List & Label Reporting Blog

Introducing Adjacent Crosstabs for Multi-Dimensional Data Analysis

Introducing Adjacent Crosstabs for Multi-Dimensional Data Analysis

ByJochen BartlauMar 5, 20242 min read
Crosstabs are a very popular object within the List & Label Designer, that’s why we’re continuously adding enhancements to this important features. So far though, despite all added extensions, crosstabs have ultimately been a simple grouping in two dimensions. From version 29 on, they’ll become more dimensional.
Scripting Support in Functions

Scripting Support in Functions

ByJochen BartlauOct 7, 20152 min read
List & Label has a very powerful formula language. Most manipulations one could think of are possible out of the box or can be realized by using a user defined designer function. However, the latter requires you as a developer to think of the need before deploying your application. In LL21, we'll introduce a new feature that allows to use C# or scripting host languages like VBScript directly in the function wizard.
AutoRecover for the Designer

AutoRecover for the Designer

ByJochen BartlauSep 30, 20151 min read
In List & Label 21 the Designer optionally saves the current project to a backup location. If the Designer is not closed properly (i.e. system crash, unexpected shutdown or even power outage) you can easily restore the last state and don't lose hours but rather minutes of work.
dummy-img

New and Overhauled Data Providers

ByJochen BartlauSep 23, 20151 min read
The ObjectDataProvider is one of the key providers we ship with LL. It binds to generic lists just as well as to EntityFramework or other Object Relational Mapper data. It is also the final fallback for all datasources that cannot be handled by one of the other providers. In LL21, the provider got a couple of new features for the .NET 4.0 assembly.
Consolidating Syntax Errors in One Tool Window

Consolidating Syntax Errors in One Tool Window

ByJochen BartlauSep 16, 20151 min read
One of the most frequently requested features via our feedback portal and a feature we were thinking of for quite a while. Before, if a project contained syntax errors (e.g. it had typos or you renamed a field in the data source) you got a massive dialog containing the source of the error, however no easy way to fix it from there. Additionally, this dialog popped up for each and every error so most of you will probably just have clicked the "OK for all" button and started to investigate manually. This was a time consuming, tedious task which often ended up in opening and closing the designer until all errors were fixed.
Thumbnail View for the HTML5 Viewer

Thumbnail View for the HTML5 Viewer

ByJochen BartlauSep 9, 20151 min read
HTML5 is one of our reference formats for web reporting applications. We also use it as the premier format in our combit Report Server. In LL20, we had first introduced this viewer. In LL21, it will get a brand new thumbnail bar, making navigation even easier.
web report designer loading

New Web Designer

ByJochen BartlauSep 2, 20151 min read
Until version 21, we used browser specific plug-ins or ActiveX controls in order to display the Designer right in the browser. However, browser vendors are more and more restrictive and begin to ban plugins from their browsers altogether. Thus, it was time for a new technology.
multiselect drag and drop

Enhanced Drag & Drop Experience

ByJochen BartlauAug 26, 20152 min read
For years, our drag & drop support consisted of "well, you can drag one field into an existing table". If you needed multiple fields – repeat. Creating a table via Drag & Drop? No way. Creating a sub table? Don't even think of it. All this will change thoroughly with LL21.
End User Friendly Conditional Formatting

End User Friendly Conditional Formatting

ByJochen BartlauAug 12, 20153 min read
This is one of the major new features of LL21. Conditional Formatting is needed whenever you want to change properties depending on data, e.g. something like "red font if value is negative" or "highlight the background if value is greater than threshold". This allows to read a report at a glance and quickly get an overview of what areas of your data require a second look.
Lightning Fast Aggregations for .NET

Lightning Fast Aggregations for .NET

ByJochen BartlauJul 28, 20152 min read
Aggregation within reports is a hot topic. While it is very convenient to just aggregate what you see it can become very expensive if huge amounts of data are involved. Think of sales statistics for your products – you don't really want to iterate through all order details in order to just get the total sales for your article. This is a task databases are optimized for.
example for nested tables

Support for Nested Tables

ByJochen BartlauJul 15, 20152 min read
One of the few requests that kept coming in was "Can we have the detail data in a column of the master table". While there are a couple of workarounds in version 20 that do similar things, the actual request could not be fulfilled this way. Plus, the workarounds were not as discoverable as we would have loved them to be as they included negative indents for line definitions and educated guesses on the number of detail records that are likely to be printed.This is going to change in version 21 – List & Label is going to support a new field type "table" which enables you to nest tables.