AdHoc Designer - Where to start examples not compiling

English Forum
1

I have a very big solution on VB.net I’m triying to add AD hoc report editor on it but I don’t know where to start. Is there any tutorial or resource?

2

You can have a look at the .NET documentation here: Use of the Ad-hoc Designer. This should be the fundamentals.
And of course also have a look at the installed ASP.NET samples in folder "…\Samples\Microsoft .NET\ASP.NET\C# Ad-hoc Designer Sample". It is C# and I’m not sure it will help you with VB.NET - but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

3

Hi thanks for your answer,
I’m currently triying to follow this tutorial but. I can’t find:

  • combit.ListLabel24.AdhocDesign.dll
  • combit.ListLabel24.AdhocDesign.Web.dll

on my machine. I’m thinking on coping the one on the sample project but it doesn’t seem nice.

4

Hi,
in the samples you could see the path of their used combit.ListLabel24.[].dll as reference path. But the .NET assemblies are installed in folder “…\Samples\Microsoft .NET\Assemblies”. They should be there?!

5

I was wondering what is the usual human time needed to include ad hoc report designer on a solution. I made an standalone MVC5 solution based on AdHoc Designer sample. And in 16 hours if work it still throwing unknown error. “Further details might be available in the server protocol.” Where I can find this info? I made my own solution as the example doesn’t compile I would like to try it to see if the solution is enough for our needs.

6

I created a new project. I followed steps 1,2, and 3 . report designer did not work. Then I decided to try the sample project. ISS showed errors on start. Then I tried to copy the contents of the example and I was able to execute the designer. But it gives this screen:

error image

What are the options needed to have it working?

7

Hi Adrian,

we will get in touch with you to clarify some details and to provide some further support. We are convinced to find a solution. Of course we will also present it here.

8

As previously stated, we will of course communicate the solution:

We examined the matter together in detail and found that the basic problem was that the example in question was executed directly as x64 variant (see Tools > Options > Web Projects > Use the 64bit version of IIS Express for web sites and projects) and apparently the NuGet packages of the sample were not completely restored or re-installed.

In fact, it is not possible to use it as x64 variant without further adjustments in the example itself, because it contains direct dependencies to x86 drivers. Specifically this is the access to the data source (MS Access database Northwind - Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB) and also the use of the SQLite database for the project files (repository). Of course the AdHoc Designer can also be used in an x64 environment. But then it is important for the whole process to change the other dependencies (NuGet, driver etc.) to x64:

  • So for the AdHoc Designer example the data source would have to be adapted in such a way that a 64bit provider is used like for example the SqlConnectionDataprovider:
public static IDataProvider GetOleDbProviderNorthwindDb()
{
            SqlConnectionStringBuilder connectionString = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();
            connectionString.DataSource = @"ToDo:SQLInstanceName";
            connectionString.InitialCatalog = "Northwind";
            connectionString.UserID = "ToDo:Username";
            connectionString.Password = "ToDo:Password";

            SqlConnection sqlConnection = new SqlConnection(connectionString.ToString());
            SqlConnectionDataProvider sqlData = new SqlConnectionDataProvider(sqlConnection);

            return sqlData;
            //return new OleDbConnectionDataProvider(new OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=|DataDirectory|nwind.mdb"));
}

The corresponding Northwind SQL database can then be obtained directly from Microsoft click here.

  • Additionally the NuGet Package System.Data.SQLite and its dependencies would have to be updated, because here the x86 as well as the x64 variant is contained. Only then the reports for the Adhoc Designer can be loaded from the repository (here SQLite database).
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