Stimulsoft Reports.Mobile Coming Soon.

In the light of the development of mobile technologies by Stimulsoft, we are pleased to present the reporting tool, created using the HTML5 technology, and optimized for working with tablet PCs, mobile devices and smartphones. The team leader of the project Kondratovich Anatoly will tell us about the brand new product and how to use it.

- Anatoly, what is the essence of this new tool?

- Our newest product is designed specifically for mobile devices such as tablet PCs, smartphones. It is used to create new reports, editing, viewing and printing. The advantage of this generator is that it is specifically optimized for use on mobile devices such as tablet PC, which can always be with you. There is no need to be tied to your office room and be limited on your workplace. Now our users are truly mobile, since, wherever they are, they can work with their reports.

Also one of its strengths is that it is not a special application for iOS or Android but a collection of web components, which use a technology called HTML5, which allows our components to be more universal and accessible to our users. It is easy to integrate the functions of mobile reporting in the current web application. There is no need to install these components on the end devices; it is enough availability of a mobile web browser that supports HTML5. In addition, as it's just HTML5, the product can work with tablet PCs, smartphones and the desktop which you can run and use with a simple click of the browser - the absolute universality.

- What is the name of the new product?

- The new product will be called very simply - Stimulsoft Reports.Mobile. The name speaks for its purpose and direction of use.

- What is HTML5?

- Everything is very simple. HTML5 is the latest version of HTML standard. It is the most promising technology for use on the Internet. With this technology it became possible to support the latest applications, allowing the possibility to transfer desktop applications in the web world. Based on HTML5 we will release a new reporting tool for mobile applications.

- Why did the choice lay on HTML5?

- The report generator for working with reports on the tablet PCs was in demand by our users for a long time, but, due to complexity of implementation, we had been unable to start its designing. We began to use HTML5 because Silverlight and Flash technologies (where we already have a full range of tools for designing reports) is not supported on smartphones. The only technology that provides a wide range of options is HTML5. Recently, the technology HTML5 gained the strength and support, and tablet PCs got enough performance and we started creating a new reporting utility for mobile applications.

- Is it possible to use the tried and tested reports of our other products?

- As usual, there is full compatibility across all our products. That means that reports designed in, for example, Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight, can be used in Stimulsoft Reports.Mobile. No difficulties in this case do arise.

- What are the difficulties are you meeting during the process of development?

- When creating this reporting tool, there were some minor difficulties, related to the novelty of the young HTML5 technology. This was due to the fact that many devices and browsers are not adapted to HTML5. When developing each block of code we had to check it on different browsers and adapt it for each browser, ensuring the cross-browser capability. However, because of this, we can say with confidence that no matter what web browser you are using you will always see the same report in the same appearance.

- How much time it took to develop Stimulsoft Reports.Mobile?

- The development phase took a little over a year. It would be possible to shorten it, but we did want to ensure that nothing was missed. I had to "dig" on the Internet, read and study a lot of information on the platform HTML5 and, despite the novelty of the technology to develop a complete, ready-to-work stable instrument.

It is a matter of months the official release be live. We are pleased that in a short time, our users can edit their reports directly on the tablet PCs, view reports on smartphones, thus making their business more mobile, more flexible and faster. Have a great time with our products!

Import from ComponentOne Reports to Stimulsoft Reports is Available.

The list of gaps in our reporting tools is becoming less and less. Today we are pleased to introduce you to another importing utility Import.ComponentOne.

Stimulsoft Company has a broad list of imports from different report generators. The developers have written a new utility, which is able to fully import your templates from ComponentOne Reports templates in our product. Users who switch to our product will no longer suffer, they will immediately work with their current patterns in our product.

We receive many requests to create a converter from ComponentOne Reports, and we made it. Enjoy your work!

Directly the converter you can download here.

Stimulsoft Reports.WinRT Coming Soon.

Now is not Christmas, but Stimulsoft Company is not Santa Claus to give gifts only in holiday season. With the greatest pleasure we announce the upcoming release of Stimulsoft Reports.WinRT. The team leader of the project Anton Lozovsky tells you about the features of the new product and how it was created.

The wizard "Help me choose product"

Do you need a reporting tool that meets all your requirements and relevant to recent developments in the world of reporting? If you are reading this article, then you are on the right way in solving the problem. Reporting tools from Stimulsoft Company are exactly what you need! And it is not our point of view; this is the point of view of thousands of our customers.
If you are already collaborating with our company, then you will not have problems with a choice of interesting products. But what if you first approached Stimulsoft? Which product is right for you? After all, you have to choose the product not out of two or three ones but ELEVEN! Do not be afraid and do not despair! It's very simple! Perhaps, on the other web-sites of other vendors you have to:

New product Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC released.

Today our company is pleased to announce the release of the first version of a new report generator - Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC - a software, designed to create reports for the ASP.NET MVC technology. The product is designed for creating reports under ASP.NET MVC. Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC includes everything you need for building reports: reports engine, reports designer and reports viewer. The product supports classic ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET MVC Razor.

You may download the software for evaluation on our website in the section Downloads.
Detailed information of the product is available here.
See how the product looks like and test it right now at the Online Demo page.
http://webfx.stimulsoft.com/

Stimulsoft Reports Product Line. New Version 2012.1 Released.

We are glad to announce the immediate availability of our reporting tools version 2012.1. This release comes with a number of changes which increases the products functionality. Among the features implemented during several months of hard work we can highlight new export option to HTML5, interactive sorting in WebViewer, packed queries in Silverlight, two new chart types, support for Silverlight 5, new theme Office 2010 Mac in Reports.Silverlight and many more.

Exporting to HTML5

In the new version of the product it became available to export reports to the format HTML5. The new export format expands the list of options for saving rendered reports. Exporting to HTML5 is available from all report viewers.

New Tool Report Comparer

We have added a new utility Report Comparer. This tool provides an opportunity to compare two different reports, showing what components, data sources, business objects, variables are found only in one report and not in the other. The new tool also compares the properties of the report components.

Exports Settings in the WebViewer

Thanks to the new configuration dialog, which has different styles of themes as well as the WebViewer, it is possible to install all the necessary export options immediately before the report is exported to another format. If desired, showing settings dialog can be disabled using the ShowExportDialog property of the StiWebViewer component.

Report Themes

The new version of our product has a unique opportunity to create report themes. The report theme provides an opportunity to format the entire report with one click. In addition, there were added some special tools to create and work with the report themes in the styles editor. We have added a set of styles ready to be applied. Created report themes can also be used in report wizards.

Interactive Sorting in the WebViewer

Now in the WebViewer interactive sorting is implemented. It allows you to sort the data in the report by one or by multiple columns. This new feature will add dynamism to your reports and do work with them more comfortable.

New WordWrap Property

We have added a new WordWrap property to the AxisLabels class of the Chart component. The property is used to wrap the text to the next line if it does not fit in specified width to the specified output area. To enable it you should set the WordWrap property to true.

ShowHeaders Option in Designer.Web

The new option is used to hide the band headers in the report page. It is useful if a page has little space and everything should be put in compactly. Also, a new option allows you to more accurately see the report page layout.

ShowOrder Property in Designer.Web

Shows the index number of components located on the page. If there are lots of components on a page, then this property will facilitate the process of report designing. In addition to displaying the index number of the component, all nesting levels, and their order is displayed. The numbers are separated with dots.

Export to ODS Format Now Supports ExcelSheet Property

Now, export to the Open Document Calc format supports the ExcelSheet property of the report page. This property can specify the name of the bookmark. When exporting report pages to the ODS format, they will be saved as separate sheets.

Packed Queries in Silverlight

Previously, all requests between the client and the server have been passed as an ordinary string. This led to longer waiting response when the report size is big or at a low internet speed. In the new release we have included the encryption mode, and packaging data requests, which led to decreasing the size of requests in 10-20 times.

New Chart Type Range

We have added a new chart type Range, which allows displaying the range of the diagram, between its initial and final values. The new chart is available in the Chart Wizard of the report editor.

New Chart Type Stepped Range

The new chart type Stepped Range is available in the report designer. It works similar to the chart Range, with the only difference in mapping the diagram. The new chart is displayed in a stepwise, incremental area, which is filled with the selected color.

New Chart Style

We have added a new style of diagrams which is Style20. It has a color palette of pastel shades of brown and gray. We hope that the new style will help you in creating new and more interesting reports with charts.

Conditions and Filters of Charts in WPF

In the new product version Conditions and Filters in charts are supported in the WPF version. Now you can visually select the desired item or items of your chart using the specified conditions, thus making the report more comprehensible to understand. You will also become available to filter the data before displaying the chart.

Tab Code is Added to Silverlight Reports Designer

In the Client/Server version of the Silverlight reports designer we have added the tab Code. Now users can view the source code of the current report, and add their own additional methods and variables to extend the functionality of reports.

Silverlight Report Engine Supports Text Justifying

Ability to justify the text is now available in Silverlight. Alignment is specified using the HorAlignment property of the text component or using the controls of the reports designer.

Now Silverlight Version Supports HTML Tags

Now, a report generator for Silverlight supports basic HTML tags. HTML tags can be used if you change the AllowHtmlTags property of the text component to true. Previously this feature was not available in the Silverlight version.

Special Version for Silverlight 5

Now in the distributives of our products we are delivering assemblies compiled under Silverlight 5. This is due to the fact that Silverlight supports a range of five unique features that are not available in Silverlight 4, in particular, vector printing. If you need a vector printing and you should use Silverlight 5, then you will find everything you need to build Silverlight 5 in the product installation.

Printing as HTML in Web Preview Tab

It became possible to print reports using HTML Web Preview tab of the report designer. All fonts are printed in a vector format that allows you to get rid of large amounts of data and text blurring. It should be noted that browser settings are used when you print using HTML.

Supporting Clipboard in Report Checker in Designer.Web

Now you can copy the error message to the clipboard in Designer.Web. For this purpose you may use a button on the Report Checker panel. Now you do not have to remember or manually rewrite the message of the report generator, just press the button and the message will be copied to the clipboard. After that, the message can be inserted to any text editor.

Save a Copy Function in Designer.Web

We have added the new option Save a Copy of any item in the data dictionary. The button to Save a Copy is available in the edit item window. This feature will significantly speed up the process of creating new items in the data dictionary. Now this feature is available in Designer.Web.

Indicator of Bottom Range in Designer.Web

If there are lots of components in the page, you can use the LargeHeight property. This property will virtually increase a page in the designer, without changing its actual size. For indication the actual page size the blue line is shown.

New Theme Office 2010 Mac

We have added a new GUI theme Office Mac. It is now possible to use all the charm and beauty of the Mac system, using our report generator. The theme Office Mac is not just another regular theme we have added. This is a well-designed and built theme with all the beauty piece of Mac.

New Chart Types for Designer.Web

We have expanded the list of supported chart types and added two new ones which are Radar and Bubble. Now you have even more opportunities to build reports. New charts are available in the chart wizard.

Stimulsoft Reports.Fx Product Line Version 2012.1 Released.

We are happy to announce the release the Stimulsoft Reports.Fx product line version 2012.1. Stimulsoft Reports.Fx product line includes the products Stimulsoft Reports.Fx for Flex, Stimulsoft Reports.Fx for PHP, Stimulsoft Reports.Fx for Java. The latest version of products includes several improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to use all of the innovative features in Stimulsoft Reports.Fx. Among them are new chart types, new data adapter Firebird, compression of requests/responses for client-server application and many more.

Report Themes

The new version of our product has a unique opportunity to create report themes. The report theme provides an opportunity to format the entire report with one click. In addition, there were added some special tools to create and work with the report themes in the styles editor. We have added a set of styles ready to be applied. Created report themes can also be used in report wizards.

Hiding Headers of Bands

This new option provides the ability to hide the headers of page bands. This option is useful if a page space is not enough and bands are needed to be arranged compactly. Also, it allows more accurately see the report page layout. A new option is available in the View tab of the toolbar.

Displaying Order of Components

This new option provides the ability to display the order of components located in the report page. If there are lots of components, this will facilitate the process of report designing. In addition to displaying the index number of the component, all nesting levels, and their order is displayed. The numbers are separated with dots.

Clipboard and Report Checker

Now you can copy the error message to the clipboard. It can be applied using the special button on the Report Checker toolbar. Now you do not have to remember or manually rewrite the message of the report generator, just press the button and the message will be copied to the clipboard.

Function Save a Copy

We have added new feature to save a copy of any item in the data dictionary. The button to save a copy is available in the editing item dialog. This feature will significantly speed up the process of creating new items in the data dictionary, based on existing ones.

New Types of Charts

We have expanded the list of supported charts with Radar and Bubble. Now you have even more opportunities to design reports with diagrams.

Supporting for HTML tags

You can now use basic HTML tags in the text displaying mode Wysiwyg. The reporting tools support such tags as bold and italics font style, color and text background, font type and size, as well as some other HTML tags.

Our software products successfully tested under VS 2011 Beta and .NET 4.5.

We have made an intensive test of our reporting tools of the Stimulsoft Reports product line version 2011.3 under Visual Studio 2011 Beta (it was released on February 29, 2012.) and .NET 4.5. Now we can announce support of the above mentioned environment with our software products.

Why Stimulsoft Reports? Part 3.

One of the main demands of the modern world is ability to choose! Yes, yes, you are hearing it right, it is choice. It is very good when you have wide a range of products to be chosen, when it is possible to pick up an object or area in which you will be most comfortable with... read more

WCF Samples Updated Again.

We have updated the WCF Samples. Please see the changes below:

1. We have added support for the tab Code in the report designer.

2. We have made some changes in the Stimulsoft.Report.StiOptions.Silverlight.WCFService.WCFExportDocument event. The EventHandlers type was changed and a new Filter property was added in it. This property passes the type of an exported file for a task into the SaveFileDialog.

Please download the updated samples here.
These new samples will work in the prerelease build of Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight. The prerelease build will be available on November, 10. It can be downloaded here.

Silverlight 5 support in Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight.

Our company is pleased to announce support for Silverlight 5 in the reporting tool Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight. It should be noted that for the convenience of users, our developers have divided it into 2 editions: with support for Silverlight 4 and with support for Silverlight 5. The reason of it is very simple - we want to preserve the ability of users to run the report generator under Silverlight 4, as well as under Silverlight 5.

Start using Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight under Silverlight 5 right now! This feature was added in a weekly prerelease build of January, 27 2012. To download product builds, please visit the webpage Download on our website, the section Prerelease Builds.

Among the most requested enhancements was the possibility of printing Postscript vector printing in Silverlight 5, which reduces the size of print jobs, and improve the quality of text rendering. We would like to go into detail on it and give some recommendations in this regard.

In Silverlight 5 a new very important feature became available. This is vector printing. For working with this you need to have a printer that supports PostScript and drivers installed that support this PostScript.

We have tested a new vector printing in Silverlight 5. For testing we used various printers but in the example below we wrote about the printer HP LaserJet M1522nf.

Download the driver HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PostScript, the printer appeared in the list (see an image below)

After reading articles from Microsoft, it became clear that if, after installing, the printer name does not end at the "PS" it does not support PostScript, so you should look for another driver .

The first test we conducted opening the report SimpleList.mrt (3 pages. This report can be found in the standard delivery of the product Stimulsoft Reports.SIlverlight). See an image below.

The result shows that when printing this report in the standard mode (not vector printing) the file size was about ~129 MB, which is pretty much for three pages.

When printing the report in the vector mode the file size was 10MB, which is ~13 times less than if we use the previous method (standard printing).

The second test was with the report Anchors.mrt (71 pages. This report can be found in the standard delivery of the product Stimulsoft Reports.SIlverlight). See an image below.

From test results we see that in the vector printing mode the file size was 239MB, which is certainly too much, but, nevertheless, using the standard printing mode the file size reached ~3.86 GB in 62 pages. When it reached that amount the error occurred due to lack of memory and printing process failed. Respectively, according to results, the size of the result file was approximately about 16 times less.

Summarizing this information we can say that now, using Silverlight 5, it became possible to print big reports.

If you are using our Silverlight 5 assembly and the viewer does not print report applying PostScript please do the following:

1. Check if your printer does support PostScript. 2. Is the proper driver installed for your printer (the default driver is always without support for PostScript).

It is very easy to check whether you have the correct driver is installed: the printer name ends in "PS" (for example: HP Universal Printing PS).

Perhaps, there are other specific printer settings. Contact the manufacturer of your printer for getting help.

Applying Feng Shui.

What is the labor productivity? Labor productivity is equal to the ratio between a volume measure of output and a measure or input use. This will tell you any economics textbook. You'll even find a smart formula. But this is the naked assertion, indicating absolutely nothing. The main element of the productivity is entirely different - it is harmony. Yes, this is harmony! And it makes no difference what you and your organization is occupied with... read more

Why Stimulsoft Reports? Part 2.

Stimulsoft Company not only produces report generators, it really understands them. The thing is that the company is not engaged in the development of many products and not trying to earn money for everything that is possible - only reporting and what is everything connected with it. Of course, for many years in this area, the developers of the company are real experts. We know everything about reports. These are not mere buzzwords - it's a global experience. At this moment, the company knows all the pitfalls of this turbulent flow! And it's really turbulent, because many companies have already sunk, like a decrepit boat. The fact speaks for itself; Stimulsoft Reports is not just keeping its head above water but is one of the leaders the regatta... read more

Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC Coming Soon.

Our company continues to expand the list of supported technologies and is pleased to announce very soon the product Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC will be released. The name of the product speaks for itself. This reporting tool is designed to work with MVC - one of the most requested design patterns. The pattern is based on the concept of shared responsibility between the components of a software system.

Our product will include Ajax and Flash report viewers, Flash designer and a standalone designer. To work correctly with the report generator you need to install MVC Framework 2.0 and higher.

The official release of the software is scheduled for February 2012. Follow the announcement news on our site, as well as twitter and facebook.

Why Stimulsoft Reports? Part 1.

A man's life consists of daily alternatives: what to wear, where to go, how to enjoy. Our choice is always grounded. We always have our own reasons and motivations. We choose the clothes that suit us, the food which corresponds to our notion of taste, the surrounding objects - from the conditions of total comfort... read more

Report Parameters and Drill-Down Reports with Chart. New Video Tutorials Added.

It is not always enough for users to just read technical documentation for the program. Sometimes it is better repeat exactly what is shown on a video than read carefully between lines and understand what the technical writer had in mind and what were his thoughts when writing the user manual.

That is why our company pays serious attention to the section Video and continually replenishes it with the most popular fresh movies. This year we have added several new lessons on working with Parameters and interaction of the Chart component. Go to the Video Section of our site and watch videos, showing these features in detail. Each video clip has a short step-by-step description of what is happening on the screen. You will be pleasantly surprised at how you can speed up the creation of reports.