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RDLC migration examples

Two reports, converted with tagua import and rendered as they are, step by step. We wrote them for this page, with the patterns real RDLC reports are full of; the company in them is made up. Download each .rdlc to try the conversion yourself, and see the migration guide for everything else.

A sales invoice

Section titled “A sales invoice”

SalesInvoice.rdlc prints one invoice per page, from one dataset with a row per invoice line. Reports designed for Dynamics NAV and Business Central are built like this, and it shows what such reports need:

  • Values in the page header. An RDLC page header cannot read fields, so a hidden text box in the invoice’s group row joins the customer’s name, address, invoice number and date, and each header text box picks one: =Choose(3, Split(CStr(ReportItems!HeaderValues.Value), Chr(177))).
  • Formats from the data. The amounts’ Format is =Fields!AmountFormat.Value, the format each invoice’s currency needs.
  • A flag. The unit price column hides where =IIF(Fields!ShowUnitPrice.Value = True, False, True), and the field has no declared type.
  • A logo from the data. The company picture is a field, shown with =Convert.ToBase64String(First(Fields!CompanyPicture.Value, "DataSet_Result")).
  • The user’s name. The footer prints ="Printed by " & User!UserID.
Terminal
$ tagua import SalesInvoice.rdlc
SalesInvoice.report.yaml: converted.
Nothing to review.
3 note(s):
  - DataSet 'DataSet_Result', field 'ShowUnitPrice': No type is declared; it is read as boolean, from how the report uses it.
  - DataSet 'DataSet_Result', field 'CompanyPicture': No type is declared; it is read as bytes, from how the report uses it.
  - Parameter 'UserID': User!UserID reads this parameter: pass the user's name in the report's parameters (it is empty otherwise).

Nothing to review. The notes are what your application supplies: ShowUnitPrice is read as a boolean and CompanyPicture as bytes, the types the report uses them as, and the user’s name is a parameter, UserID. In the template, the page header reads the page’s first row directly, so the hidden text box and its Split are gone: Invoice {Format(DocumentNo)}. The amounts are {Format(LineAmount, AmountFormat)}, and the unit prices show where ShowUnitPrice is true, as in RDLC.

The converted template, SalesInvoice.report.yaml
# Converted from SalesInvoice.rdlc by Tagua.Import.
version: 1
title: SalesInvoice
culture: en-US


page: { size: A4, margins: 56.69pt }


parameters:
  UserID: { type: string, label: User, default: "=''" }


data:
  DataSet_Result:
    fields:
      DocumentNo: string
      CustomerName: string
      CustomerAddress: string
      DocumentDate: dateTime
      Description: string
      Quantity: decimal
      UnitPrice: decimal
      LineAmount: decimal
      AmountFormat: string
      ShowUnitPrice: boolean
      CompanyPicture: bytes


styles:
  default: { font: Arial, fontSize: 10pt }


body:
  dataset: DataSet_Result
  sort: [DocumentNo]
  pageHeader:
    - layout: absolute
      height: 113.39pt
      content:
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 0pt
          width: 255.12pt
          value: Sales Invoice
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 16pt
          fontWeight: bold
        - type: image
          x: 311.81pt
          y: 0pt
          width: 170.08pt
          height: 51.02pt
          source: "{First(CompanyPicture, 'DataSet_Result')}"
          fit: contain
          tag: artifact
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 31.18pt
          width: 255.12pt
          value: "Invoice {Format(DocumentNo)}"
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          fontWeight: bold
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 48.19pt
          width: 255.12pt
          value: "Date: {Format(Format(DocumentDate, 'd'))}"
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 70.87pt
          width: 255.12pt
          value: "{Format(CustomerName)}"
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          fontWeight: bold
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 87.87pt
          width: 255.12pt
          value: "{Format(CustomerAddress)}"
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
  groups:
    - name: document
      by: DocumentNo
      pageBreak: between
      header:
        - layout: row
          minHeight: 2.83pt
          visible: "=false"
          content:
            - type: text
              value: "{First(CustomerName) + '±' + First(CustomerAddress) + '±' + First(DocumentNo) + '±' + Format(First(DocumentDate), 'd')}"
              width: 481.89pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
        - layout: row
          minHeight: 19.84pt
          content:
            - type: text
              value: Description
              width: 226.77pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
            - type: text
              value: Quantity
              width: 70.87pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
              align: right
            - type: text
              value: Unit price
              width: 85.04pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
              align: right
              visible: "=!(First(ShowUnitPrice) == true ? false : true)"
            - type: text
              value: Amount
              width: 99.21pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
              align: right
      footer:
        - layout: row
          minHeight: 19.84pt
          content:
            - type: text
              value: Total
              width: 382.68pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
            - type: text
              value: "{Format(Sum(LineAmount), First(AmountFormat))}"
              width: 99.21pt
              padding: 2pt
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
              align: right
  detail:
    - layout: row
      minHeight: 17.01pt
      content:
        - { type: text, value: "{Description}", width: 226.77pt, padding: 2pt, font: Arial, fontSize: 9pt }
        - type: text
          value: "{Quantity}"
          width: 70.87pt
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          align: right
        - type: text
          value: "{Format(UnitPrice, AmountFormat)}"
          width: 85.04pt
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          align: right
          visible: "=!(ShowUnitPrice == true ? false : true)"
        - type: text
          value: "{Format(LineAmount, AmountFormat)}"
          width: 99.21pt
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          align: right
  pageFooter:
    - layout: absolute
      height: 28.35pt
      content:
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 5.67pt
          width: 255.12pt
          value: "Printed by {UserID}"
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          color: "#696969"
        - type: text
          x: 311.81pt
          y: 5.67pt
          width: 170.08pt
          value: "Page {PageNumber} of {TotalPages}"
          padding: 2pt
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 9pt
          color: "#696969"
          align: right

Render it from your application, with the rows the report always had and the user’s name:

var template = TemplateLoader.LoadFile("SalesInvoice.report.yaml");
var report = CompiledReport.Compile(template);
var lines = DataSources.FromDataReader(ct => command.ExecuteReaderAsync(ct));
var inputs = new ReportInputs
{
    Parameters = new Dictionary<string, object?> { ["UserID"] = user.Name },
    Data = new Dictionary<string, IDataSet> { ["DataSet_Result"] = lines },
};
await using var pdf = File.Create("invoices.pdf");
await Reports.RenderPdfAsync(report, inputs, pdf);
The first page of the converted invoice: the company logo, the invoice number, date and customer in the page header, the lines with quantities, unit prices and amounts, the total, and 'Printed by j.moreau' in the footer.

The PDF, both invoices.

A sales matrix

Section titled “A sales matrix”

SalesByQuarter.rdlc is a cross-tab of sales by region and quarter:

  • Row and column groups (regions down, quarters across), with a Total column and an All regions row.
  • A column beside the quarters with its own expression: Average, =Avg(Fields!Amount.Value).
  • Negative figures in red: the cells’ Color is =IIf(Sum(Fields!Amount.Value) < 0, "Red", "Black"), in the totals too.
  • A parameter in the title: ="Sales by region, " & Parameters!Year.Value.
Terminal
$ tagua import SalesByQuarter.rdlc
SalesByQuarter.report.yaml: converted.
Nothing to review.

It becomes a Tagua matrix: the average is a column beside the quarter group, and the colour a conditional style decided cell by cell, when: [ { if: "=Sum(Amount) < 0", color: "#FF0000" } ].

The converted template, SalesByQuarter.report.yaml
# Converted from SalesByQuarter.rdlc by Tagua.Import.
version: 1
title: SalesByQuarter
culture: en-GB


page: { size: A4, margins: 56.69pt 42.52pt 56.69pt 42.52pt }


parameters:
  Year: { type: int64, label: Year, default: "=2026" }


data:
  Sales:
    fields: { Region: string, Quarter: string, Amount: decimal }


styles:
  default: { font: Arial, fontSize: 10pt }
  salesByQuarterHeader:
    padding: 2pt 3pt 2pt 3pt
    border: "1pt solid #D3D3D3"
    font: Arial
    fontSize: 9pt
    fontWeight: bold
  salesByQuarterTotal:
    padding: 2pt 3pt 2pt 3pt
    border: "1pt solid #D3D3D3"
    font: Arial
    fontSize: 9pt
    fontWeight: bold


body:
  dataset: Sales
  reportHeader:
    - layout: absolute
      height: 25.51pt
      content:
        - type: text
          x: 0pt
          y: 0pt
          width: 311.81pt
          value: "Sales by region, {Year}"
          font: Arial
          fontSize: 14pt
          fontWeight: bold
    - padding: 8.5pt 0 0 0
      content:
        - type: matrix
          dataset: Sales
          sort: [Region, Quarter]
          rows:
            - group: "{Region}"
              header: Region
              total: All regions
              width: 99.21pt
              padding: 2pt 3pt 2pt 3pt
              border: "1pt solid #D3D3D3"
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
          columns:
            - group: "{Quarter}"
              total: Total
              beside:
                - header: Average
                  values: ["=Avg(Amount)"]
              padding: 2pt 3pt 2pt 3pt
              border: "1pt solid #D3D3D3"
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              fontWeight: bold
              align: right
          values:
            - value: "=Amount"
              format: N0
              padding: 2pt 3pt 2pt 3pt
              border: "1pt solid #D3D3D3"
              font: Arial
              fontSize: 9pt
              align: right
              when:
                - { if: "=Sum(Amount) < 0", color: "#FF0000" }
          columnWidth: 65.2pt
          headerStyle: salesByQuarterHeader
          totalStyle: salesByQuarterTotal
  detail: []
The converted matrix: sales for North, South and West by quarter, with Total and Average columns and an All regions row; South's second quarter, -1,200, is in red.

The PDF.