Updating .NET products to version 2025.2

Meet the new release 2025.2  for supply options FastReport .NET: WinForms, WPF, Avalonia, Mono, WEB, Ultimate. Support is waiting for you in this update.NET 9, a library for executing scripts in C#, a plugin for importing documents from Word, a connector to Apache Ignite, improvements to the designer and exports, as well as new features in WebReport.

Don't miss the opportunity to update FastReport.NET and expand your capabilities!

Import of Word documents

The FastReport .NET Ultimate component set now includes a plug-in that allows you to import Microsoft Word (.docx) documents. When you open such a file, it is converted into a FastReport .NET report template (.frx).

Due to the large differences in formats, it is not always possible to completely match two documents. However, this plugin allows you to significantly reduce the time required to create a template based on an existing docx file.

At the moment our plugin does not support: background highlighting of part of a line, Shapes, as well as nested vector graphics Vector Markup Language (VML) and OLE objects. You can read about the peculiarities of import and how to connect the plugin in the article.

Read the article

.NET 9 Support

This platform improves application performance and adds many new features for your projects. There is more support in this update .NET 9 for:

• FastReport .NET,
• FastReport.Core,
• FastReport.Core.Skia,
• FastReport.WPF,
• FastReport.Avalonia,
• FastReport.Web,
• FastReport.Web.Skia,
• FastReport.Blazor.Wasm.

We have done away with binary serialization. BinaryFormatter caused a number of security issues and Microsoft in .NET 9 dropped its use. Our team has also removed the BinaryFormatter class from the source code. You can read more about it at this link.

Learn more

Report Designer Improvements

Also in this version, several useful features have been introduced to simplify work with reports.

In the Object Inspector, you can now quickly copy data from the list of object properties using the Ctrl + C hotkeys. This will help you easily transfer object properties between different parts of the document or even between different reports.

In addition, it is now possible to copy totals and parameters while preserving the nesting hierarchy. This means that when copying complex data structures, their original organization will be preserved, avoiding 

Connection to Apache Ignite

With this update, a new plugin has been added that greatly simplifies the process of working with Apache Ignite databases when creating reports. This plugin allows you to directly connect reports to the specified databases, providing convenient access to the necessary data for analysis and visualization. 

The Apache Ignite connector is implemented based on the .NET Thin Client Ignite.NET. It provides the ability to connect to Apache Ignite clusters, work with caches (including SQL tables) and process various types of data.

In addition, the connector supports connecting to one or more Apache Ignite nodes. Node addresses are specified in host:port format and separated by commas. Connection is possible with or without authentication (if authenticationEnabled is used in the configuration).

The connector supports working with caches created as key-value and SQL tables. For caches with QueryEntity metadata, operations of getting the list of fields and their data types are supported. Read more in the article.

Read the article

Improvements of the preview window

In OutlineControl we have added handy buttons with icons for minimizing and maximizing. These buttons were there before, but without icons.

In addition, properties have been added that allow you to change the width and height of the scrollbars in the preview window.

Export Improvements

Added export of number, currency, date, time and percent formats to OpenOffice Calc (.ods). 

This update also introduces a new paragraph export mode for OpenOffice Writer (.odt) format files. This makes it easier to edit generated documents and makes them more visually understandable to humans. The new export mode does not replace but complements the existing mode and extends its capabilities.  

In addition, an “Autosize width” option for MS Excel export has been added.

Will only work with certain values of text object properties: AutoWidth and AutoShrink properties are enabled; HorzAling property value is any except Justify.

Changes in WebReport

Search across the entire report

Added text search for the entire report, similar to the desktop version of the Viewer, if a word is found on another page, the viewer will automatically switch to it. Search is available in WebReport with FastReport.Core, in WebReport for Blazor Server and WebReport for Blazor Wasm. You can control the display of the search button by using the property: 

WebReport.Toolbar.ShowSearchButton = false;

The highlighting color of the words found can be changed using the property:

WebReport.Toolbar.SearchHighlight = Color.Red;




Improvements in caching configuration for WebReport

With the release of the new version, WebReport now has additional options for caching configuration.

First, you can now set individual caching parameters for each specific instance of WebReport. Previously, only general settings applied to all reports were available, which could be inconvenient, especially if you needed to keep certain reports in memory longer. With the webReport.CacheOptions property, you can customize the cache retention time for a specific report.

Secondly, there is more flexibility in setting the report cache retention time thanks to the AbsoluteExpirationDuration and AbsoluteExpiration options. Previously, only the CacheDuration option was used, which was based on a sliding principle: if the report was used for a given amount of time, the timer would reset and the report would remain in memory. This could result in a report never being removed from the cache. The new parameters allow you to specify the exact time when a report should be permanently deleted from the cache, regardless of its usage. In this case, CacheDuration and the new parameters AbsoluteExpiration and AbsoluteExpirationDuration can be used together.

 // Global settings for all WebReports
 services.AddFastReport(options =>
 {
 options.CacheOptions.CacheDuration = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10);
 options.CacheOptions.AbsoluteExpirationDuration = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(20);
 });
 
 // Individual WebReport settings, which take precedence
 webReport.CacheOptions = new WebReportCacheOptions()
 {
 CacheDuration = // ...,
 AbsoluteExpiration = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(30),
 // or
 AbsoluteExpirationDuration = // ...
 }; 

Updated demo web application on ASP .NET Core

We have updated our demo application to ASP.NET Core, so that the product pleases you not only with its functionality, but also with its appearance. The updated application is available at the link.

Online demo

Updated Online Designer Demo

In addition, we have updated the Online Designer demo application, where you can view more examples of our reports, export them, and try the updated online designer on them. The updated application is available at the link.

Try the demo

Support of FastScript .NET

Added ability to use FastScript .NET to run report scripts.

FastScript .NET is a library for running C# scripts. It does not depend on CodeDOM/Roslyn and can be used in environments where code generation is restrictedя (Native AOT, iOS, WASM). 

FastScript .NET is included in the following supply options FastReport .NET: WinForms, WPF, Avalonia, Mono, WEB, Ultimate.

To use FastScript .NET in the FastReport .NET:

• in your application, add the FastReport.Plugins.FastScript nuget package;
• run the following code before the first use of the Report class:

FastReport.Code.CodeProvider.DefaultProvider = typeof(FastReport.Code.FastScript.FastScriptCodeProvider);

Now, all the reports will utilise FastScript .NET to calculate expressions and run the report script.

FastScript .NET does not support VB.NET script language. The dynamic type is not supported too, some of "Advanced Matrix" functions will not work.

Detailed documentation on how to work with FastScript .NET is available at this link.

Online documentation

Full list of changes

[Engine]
+ added new scripting engine - FastScript .NET;
+ added support for vertical tabulation;
+ added import of DOCX files to FRX report template;
+ added support of encoding for Chinese (simplified) language when converting RTF;
+ added the ability to disable integration with FastReport Cloud;
+ added GS1 Datamatrix barcode;
+ added the conversion of SkBitmap to a Bitmap and Image in FastReport.SkiaDrawing;
- fixed error with RichObject (zh-tw codepage);
- fixed a bug with simultaneous compilation of a report script when preparing reports in multiple threads;
- fixed a bug when printing an empty matrix;
- fixed bug when passing null value to a MS SQL query parameter;
- fixed errors when compiling libraries under .NET 9;
- fixed a bug leading to infinite loop when child band of "Page Header" or "Column Header" has "StartNewPage" property turned on;
- fixed a bug leading to System.ArgumentException when connecting to MySQL;
- fixed calculation of PrintableExpression of page;
- fixed a bug leading to System.NullReferenceException in the Report.GetParameterValue method;

[Designer]
+ added a possibility to copy data from the list of properties of an object using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C;
+ added the ability to copy totals and parameters, preserving their hierarchy;
* in the window for opening the report page, it is still possible to select only a *.frx file;
* in the Mono designer settings, the tab "Code page" with inaccessible settings was hidden;
* changed the logic of style processing for .rtf files when opened in the designer;
- fixed a bug where the image of PictureObject disappeared after canceling changes in the designer when editing a prepared page;
- fixed a bug with the search filter in the data tree that reset the current search state;
- removed the "New Dialog" context menu item in the Community version, which when selected resulted in an unhandled exception;
- fixed a bug when running preview from a designer;
- fixed System.InvalidOperationException when deleting a data source column when that column no longer exists in the database;
- fixed reading the GS1 DataMatrix barcode as a DataMatrix;
- fixed a bug with selecting layout of band columns in "Data Band Column Editor" window;
- fixed deleting objects and categories from the sidebar in the designer;
- fixed a bug with displaying icons that appeared in version AvaloniaUI 11.1;
- fixed deleting objects and categories from the sidebar in the designer;
- fixed a bug when adding IsNull function via "Text editor" added an extra comma;

[Preview]
+ added a button to send a report by email when using MAPI in a preview in WPF;
+ added collapse and expand buttons with icons in OutlineControl;
+ added the ability to change the width and height of the scroll bar through the code;
- fixed disabling the button to save the prepared report in the preview;
- fixed disabling the "Storage" tab in the report saving menu in the preview;
- fixed bug with "Advanced Matrix" when filters are missing;
- fixed a bug where the print form did not appear in the preview when pressing Ctrl + P;
- fixed a bug with incorrect paper size for printers without "Auto paper size" option, when clicking "Settings" and then "Advanced" buttons in "Print" window;

[Exports]
+ added export of "Author" property in export to PDF/A;
+ added support for HTML non-breaking space tag when exporting to Excel;
+ added export of number, currency, date, time, and percentage formats to OpenOffice Calc (.ods);
+ added "Shrink to fit" option for export to MS Excel;
+ added paragraph export mode in OpenOffice Writer export (.odt files)
* now, when exporting Pages with ExportAlias property to Excel, suffix "-n" will not be added to sheet name if it's possible;
- fixed a bug where the font name was exported without quotes to HTML;
- fixed a bug in FR.Core with some user fonts;
- fixed a bug in HTML-export when the barcode border was not displayed;
- fixed the error of opening files when exporting a report with special characters to ODT and ODS formats;
- fixed incorrect display and export of some unicode symbols in Skia/Avalonia;
- fixed export of TableObject fills to PDF;
- fixed export of TableObject and page fills to HTML;
- added export of height for the merged cells in Excel export;

[WebReport]
+ added WebReport search;
+ added WebReport WASM search;
+ added .NET 9 support for FastReport.Blazor.Wasm;
+ added the ability to create a connection to a stored procedures in WebReport;
+ added the ability to configure caching for a single WebReport using the WebReport.CacheOptions property;
- fixed an issue that made it impossible to change the DataConnection after it was created in OnlineDesigner;
- fixed converting of TextObject to SVG when preview in Blazor;
- fixed support for the Size of the CommandParameter;
- fixed rendering of page toggle buttons in Blazor when they are disabled;
- fixed a bug when the value of the RouteBasePath parameter was not taken into account when setting up WebReport;

[.NET Core]
+ added a filter for connection tables;
+ added a JsonConnectionType class for use in the JsonDataConnection.GetConnectionType method and GetConnectionType() and GetParameterType() methods;
- fixed a bug with encoding when connecting of CSV data file for report in .NET Core;

[Common]
* changed width of "About..." window;

[Extras]
+ added connection to Apache Ignite;

[Demos]
+ added UsedPackages.version file for WPF packs;
- fixed Avalonia and WPF name in demo.