Deciding on Report Generation Method
Because two ways of generating reports are available (using the C1Report component vs. importing the report into a C1PrintDocument), you may ask, "Which method is preferable?" Our recommendations are as follows:
• If any of the limitations of import (see Generating Reports (C1Report vs. C1PrintDocument) for a list of limitations) are critical to your application, use the C1Report component.
• If you are a user of a previous version of C1Report and are not familiar with the C1PrintDocument object model, you may still continue to use the C1Report component provided by C1Preview.
• If, on the other hand, you have some experience with C1PrintDocument, or are starting a new project, using import is the preferred approach, due to the following considerations:
o C1PrintDocument integration: when a report definition has been imported into a C1PrintDocument, the resulting document can be manipulated as any other C1PrintDocument. For example, user code can add content to the document body, modify document properties, and so on. Such changes will persist even when the document is refreshed.
o Some problems existing in C1Report are solved by import; specifically, in C1Report side-by-side objects cannot be correctly split between pages, and borders are not rendered correctly on objects split between pages. Neither of these problems exists when a report is imported into C1PrintDocument.
o Import is slightly more efficient both memory- and speed-wise.
o Future enhancements: it is likely that some future enhancements will affect only import.
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