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Reports
Saturday, August 16, 2014PrintSubscribe
Reports at Attachments in Email Business Rules

Application framework allows generating reports on the server. This capability makes it possible to produce reports as attachments of email business rules.

Consider the following Email Business Rules implementing a simple notification executed in response to Update command in Categories data controller.

Property Value
Command Name Update
Type Email
Phase After
Script
Host: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587
UserName: YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS@gmail.com
Password: PASSWORD
EnableSSL: true

From: "Sales Admin" <YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS@gmail.com>
To: RECIPIENT@northwind.com
Subject: Category "{CategoryName}" has changed!

Dear Admin,

This product category has been changed.
See attachment for category product details.

System Monitor

<attachment type="report">
    <name>{CategoryName}</name>
    <controller>Categories</controller>
    <view>editForm1</view>
    <filter>
        <item>
            <field>CategoryID</field>
            <operator>=</operator>
            <value>{CategoryID}</value>
        </item>
    </filter>
</attachment>
<attachment type="report">
    <name>{CategoryName} Products</name>
    <controller>Products</controller>
    <sortExpression>UnitPrice desc</sortExpression>
    <filter>
        <item>
            <field>CategoryID</field>
            <operator>=</operator>
            <value type="Int32">{CategoryID}</value>
        </item>
    </filter>
</attachment>

Note the two attachment elements embedded directly in the email message. Each element defines a snippet of XML markup describing the report execution arguments.

The first attachment is produced for Categories data controller. Data is filtered by CategoryID of the modified record. The report is produced for editForm1 view.

The second attachment is produced for Products data controller. Data is filtered by CategoryID and sorted in descending order of Unit Price. The report is produced for grid1 view.

Note the field names of the updated data record referenced in curly braces. Expressions {CategoryName} and {CategoryID} are replaced with the actual values during processing.

Attachment definitions are removed from the email body by application framework. The framework will generate each report using specified arguments and attach the report to the email before it is sent out to the recipient.

Run the application and edit any category. Click OK button to save the changes.

An email business rule will trigger an email notification with two report attachments produced in a Touch UI app created with Code On Time application generator.

The data will be saved after a slight delay.

Check your smart phone device for messages.

An email notification on an Android device generated by an Email Business Rule of an app produced with Code On Time.

This is how the email message may look.

The text of the email notification produced by an Email Business Rule in an app created with Code On Time applicaition generator.

Click on an attachment to see the report data in a PDF reader installed on your device.

An attachment report with Category details displayed in Adobe Reader on an Android device.

An attachment report with a list of Products in changed category displayed in Adobe Reader on an Android device.

Saturday, August 16, 2014PrintSubscribe
Producing Reports in Binary Format

Application end users download the data reports by selecting menu options in the user interface.

Standard reporting options in an app with Touch UI produced with Code On Time application generator.

The report is produced in the requested format on the server and streamed back to the client browser. The report data is automatically filtered and sorted exactly as displayed to the end user.

A report produced in Microsoft Word format by an app with Touch UI created with Code On Time application generator.

Application developers may need to produce a report on the server with arbitrary filters and sort expression in response to the user actions. The report data file may be stored in the database, archived in the file system, or sent as an email attachment. Application framework offers a simple method that allows to do just that.

Consider the following sample business rule.

C#:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using MyCompany.Data;
using MyCompany.Handlers;
using System.IO;
using MyCompany.Web;

namespace MyCompany.Rules
{
    public partial class CustomersBusinessRules : MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules
    {

        /// <summary>
        /// This method will execute in any view for an action
        /// with a command name that matches "Custom" and argument that matches "ProduceReport".
        /// </summary>
        [Rule("r100")]
        public void r100Implementation(string customerID, string companyName, string contactName,
            string contactTitle, string address, string city, string region, string postalCode,
            string country, string phone, string fax)
        {
            // This is the placeholder for method implementation.
            ReportArgs args = new ReportArgs();
            // controller
            args.Controller = "Orders";
            // sort expression
            args.SortExpression = "OrderDate desc";
            // data filter
            args.Filter = new FieldFilter[] {
                new FieldFilter  {
                    FieldName = "CustomerID",
                    Operation = RowFilterOperation.Equal,
                    Value = customerID
                }
            };
            // filter details
            args.FilterDetails = "This report has been produced on the server for customer " + companyName;
            // produce report in binary format
            byte[] reportData = Report.Execute(args);
            // save report to the local file system
            File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(
                Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments), "Test.pdf"),
                reportData);
            // report the MIME type and file extension that go with the binary data
            Result.ShowAlert("MIME: {0}, Extension: {1}", args.MimeType, args.FileNameExtension);
        }
    }
}

Visual Basic:

Imports MyCompany.Data
Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Web.Security
Imports MyCompany.Handlers
Imports System.IO
Imports MyCompany.Web

Namespace MyCompany.Rules

    Partial Public Class CustomersBusinessRules
        Inherits MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules

        ''' <summary>
        ''' This method will execute in any view for an action
        ''' with a command name that matches "Custom" and argument that matches "ProduceReport".
        ''' </summary>
        <Rule("r100")> _
        Public Sub r100Implementation(ByVal customerID As String, ByVal companyName As String,
                                      ByVal contactName As String, ByVal contactTitle As String,
                                      ByVal address As String, ByVal city As String,
                                      ByVal region As String, ByVal postalCode As String,
                                      ByVal country As String, ByVal phone As String, ByVal fax As String)
            'This is the placeholder for method implementation.
            Dim args As ReportArgs = New ReportArgs()
            ' controller
            args.Controller = "Orders"
            ' sort expression
            args.SortExpression = "OrderDate desc"
            ' data filter
            args.Filter = New FieldFilter() {
                New FieldFilter With {
                    .FieldName = "CustomerID",
                    .Operation = RowFilterOperation.Equals,
                    .Value = customerID
                    }
                }
            ' filter details
            args.FilterDetails = "This report has been produced on the server for customer " + companyName
            ' produce report in binary format
            Dim reportData As Byte() = Report.Execute(args)
            ' save report to the local file system
            File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(
                Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments), "Test.pdf"),
                reportData)
            ' report the MIME type and file extension that go with the binary data
            Result.ShowAlert("MIME: {0}, Extension: {1}", args.MimeType, args.FileNameExtension)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

The code is executed in response to a custom action Produce Report selected in the context menu of application.

Custom action used to invoke a 'Code' business rule in an app with Touch UI creatd with Code On Time application builder.

Static method Report.Execute performs a server-side execution of the standard report action. The custom implementation of the “Code” business rule displays details about the produced binary data array.

Information about MIME type and file extension reporting by a business rule after producing a report in PDF format in an app with Touch UI.

This sample saves the report data to My Documents folder of the server computer. Here is the actual report.

This report has been generated by a custom action with the help of Report.Execute method invoked by custom business rule in an app with Touch UI produced with Code On Time.

Instance of a class ReportArgs exposes several properties that control the report rendering on the server.

Property Description
Controller Specifies the name of the data controller.
View Specifies the ID of the data controller view that will be used to produce data.
SortExpression Defines a sort expression that determines the order of data rows passed to the reporting engine for processing.
Filter Defines an array of filters applied to the report data passed to the reporting engine for processing.
FilterDetails Specifies the optional message displayed below the report header in standard reports.
Format Specifies the format of the output. The default format is Pdf. Other options are Word, Excel, and Image.
Template Name Specifies the name of the custom report template. If left blank, then a standard template is automatically created by application framework.
MimeType Indicates the MIME type of the report data produced by Microsoft Report Viewer. Use this property when sending report as an email attachment.
FileNameExtension Indicates the file name extension that matches the data produced by Microsoft Report Viewer. Use this property to provide a correct extension for the file name.
Friday, August 15, 2014PrintSubscribe
Improving Performance Of Reports in ASP.NET 4.0 and 4.5 Applications

Microsoft Report Viewer is the lightweight reporting engine used by generated apps to produce data reports in PDF, Word, Excel, and TIFF format. A generated app creates an in-memory table of data sorted and filtered according to the end user criteria. The data table is passed to Report Viewer to produce a report. The design template of the report is either created on-the-fly by the application framework or supplied by a developer at design time.

Report Viewer allows including formulas written in Visual Basic in the definitions of property expressions in various elements of a report template. The report formulas from the template are compiled to executable code by Report Viewer. If an ASP.NET web application tries to create a  report with the help of Microsoft Report Viewer, then certain security requirements must be satisfied. The formulas compiled by Report Viewer must run in “sandbox” environment.

ASP.NET security configuration has changed starting with ASP.NET 4.0. Now the sandbox of Report Viewer is required to jump through many hoops in order to produce a report. This results in poor performance of reports  on large datasets requiring significantly more time to complete rendering.

A simple solution exists to overcome this problem in an app created with Code On Time.

1) Select the project name on the start page of the app generator and choose Settings.

2) Proceed to Web Server Configuration and paste the following snippet into Web.Config modification instructions box:

AppendChild: /configuration/system.web

<trust legacyCasModel="true"/>

3) Click Finish and regenerate the project. A new <trust…/> entry will be created in the configuration file of application.

Now the reporting performance will become significantly improved.