Step 1: Create a New Solution
1.
Launch Visual Studio 2010.
2.
Select File -> New Project… from the menu.
3.
Select the WPF Application template from the list of C# templates.
4.
Name the project AdventureWorks and click the OK button. The
MainWindow.xaml should appear in you designer. This is the form we'll use to
display the data in a grid and we'll drop a button on the form to display the
report.
Step 2: Displaying the data in a DataGrid control using
the Entity Framework
1.
Drag a DataGrid control from the toolbox to the main window. Resize the
grid so it is the width of the window and is at the top of the window.
2.
Now you need to add the Entity Framework data model. Right click on the
project file and select Add -> New Item…
3.
Click on the Data templates and select ADO.NET Entity Data Model. Name
the file AdventureWorksModel.edmx and click the Add button. The Entity Data
Model Wizard should appear.
4.
Select the "Generate from database" option and click the Next
button.
5.
The next screen asks you to choose your data connection. Click the New
Connection button.
6.
Enter the server name where you installed the AdventureWorks database. Select
"Use SQL Authentication" and enter the aspalliance user name and
password. You needed to create this user when you installed the AdventureWorks
database and give the user read access to the database.
7.
Select the AdventureWorks database from the drop down list and then
click the OK button.
8.
You should now be back to the Entity Data Model Wizard. Select the
option to include the sensitive information in the connection string and check
the box to save the connection string in the App.Config file. Click the Next
button.
9.
Expand the Tables node and check the box next to the Contact table name.
This will tell the wizard to create a class that represents the Contact table
that you will be able to query using LINQ.
10. Now
click the Finish button.
11. The
AdventureWorksModel.edmx model will appear in the Visual Studio designer. You
can close this file since we won't be changing it.
12. Double
click on the MainWindow to open the code pane. This will create the Window_Loaded
event handler.
13. Add
the following code to the event handler.
using (AdventureWorksEntities db = new AdventureWorksEntities())
{
dataGrid1.DataContext = from c in db.Contacts
select new { c.FirstName, c.LastName,
c.EmailAddress, c.Phone };
}This code will select all the records from the Contact table
and bind them to the DataGrid when the window is loaded.
14. Click
back to the design view. In the XAML window add the following attributes to the
DataGrid's tags.
AutoGenerateColumns="True" DataContext="{Binding}" ItemsSource="{Binding}" This will make the DataGrid
automatically create a column for each column returned from the LINQ query.
15. Run
the project. The DataGrid should appear with all the records.
Step 3: Create the Crystal Report
The next step is to create the Crystal Report that will
display the same data as the DataGrid. We'll create a report that can be bound
to the data by using the same LINQ query as the grid. To do this you need to
create and XSD file that contains the fields that are returned by the LINQ
query. This file is used by the Crystal Reports designer to allow you to
design the report.
1.
Right click on the project file and select AddàNew Item.
2.
Click the Data node from the list of templates and then select the
DataSet template.
3.
Change the name of the file to ContactSchema.xsd and click the Add
button.
4.
Right click on the design surface and select AddàData Table.
5.
Right click on the data table and select AddàColumn. Set the name of the column to FirstName.
6.
Repeat the same steps to create the LastName, EmailAddress, and Phone
columns.
7.
Save this file.
8.
Now you can add the report and link it to this schema file.
9.
Right click on the project and select Add -> New Item...
10. Click
on the Reporting templates and click the Crystal Reports template.
11. Change
the name of the report to ContactReport.rpt and click the Add button.
12. The
Crystal Reports Gallery will appear. Select the" As A Blank Report"
option and click the OK button.
13. The
report should appear in design mode. Right click on the Database Fields node
in the Field Explorer and select Database Expert. The Database Expert should
appear.
14. Click
the plus sign next to the Create New Connection node.
15. Click
the plus sign next to the ADO.NET (XML) node. This will display a dialog box
that allows you to select the ContactSchema.xsd file that you just created.
16. Click
the File Path button to browse to the xsd file.
17. Click
the Finish button.
18. The
DataTable1 node will appear. Click the > button to move this node to the
Selected Tables list.
19. Click
the OK button.
20. The
DataTable1 node will appear under the Database Fields node in the Field
Explorer window. Click the plus sign next to the table name to view the
fields.
21. Drag
each field to the details section in the Crystal Report file.
22. Save
the report.
23. When
the program is compiled the executable will be copied to the bin folder. You
need to make sure that the report file is copied there as well. To do this right
click on the ContactReport.rpt file and click on Properties. Change the "Copy
To Output Directory" to "Copy Always".
Step 4: Displaying the data in a Crystal Report
The next step will create a new window with the Crystal
Reports Viewer control and then we'll add a button to the MainWindow to display
the report.
1.
Right click on the project file and select AddàWindow.
2.
Change the name of the file to PrintPreview.xaml and click the Add
button.
3.
Drag the CrystalReportsViewer control from the toolbox to the form. If
the control is not listed in the toolbox you can right click on a blank space
in the toolbox and select Choose Items… Check the box next to the
CrystalReportsViewer control on the WPF Components tab and click the OK button.
4.
Stretch the window and the control so the user can see at least the
width of the report.
5.
Double click on the window so the Window_Loaded event handler is created
and the code pane is displayed. Add the following using statements.
using CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine;
using CrystalDecisions.Shared;
6.
Now add the following code to the Window_Loaded event handler.
ReportDocument report = new ReportDocument();
report.Load("ContactReport.rpt");
using (AdventureWorksEntities db = new AdventureWorksEntities())
{
report.SetDataSource(from c in db.Contacts
select new { c.FirstName, c.LastName,
c.EmailAddress, c.Phone });
}
crystalReportsViewer1.ViewerCore.ReportSource = report;
7.
The next step is to add a button to the MainWindow and add the code to
the button click event to show this form. Open the MainWindow in the designer
and drag a Button control under the DataGrid control on the form.
8.
Change the content of the button to Print Preview.
9.
Double click on the button to create the click event handler.
10. Add
the following code to the event handler.
PrintPreview pp = new PrintPreview();
pp.ShowDialog();
11. Now
run the application. You should get a compile error.
Error 6 The tag 'CrystalReportsViewer' does not exist in XML namespace
'clr-
namespace:SAPBusinessObjects.WPF.Viewer;assembly=SAPBusinessObjects.WPF.Viewer'.
Line 6 Position 10
To resolve this error you need to go to the properties of
the project and set the Target Framework to .NET Framework 4 not the .NET
Framework 4 Client Profile. I'm not sure if this is a bug in the Beta version
so hopefully you won't have to do this when the production copy is released.
12. Run
the project again. You should see the grid populated with the data from the
Contacts table. Now click the Print Preview button. You're going to get another
error.
13. You
have to change a setting in your app.config file to fix this problem.
<startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
</startup>
Now run the application again and click the print preview
button. You should see the report this time.
