Compose a report in Bold Reports® Web Report Designer

Bold Reports® Web Report Designer gives you the tools to compose RDL reports: the toolbar, properties panel, ruler, filters, sorting, grouping, report linking, expressions, and formatting. Each section below summarizes one feature and links to its detailed guide.

Toolbar

The Bold Reports® Web Report Designer toolbar contains icons and buttons for common report designing operations.

Properties panel

The properties panel in the Web Report Designer simplifies report setup and styling. You can customize the appearance of report items and edit their property values. You can specify static values or expressions as values in the report item properties.

To set and style report items, see Properties panel.

Ruler

The Ruler in the Web Report Designer helps you position report items accurately. It serves as a visual guide that helps you maintain a clean and well-organized layout throughout the design process.

To use the Ruler for precise alignment and layout management, see Ruler.

Page Margin

The Page Margin feature in the Web Report Designer provides a clear visual representation of the report’s margin areas. It helps you manage the layout and configure report-level properties with greater accuracy.

For more details, see Page Margin.

Property Navigator

The Property Navigator in the Web Report Designer displays the report structure in a hierarchical format. You can quickly locate and select report elements to configure their properties.

To locate and select report elements to configure their properties, see Property Navigator.

Report Explorer

The Report Explorer panel in the Web Report Designer offers an organized, hierarchical view of the report structure with quick navigation, selection states, and search capabilities.

To select report items directly from the panel, see Report Explorer.

Multi select report item properties

The Web Report Designer lets you edit common properties of multiple report items at once. Tablix items have styling options, such as applying formatting by selecting specific cells, rows, or columns.

To edit properties of multiple report items, see Report item multiselection.

Filtering

Filtering in the Web Report Designer adds filters to an embedded dataset or shared dataset, data regions, and data region groups, including detail groups.

To add or remove filters in a report, see Filter data.

Sorting

Sorting in the Web Report Designer adds sort expressions to chart category and series groups and pivot table groups. It controls the order in which data is displayed in a data region item of the report, either ascending or descending.

To control the order of the data, see Sort data.

Grouping

Grouping in the Web Report Designer displays data in a hierarchy view by organizing nested, adjacent, and recursive hierarchy groups. You can use a dataset field, an expression, or other values to group data.

To display data in a hierarchy view, see Group data.

Drill through reports

Drill through reports in the Web Report Designer use an action property that specifies the drill through report path. End users click a data value in the report to view related data in the child report. A separate child report can have detail or summary data. You can also add parameters to filter data based on user selection.

To specify the drill through report path, see Report linking.

Hyperlink options in the Web Report Designer set hyperlink actions on text boxes, images, charts, and tablix. The hyperlink can contain a data field, or a static or dynamic URL value expression.

To set hyperlink actions on text boxes, images, charts, and tablix, see Hyperlink.

Drilldown action

A drilldown action in the Web Report Designer creates an interactive report that lets users expand and collapse a tablix in the report.

To handle drilldown properties in the designer, see Drilldown action.

Expression builder

The Web Report Designer provides an expression builder to create simple and complex RDL expressions.

To create expressions in the expression builder, see Expressions.

Format data

The format option in the Web Report Designer represents data in various forms, including Numbers, Currency, Date, Time, Scientific, Percentage, and Custom formats.

To format data, see Format data.

Unit switcher

The unit switcher in the Web Report Designer switches the unit type in the report, converting from one unit type to another.

To switch the unit type in the report, see Unit switcher.

Code module

The code module in the Web Report Designer lets you embed custom code or custom assemblies in a report. You can also add references to custom code embedded in a report or generated with custom assemblies.

To add and handle custom code in a report, see Code module.

Background Image

The Background Image property in the Web Report Designer displays an image in the background of report sections such as Report, Header, Body, or Footer, or a report item such as a rectangle. The image source can be a URL, a dataset field, or an embedded image.

To add a background image to report sections and report items, see Background Image.

Multiple Column Report

A multiple column report in the Web Report Designer displays data in multiple sets of columns across the page.

To create a report that displays data in multiple columns, see Multiple Column Report.

Interactive Sorting

Interactive sorting in the Web Report Designer lets users toggle between ascending and descending order in the Report Viewer. You set interactive sorting on a textbox within a data region.

To enable the interactive sorting toggle in the column header, see Interactive sorting.

Document Map

A document map in the Web Report Designer is a navigation feature that displays a separate side pane with a set of navigation links in a hierarchical structure when you view a report. A user can click the content in the list to navigate to the report page that displays that item.

To configure navigation to the report page that displays an item, see Document Map.

Bookmark

Bookmarks in the Web Report Designer add links to specific report items, enabling navigation to different parts of the RDL report. The bookmark property value can be a custom string or an expression.

To add a bookmark link to navigate different parts of the RDL report, see Bookmark.

Layout Ordering

The layout ordering option in the Web Report Designer changes the layout order of report items on the design area surface.

To order the selected object over all other intersected objects on the designer surface, see Layout Ordering.

Report Variables

The report variables option in the Web Report Designer adds custom variables, which can be static text or expressions. Create report variables when a report design needs a value or calculation used many times.

To add custom variables to the report, see Report Variables.