Two Simple Workarounds for the ReportViewer Problems

• Download source - 81.5 KB
• Download demo project - 66.7 KB

Introduction

In an application containing the ReportViewer control, I have had the following two problems:

1. When the ReportViewer is rendering, trying to close the Parent Form of the ReportViewer may cause the application to crash.
2. There is no straight way to copy the report data to the Clipboard.

Description

Rendering Problem

If there are many pages in a report, it takes a few seconds to render. In this case, if the user wants to cancel report rendering and closes the Form containing the ReportViewer control, the application will crash. To solve this problem, I used the RenderingBegin and RenderingComplete events of the ReportViewer and the FormClosing event of the Parent Form.

To see how the problem occurred, consider the included source files. After running the project, there are nineteen pages in the report. (32 pages in the print layout mode). By clicking the 'Print Layout' button, the report begins rendering. While the report is rendering, if the user closes the Parent Form, the application will crash (if we comment added event handlers).

Copy to the Clipboard

In a report, there is no straight way to copy the report data to the Clipboard. The only way that is available is using the Hyperlink event of the ReportViewer control (There is a related article by Teo Lachev at this link). To do this, we should set some attributes at design time:

• Suppose that there is a 'table' item on the report file. Select each TextBox from the 'Table Details' row.

• Go to the Properties -> Navigation -> 'Hyperlink action' -> 'Jump to URL'.

• In the following ComboBox, write '= "NoLink:" & Fields!FieldName.Value'. (Replace FieldName with the name of field.)

Using the Code

For the rendering problem, a variable named IsRendering is defined. In the RenderingBegin, we set IsRendering = false. While report is rendering, it prevents closing the form by user. The code is as below:

<summary></summary>
bool IsRendering = false;

<summary>// It cancels the FormClosing while the ReportViewer is rendering.</summary>
private void ReportForm_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
    if (IsRendering) e.Cancel = true;
}

<summary>// When rendering begins it sets IsRendering = true.</summary>
private void reportViewer1_RenderingBegin(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
    IsRendering = true;
}

<summary>// When rendering is completed, it sets IsRendering = false.</summary>
private void reportViewer1_RenderingComplete(object sender,
                                        RenderingCompleteEventArgs e)
{
    IsRendering = false;
}

For the copy problem, after setting the required attributes at design time, we write the below code in the reportViewer1_Hyperlink event handler:

<summary>// Copy the report data to the Clipboard.</summary>
private void reportViewer1_Hyperlink(object sender, HyperlinkEventArgs e)
{
    Uri uri = new Uri(e.Hyperlink);
    if (uri.Scheme.ToLower() == "nolink")
    {
        e.Cancel = true;
        Clipboard.Clear();
        Clipboard.SetText(uri.AbsolutePath);
    }
}

History

• 3^rd January, 2007: Initial version

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it, but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt, please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here.