Dotnet Report v5.5.0 Update: Release notes on what’s new!

What’s New In v5.5.0?

We are excited to introduce the latest release of dotnetreport, version 5.5.0, packed with powerful new features to enhance your reporting experience. This update brings a complete UI revamp with Bootstrap 5 integration, delivering a more intuitive and user-friendly interface. We’ve also added new theming options for personalization, optimized pivot reports for faster execution and accurate grouping, and introduced a smarter report builder that allows users to create reports effortlessly using natural language. Along with these enhancements, we’ve resolved several bugs to ensure a more stable and reliable platform for all users.

The Key New Features include

1. UI Revamp with Bootstrap 5 Integration
2. Enhanced Pivot Reports Execution with Precise Grouping
3. Beta Release of Smarter Report Builder in Dotnet Report

UI Revamp with Bootstrap 5 Integration

DotNetReport has transitioned from Bootstrap 4.0 to Bootstrap 5.0, bringing a fully revamped user interface.

Improved Report Builder UI Design: The report builder interface has undergone a major upgrade, utilizing Bootstrap 5 elements to create a more intuitive and modern user experience. The overall design is cleaner and ensures better navigation and interaction, enhancing usability across the platform.

User-Friendly Report Designer: Significant changes have been made to the report designer UI. These improvements are aimed at streamlining the report creation process, making it more user-friendly and accessible, even for non-technical users. The revamped UI now offers a more intuitive layout and enhanced visual elements to simplify complex tasks.

Optimized Data Selection: While choosing data for reports, the search and selection interface has been redesigned for quicker, more efficient data field selection.

Fixed Action Buttons: Action buttons within the report builder are now fixed, ensuring that users can always access them regardless of scrolling, improving usability and workflow.

This update brings a more polished, responsive, and user-centric experience for dotnetreport users

Before	After

Enhanced Pivot Reports Execution with Precise Grouping

The pivot functionality in Dotnetreport has been significantly improved by transitioning to SQL-based pivoting, resulting in quicker and more efficient report loading.

Key Enhancements:

Now, when pivoting data (e.g., pivoting customers from the Orders table and grouping by the Order Date), the system will correctly group data by the selected date format (such as Month), addressing a previous limitation where all data was displayed without proper grouping.

New Feature – Drilldown Date Format:

A new option to narrow down date formats has been introduced in the report builder:

1. Edit the report.
2. Navigate to field settings where the group functionality is applied.
3. When selecting the date format, an additional dropdown for drilldown date options appears, allowing you to choose from Date, Month, Year, or Month/Year.
4. The report data will be dynamically executed based on the selected drilldown date format.

This enhancement provides more control and flexibility over how data is grouped and presented in pivot reports.

Post-Report Execution UI Enhancements:

In addition to above feature, the following UI enhancements have also been implemented:

1. Click, hold, and drag a column to reposition it as needed.
2. Adjust the column size for easier viewing of larger data.

Grouping Limitation – Displaying All Data Without Applied Grouping

Drilldown Date format – Data with accurate grouping

Smarter Report Builder in Dotnet Report (Beta)

Currently, building a report requires the user to manually create reports by specifying table fields, pivoting different fields, and executing the report. To streamline the process and save time and effort, we have now introduced the Smarter Report Builder, a significant enhancement to the already intuitive report designer in Dotnet Report. This new feature streamlines the report creation process, allowing users to generate complex reports faster and more efficiently. 

Here are the key highlights of the Smarter Report Builder:

Natural Language Report Creation: Users can now simply type in text to generate reports. As you type, the system suggests fields and auto-completes the query based on your database structure. For example, typing “last” will automatically pull in relevant fields like

Employees (Table Name) > Last Name (Field Name)

Employees By Country (Table Name) > Last Name (Field Name)

Advanced Query Processing: The new Smarter Report Builder provides two processing options:

1. Process with Dotnet Report: This option uses Dotnet Report’s engine to process your query, display the report, and automatically generate the corresponding SQL query. You can edit, add fields, and further customize the report within the report designer using “Design/Save Report” button.
2. Process with ChatGPT: This option leverages AI to interpret and process natural language inputs, generating accurate SQL queries. While it skips the designer interface to save the report, it produces the same report result.

Design/Save Report

Process with Chatgpt

Seamless Integration with Report Designer: The Smarter Report Builder integrates with the existing report designer. You can switch between manual field selection or let the system auto-generate fields, offering flexibility for both novice and advanced users.

Chart Integration: Users can also visualize reports directly by generating charts such as bar charts, with the ability to adjust and resize charts easily.

Group and Aggregate Options: The Smarter Report Builder allows users to group reports by various date formats, such as grouping by month, and apply aggregates like sums or counts directly in the report.

Human Language Filtering: Thanks to AI, users can apply filters using human-readable text (e.g., “group by month” or “show orders for this month”), making it easier to refine report outputs.

For more information, please check out this demo | Click Here