Passing variables to SubReports in Telerik Reporting

Anytime you have created a complex report with embedded sub-reports, you might have faced the need to pass a variable from data in the the master report to a sub-report. I have seen this problem solved various ways with differing degrees of unnecessary complexity.

The biggest mistake made in all the code I have seen, is to assume that one must pass the variable through existing mechanisms provided by the Telerik Report class. I think this reply from Steve @ Telerik sums it up best: "Telerik Reports are standard .NET classes so you can abstract yourself from the fact that you're working with reports and achieve your requirement". In other words, use .Net and standard OOP principals without relying on being spoon-fed every feature your project requires.

One of the more interesting solutions I have seen implemented was this one, which was probably not intended as a solution for passing parameters from reports to sub-reports, but which the developer managed to getting working anyhow.

Basically, the common approach people use is to pass the variable using the report parameters collection, which while not wrong, simply takes more code than is necessary.

I find that the most graceful solution is possible when does what Steve recommends and abstracts oneself from the fact that your're working with reports and remember that you're working with standard .Net classes. So what would you do if you needed to get a variable into a instantiated class. Well, you could give the class a property, but even then you have to instantiate the class, and then set the property. So the other solution is to add the variable as a parameter to the class constructor. "But when I create a report it provides the following code where there is not parameter for my variable!" ... I have been told. What developer was talking about was this constructor created when you add a Telerik Report to a C# project:


        public AccountAllocationsSub()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

True, that constructor has no parameters, but if you understand that you are just working with a standard .Net class, then there' reason you cant create your own constructor which takes the parameter you want to pass. Consider this constructor:


       public AccountAllocationsSub(int transactionKey)
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.sqlDataSource1.ConnectionString = SqlConnectionString;
            this.sqlDataSource1.Parameters["@TransactionKey"].Value = transactionKey;
            DataSource = sqlDataSource1;
        }

Now all you need to do is get the data from the master report when it's binding to the controls, and invoke your sub report with your custom constructor:


     private void TransactionGroupHeader_ItemDataBinding_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
     {
            Telerik.Reporting.Processing.GroupSection section =
                (sender as Telerik.Reporting.Processing.GroupSection);
            int transactionKey = 0;
            string strTransactionKey = section.DataObject["TransactionKey"].ToString();
            int.TryParse(strTransactionKey, out transactionKey);
            subReport1.ReportSource = new AccountAllocationsSub(transactionKey);
      }


The biggest advantage I have found using this method is that when I use the preview tab to preview the report, it will call the standard constructor, and I can have that constructor populate the report based on the properties I set for the data object at design time and nicely preview the report.

Then at run time when the report is called from the master report, it will use the variable parameter for the master report and the data the other constructor will set the data based on the variable from the master report.

With the solution developed previously by another developer on our team there was no way to preview the data on the report. In fact using the code from the sample he followed the data-source was specifically neutered unless one was viewing the report at runtime. This was the code in the standard ctor (which is called by the previewer):


public MyTelerikMasterReport()
{
// Required for Telerik Reporting designer support
InitializeComponent();
this.DataSource = null;
if (System.ComponentModel.LicenseManager.UsageMode ==
             System.ComponentModel.LicenseUsageMode.Runtime)
this.SqlDataSource1.ConnectionString = ...etc
}