At dotnet Report, we’re never done improving our amazing report builder, and enhance the way our customers learn, analyze, and interact with their data.
This one is a major release, with us bumping the version to 5.0.0 from 4.x.x!
What’s new in 5.0.0?
So what’s new, and why did we bump the major version? Take a closer look at all the details.
- Default installation switched to .NET 6
One of the main changes in the new version of dotnet report is how our installation nuget packages work and how the backend code is structured. These change were the main reasons to bump the major release version number from 4 to 5.
This was overdue for a while. We were still using the .NET core NuGet package to install in .NET 6 framework, and then make some code changes manually. Moreover, the default NuGet package installed MVC, and was confusing a lot of new users when they tried to install from scratch. Well, no more! The default NuGet package dotnetreport now installs for .NET 6. We have a separate new package for MVC, and the existing one for .NET core 3 is still there. And yes, were still supporting Web Forms as well.
- Code Restructuring
Some key changes in the code structure is that now, all the methods called by the front end are in a separate API controller, even for MVC. Before in the MVC version, the API calls were mixed in the views controller.
Another change is that the templates and includes are split out in partials instead of included in the layout file. This makes it easier to merge in to existing application files, including updating, as you don’t have to copy paste code from the layout page now. You can simply include the partial.
Finally, one more critical change which won’t really effect most users but is good to know about, is that how we have organized our open source code on GitHub. We have deprecated all the separate repositories for different versions of .NET, as it was getting harder to maintain.
- Dashboard Design Updates
In the latest version of dotnet report, we have made some great updates to the dashboard. The first thing of note is that the layout format has changed. It’s a lot cleaner without any header and footer panels.
Also the menu options have been moved to the dropdown menu next to the title. It has some of the same options as before, the new option includes an easy way to remove a report from the dashboard. But mainly it makes the design a lot more compact and cleaner.
One of the biggest change is how dashboard items resize. Before, the charts had a fixed minimum height, which made resizing awkward, and you always got a vertical scroll bar if the height wasn’t enough. However, now it adjusts the height much better automatically to fit the chart on resize.
- Updates to the Setup Page
We have made some useful improvements to the setup page in the latest version of dotnet report.
The first thing that’s new is that the setup page now uses pagination. So it doesn’t try to load or show all the tables and views in the database at once.
This is a practical addition, as before for users with a 100 or more tables in the database, the screen would become really slow or even crash.
Another addition to the setup page is the “Manage Access report” section.
This section gives you the same ability as the “Admin mode” on the report screen, but with a better interface to easily manage user access all from one place. It also lets you set client Id or remove it to make reports global, something that was not available in the front end before, and had to be done using backend code.
There’s more…
Besides the above key updates, the new version includes some other new features, as well as bug fixes, listed below:
- Search Reports – You can now search for reports in folders. This is a new option that was not available before.
- Filter Groups – Filter groups are visually organized better, showing lines for groups using css
- Edit Custom Fields – You now have the ability to edit custom fields as well. In the prior versions, users could create and use Custom Fields, however, to make any change, they needed to delete the custom field and create a new one.
Take advantage of dotnet Report Builder and skip the hassle of hard coding individual reports. Try out our latest version with a Free Trial now!
