Why You Should Migrate from C1Report to FlexReport
If you’re using ComponentOne Studio Reports for WinForms (C1Report) you'll love the enhanced FlexReport!
FlexReport is an improved C1Report, empowering .NET developers to solve complex problems for their application’s business needs. With ComponentOne’s 2018v2 release, FlexReport offers advanced reporting features. FlexReport’s architecture is built on top of C1Report, so you will have the familiarity of using C1Report with several additional advantages. FlexReport code has been written from scratch; as a result, you will find the following breaking changes in the API on migrating from C1Report to FlexReport.
GrapeCity now encourages C1Report users to migrate their reports to FlexReport, as C1Report has been marked for obsolescence with the 2018v2 release.
Top 5 reasons to migrate from C1Report to FlexReport
- FlexReport is two times faster than C1Report.
- The new and revised architecture of FlexReport helps in supporting common layout features, such as paginating two subreports side-by-side etc.
- FlexReport Object model is similar to C1Report, so most simple code working against C1Report will work in FlexReport.
- FlexReport offers new features like paragraph field, sorting, calculated fields, and adding multiple data sources. Parameters are much easier to add and edit. Add fields and design your report easily with snaplines, captions, sections -- it’s all in a designer, so you don’t have to code any of it.
- FlexReport is a cross-platform solution. It does not rely on WinForms/GDI+. Instead, the new engine's rendering is based on DirectX/DirectWrite, and should be relatively easy to port to XAML/UWP platforms and renders better on these platforms. FlexReport is available in Winforms, WPF, and UWP platforms.
FlexReport performance improvements
Check out this article where we conduct interviews with FlexReport's Product Manager, Program Manager, and Software Development Manager.
We've tested FlexReport alongside C1Report on a number of standard use-cases to demonstrate the performance improvement. Learn more about FlexReport and compare its performance with C1Report.
This table provides a FlexReport and C1Report feature comparison:
| S.No | Feature | C1Report | C1FlexReport |
| 1 | Data Binding | ||
| 1.1 | OLEDB | Y | Y |
| 1.2 | SQL | Y | Y |
| 1.3 | XML | Y | Y |
| 1.4 | Unbound | Y | Y |
| 1.5 | CSV | Y | Y |
| 1.6 | Oracle | Y | Y |
| 1.7 | PostgreSQL | Y | Y |
| 1.8 | Stored Procedures | Y | Y |
| 2 | Data Manipulation | ||
| 2.1 | Add Parameter Dialog in Designer | N | Y |
| 2.2 | Sub Reports | Y | Y |
| 2.3 | Side-by-side Subreports | N | Y |
| 2.4 | Calculated Fields | Y | Y |
| 2.5 | Columnar Reports | Y | Y |
| 2.6 | Summary Fields | N | Y (Calculated Fields) |
| 2.7 | Localization | Y | Y |
| 2.8 | Report Events | Y | Y |
| 2.9 | Custom Controls | Y | Y |
| 3 | Designer Features | ||
| 3.1 | Designer Layout buttons | ||
| 3.11 | Snap Lines | N | Y |
| 3.12 |
Snap To Grid |
Y | Y |
| 3.13 | HideGrid | Y | Y |
| 3.14 | Zoom Slider | Y | Y |
| 3.2 | Designer Toolbar | ||
| 3.21 | Text Formatting options | Y | Y |
| 3.3 | Report Settings | ||
| 3.31 | Page Setup (Design time) | Y | Y |
| 4 | Report Controls | ||
| 4.1 | ReportInfo | Y | Y |
| 4.2 | Label |
Y (via standard unbound field) |
Y |
| 4.3 | Line | Y | Y |
| 4.4 | PageBreak | Y | Y |
| 4.6 | Subreport | Y | Y |
| 4.7 | Shape |
Y (through properties) |
Y |
| 4.8 | Picture | Y | Y |
| 4.9 | RichTextBox | Y | Y |
| 4.10 | ChartControl | Y | Y |
| 4.11 | Textbox | Y | Y |
| 4.12 | Barcodes | Y | Y |
| 4.13 | Checkbox |
Y (through property) |
Y |
| 4.14 | Map | Y | Y |
| 4.15 | Gradient Field | Y | Y |
| 4.16 | Paragraph Field | N | Y |
| 5 | Scripting - C#, VB, JScript | VBScript | VBScript |
| 6 | Interactivity | ||
| 6.1 | Jump within report | N | Y |
| 6.2 | Sorting (runtime) | N | Y |
| 6.3 | Sorting settings through designer | Y | Y |
| 6.4 | Filtering settings through designer | N | Y |
| 6.5 | Hyperlink | N | Y |
| 6.6 | Document Map | N | Y |
| 6.7 | Document Map settings through Designer | N | Y |
| 7 | Expressions | ||
| 7.1 | Aggregates | Y | Y |
| 7.2 | Functions | Y | Y |
| 7.3 | Global Collections | Y | Y |
Ready to migrate from C1Report to FlexReport?
Follow these steps to migrate your C1Report-based reports to FlexReport.
Shilpa Sharma