release of Code On Time introduces significant security enhancements to user identity validation performed when RSS , CSV, and live Microsoft Excel data feeds are generated.

The feeds are retrieved by external applications such as browsers, RSS readers, and Excel via a URL generated by application. User identity is not embedded into the data feed URLs.

These are the examples of the data feeds:

• RSS: http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/WebSiteFactory6/Export.ashx?q=eyJjb21tYW5kTmFtZSI6IkV4cG9ydFJzcyIsImNvbW1hbmRBcmd1bWVudCI6IiIsImNhdXNlc1ZhbGlkYXRpb24iOnRydWUsIkNvbnRyb2xsZXIiOiJDdXN0b21lcnMiLCJWaWV3IjoiZ3JpZDEiLCJGaWx0ZXIiOltdLCJTb3J0RXhwcmVzc2lvbiI6IiJ9
• Excel: http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/WebSiteFactory6/Export.ashx?q=eyJjb21tYW5kTmFtZSI6IkV4cG9ydFJvd3NldCIsImNvbW1hbmRBcmd1bWVudCI6IiIsImNhdXNlc1ZhbGlkYXRpb24iOnRydWUsIkNvbnRyb2xsZXIiOiJDdXN0b21lcnMiLCJWaWV3IjoiZ3JpZDEiLCJGaWx0ZXIiOltdLCJTb3J0RXhwcmVzc2lvbiI6IiJ9&d

Click on any of the links and you will be prompted to enter a name and password if your application is using ASP.NET Membership authentication. The application framework will detect access to data export resources and will request user name and password through Basic Authentication.

Enter the user name and password and the credentials will be authenticated against the ASP.NET Membership database. The URLs above will allow access to data if you enter admin / admin123% or user / user123% when prompted for username/password. These user accounts are registered on our demo server.

If you sign into the application at http://dev.codeontime.com/demo/websitefactory6 using one of the accounts listed above then try the following.

Live RSS Feed

Select the list of customers and choose Action | View RSS Feed option on the action bar.

The RSS feed will be presented.

Do not close the feed and return to the browser window with the application, click Logout link on the membership bar. You will be logged out and a fly-over login dialog will be displayed.

Return to the RSS feed and click Refresh button. You will be prompted to login via Basic Authentication.

Live Excel Spreadsheet

Select Export to Spreadsheet option from the action bar of the customer list.

The prompt to download an IQY file will be displayed. The file extension stands for “Internet Query” and is recognized by Microsoft Excel. Click Open button.

Microsoft Excel will start and will present an additional warning about security risks linked to the content that comes from Internet. We do know the source of data that we are downloading. The data itself is a simple XML data feed. Click Enable button.

Code On Time application will request the user identity. Enter one of the accounts that we have used above.

If the user name and password are matched to an ASP.NET Membership record then the data will be downloaded.

Use Excel to create dynamic and impactful business charts and refresh charts on-demand to see changes in the live data to reflect in your chart. You can email the spreadsheet to users in your organization. Users with valid application accounts will be able to refresh the data as well.

Conclusion

Business users can take full advantage of amazing data reporting and analytical capabilities available in Code On Time applications. Secure data feeds ensure safe shared environment.

Developers can create sophisticated virtual views that will utilize the user identity to filter the data accessible to the user.