My clients are trying to revive an ASP.NET 1.0 application (yes, you read that right) that generated data-driven Visio Gantt diagrams. I have access to the code (VB.NET), but there are no notes, comments, or documentation, and no employees from 2003 still around. Compounding the issue, I'm pretty new on the scene (ASP.NET 3.5+ only), so the project structure looks very foreign to me (.resx files?).
I've tried including Visio Interop libs with little success. I tried following this article , but when adding the MS Visio 12.0 type library reference to the project solution in VWD Express 2010, I get an error that reads, "A reference to "Microsoft Visio Viewer 12.0 Type Library" could not be added. Converting the type library to a .NET assembly failed. No process is associated with this object." I don't know what that means but I sense it'll be a huge headache to resolve.
At this point I'm stuck and considering porting this feature to more a current platform. Can anybody suggest anything?
Visio has an xml format (.vdx)
If you don't need Visio to help you with layout or connections, you might be able generate the xml files, then have your ASP app serve them up as consumable Visio files.
If you need Visio's Gantt-chart add-in features, or Visio's export to web or image features, then this might not be the way to go. But if you only need to place shapes on a page, set text and other data fields, and have a fairly simple layout and simple connecting lines, you should be able to go this route.
The last download link in this article is for a presentation on Visio and XML that I gave a while back:
http://www.visguy.com/2006/11/30/visio-and-xml-conference-resources/
You should not access the automation API of any Office program from ASP.NET or any other server environment. It is unsupported, will fail at random, and may cause you to violate the terms of your license with Microsoft.
Tell them "no". You'll be much happier.
Well, you may download and use Aspose.Diagram library. It works with Microsoft Visio files without the installation of Microsoft Office Visio. Developers can create, open and manipulate the elements of diagrams and export to many other supported file formats. Based on your scenario, you may get details from a database backend and then create Visio diagrams. It is achievable using Aspose.Diagram API. Please refer to the technical resources of Aspose.Diagram for .NET API.
I work as a Developer Evangelist at Aspose.
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May I know if there has something can help to create excel pivot table for ASP.NET? Thanks.
I heard there is a Office Web Component. Is it free and can it make pivot table?
Since we have some complex Excel vba file, we would migrate it into pure web based generated file.
OWC is deprecated. See Office Web Components Lifecycle which states the following:
The most important thing to be aware of is that the Office Web Components technology has been deprecated. This means that only security fixes are being made to all versions of OWC, and no future versions of OWC will be produced. If you are using OWC, you should begin migrating to a new technology as soon as possible. For more information, see the blog post "Office Web Components Roadmap".
Use Excel services instead. See Replacing OWC Reporting with Excel Services for more information.
If you need to generate Excel files on the server side you may consider using the Open XML SDK.
Does there exist a fast and light reporting system for projects in Visual Studio for projects in asp .net mvc? Crystal reports is too big and "heavy" and not a good choice for 200+ users who create a PDF report at once.
Thanks for your tips.
I like FastReport. But I just know the Delphi-Version and can't say how mature the .Net-Version is.
The Delphi-version is lightweight, easy to use but with it's scripting-possibilities very powerful.
So I think even the .Net-version should be worth a look.
Take a look into List Label (from combit), too! It has a different approach, a very good designer and direct vendor support. Distribution files are "lightweight" compared to other solutions.
Reporting services is free if you have an sql server license and if you run the reporting services server on the same db server. I consider it pretty lightweight and easy to use.
Try the ItextSharp or the nuget package
We used it's and it was fine!
DevXpress XtraReports allows you to design reports with a good designer then you use them as normal C# classes. I like it very much, you can create reports and export them to pdf file or stream on the server even with no UI at all then you can download the pdf from mvc or store it somewhere. I use it as much as I can.
There is a blog which details about using Active Reports to create reports in a MVC application. You can go through the blog here.
Active Reports is a very flexible and easy to use reporting tool,it is supported on Win Forms, Asp.net, SilverLight and supports data sources like Sql Server, My Sql, XML, Oledb etc.
I need to generate reports from database (billing forms for example) from ASP.NET interface. So I'm wondering which approach is better : Use Crystal Reports, reports based on RDLC or SQL Reporting Services ? I need to create an interface, which allows user to select data and through pre-created report definition generate that report. I want to use ASP.NET with AJAX, so it will act as a real application, but with no need for installation - and this is primary requirement.
So, if somebody knows which technology suits best those requirements...I will be grateful :)
Personally I would go for DevExpress XtraReports.
I have used it in the past in both windows forms and web forms; it costs few hundreds of bucks but with the package you also get plenty of other UI controls, or you spend less and only buy XtraReports. It pays off in a flash, main advantages in my opinion are:
each report can be designed with a Visual Studio integrated designer and becomes a simple c# class, easy to instantiate and use, no magic and no external report definitions, all pure 100% .NET code;
end user designed is royalty free and users are amazed by the power and quality of the designer, with Ribbon or classic UI, plenty of features;
so many out of the box zero coding ready to use features like print preview, export to excel, pdf etc...
Disclaimer: I do not work for DevExpress, I am not paid by them, simply I am a satisfied customer and used their products before with joy and good results, we are now in the process of starting a major MVC application development in my company and we are buying licenses of their DXperience Enterprise subscription these days.
you are free to also evaluate or test Crystal Reports or similar reporting solutions offered by ActiveReports, Telerik etc, I can only speak about XtraReports because I used it a lot, Crystal I used in the past with Visual Studio 2003 but I was not so impressed by the designer and deployment was really a mess in windows forms... always missing some files and having errors on client machines...
I would suggest taking a look at ActiveReports 6. It provides great features and allows you to make almost unlimited customization to your report. For ASP.NET you can either opt for the standard edition which allows you to custom export your reports to different formats like PDF, Excel etc and display them to the users.
The professional edition provides you a webviewer control which allows you to display reports directly on the viewer and the user has the option to chose from PDF, HTML and FlashViewer format. In addition to this it also provides a silverlight based viewer control.
You may also want to check the blogs and the forums just in case you want to get more information about the product.
Thanks,
Sankalp (GrapeCity)
Don't miss to take a look into List & Label, too.
We've done some good projects with it!
We use SQL Server Reporting services, it has a visual studio based designer, and it's free. The distribution is a little tricky - If your clients already have SQL Server installed, then there is a a good chance they will have the reporting framework installed. Otherwise you can get just about distribute the dll's with your application - although this takes a bit of digging.
I am looking for easy solution to convert documents from one format(doc, html, xls...) to pdf in ASP.NET.
Is the iTextSharp a good choise? Can iTextSharp convert documents from one format to pdf?
What library can your suggest me to use?
I've been using winnovative for all my PDF generation for the past few years:
http://www.winnovative-software.com/
Fair few good features, and simple to implement, if you don't mind paying for a license.
The default standard for this task should be Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Another option would be using Microsoft Office applications from ASP.NET with Automation, combined with a PDF Printer (you will need a copy of Microsoft Office installed on the server). There are many PDF printers outthere (Cute PDF for example), but if you can afford a commercial option I recommend Amyuni PDF Converter. There are samples of Word/Excel to PDF conversion using Office+Automation with this product.
I'm working as Developer Evangelist with Aspose. And I would like to share with you that you may try Aspose.Total for .NET product suite, which allows you to convert various file formats (DOC/DOCX/PPT/PPTX/XSL/HTML etc.) into PDF format. You may also select components of your choice. Complete samples, tutorials and support are also available for these components.
Please note that these components are standard .NET assemblies and you can use them either in ASP.NET or Windows Forms applications.
Give the Muhimbi PDF Converter Services a look. It installs in your environment as a scalable and robust Windows Service and has specifically been designed for use from server based applications such as ASP.NET.
It comes with a friendly web services based interface that allows it to be used from most modern environments such as Java and .NET. It supports all common as well as some not so common file formats. Watermarking and PDF Security is included as well. If you have SharePoint in your environment then a SharePoint optimised version is available as well.
Disclaimer, I have worked on this product so the usual disclaimers apply. Having said that, it works great.
I am completely new to ASP.NET programming, and was asked to work on a small project involving ASP.NET, VB (which I am new to as well) and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
Being used to php/java I was hoping to find some kind of similar API to php.net and the javadoc. It would be very useful to have as I would prefer to work with a text editor, instead of using DreamWeaver or Visual Web Developer.
In the project I basically only need to use ASP.NET to read from a SQL 2005 database and write to JSON files. Could anyone please give me some pointers on where to find a clean and decent API to work with? I would also appreciate any input and tips I could get to get started working on this.
I would prefer to work with a text editor, instead of using DreamWeaver or Visual Web Developer.
Imo this is a mistake in .Net. The platform was built with the IDE in mind. You really will be able to get a lot more done, and do it better, if you let yourself learn to use Visual Studio.
That said, the place to look for .Net documentation is, of course, the MSDN Library. Maybe start on this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w0x726c2.aspx
only need to use ASP.NET to read from a SQL 2005 database and write to JSON files
You might want to take a look at ASP.NET MVC.
You controllers can return a JsonReasult which will automatically result in JSON being sent. No need to define any markup.
"Could anyone please give me some
pointers on where to find a clean and
decent API to work with?"
If you want to develop a VB.NET application, you have to use the VB.NET programming language; there are no other APIs available.
Where does javadoc fit into this? That's just markup you apply to your source code to create documentation. .NET has its own system which works in the same way but is built on XML.
As Joel says, Visual Studio has everything you need. It features a visual editor but also gives you access to all the source code.
you will need to have the IDE to develop ASP.Net application. It will be much easier using it. You can find docs and articles on developing on ASP.Net in this site. its a nice one.
https://web.archive.org/web/20211027112438/https://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/default.aspx#Tools2
https://web.archive.org/web/20210513213529/http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/042705-1.aspx
https://web.archive.org/web/20210802161558/https://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/110905-1.aspx
work on a small project involving ASP.NET, VB (which I am new to as well) and Microsoft SQL Server 2005
It might not be VB, it might be VB.Net?