Archive for the ‘ASP.Net’ Category

Your client wants the Moon? Give it to him.

Eugene Akinshin

То strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield! A really good message, but not when it comes to finding and working with software. To find, as it seems, perfect component and then to spend many hours on examining it – sounds not very good.

 

The solution is four components which can be easily integrated into each other. .Net ModelKit Suite is a package of .Net components: Report Sharp-Shooter, OLAP ModelKit, Instrumentation ModelKit and Chart ModelKit. At first sight, you might think that there are many similar components as Chart ModelKit for charts building, Report Sharp-Shooter for reports creation, Instrumentation ModelKit for gauges design and OLAP ModelKit for OLAP analysis. But, this is not exactly so.

 


All the components are developed specially for .Net. The .Net ModelKit Suite is not a pack of individual components, but an interconnected components framework. What does it mean? For example, you need to build a report. Using Report Sharp-Shooter you can create various reports of any complexity based on any .Net data sources. But, as it is proved, it is very hard to quickly analyze great amount of numeric data, some important tendencies or issues may be overlooked.

 

Things are getting much better when data are represented in the form of charts or diagrams or indicators. And this can be done with the help of Chart ModelKit and Instrumentation ModelKit. And here is something special – you can add charts and gauges to the reports, i.e. demonstrate your report data with visually appealing graphs or controls. Thus, you can develop one application capable of solving different data processing and visualization tasks.

 

And what about creating applications for real-time data monitoring or some over special processes tracking? Digital dashboard is a convenient solution of this problem. Just combine controls: sliders, thermometers, Meters and so on, and graphs on one form. And here you are: informative complex digital dashboard will show all the needed process in simple understandable manner. And the most beneficial issue is that you don’t need to spend many hours on examining each product functionality. All the components have the same work approach and similar management methods. And now let’s pass to the second important developer’s problem: what application the client would like. Not a secret that client may reject even the most advanced application. Why? It’s simple: “I don’t like how it looks”, he says.

 

Perpetuum Software specialists offer solution of this problem – new release of .Net ModelKit Suite 3.9.
.Net ModelKit Suite 3.9 was developed taking into account our experience in applications design. Perpetuum Software designers have examined great amount of information about up-to-date applications appearance and colors influence on visual comprehension. Their knowledge and skills find reflection in new collections of Chart ModelKit 3.9 charts and Instrumentation ModelKit 3.9 gauges. These new examples are designed in 10 various styles. Just imagine, now you can provide your client with a choice: How do you want to see your data? What colors do you prefer? 180 charts and 80 gauges in Bright, Glass, Blue, Green, Silver and other palettes is a really great set that can satisfy the most sophisticated client taste.

 

Availability of new collections for chart or gauge creation is good. But the ability to use all these sets in reports or digital dashboards is even better. The use of attractive charts in Report Sharp-Shooter 3.9 reports is a perfect mean to sort out the most important data. Digital dashboards created with Chart ModelKit 3.9 and Instrumentation ModelKit 3.9 will help you avoid the problem with harmonious combination of charts and gauges in one style. Your clients will like it, won’t they?

 

Perpetuum Software specialists also didn’t miss the improving of products functionality, in particular Report Sharp-Shooter 3.9 features. To give more freedom in realization of designer appearance, Perpetuum Software specialists made end user designer functionality public. Now, if you want to create custom designer, to change its appearance or to customize toolbox – you can do it! A very convenient feature since you can work with the designer which you get used to. Just create it yourself. At the same time, there won’t be any problems with the designer functionality. The whole standard designer functionality will be the same. The list of supported data sources was also extended. Now it is possible to use LINQ-to-SQL model as a data source.

 

And after all, a new version of the .Net ModelKit Suite includes a set of fixes increasing components productivity and flexibility. Nothing is perfect, but we did our best to make the .Net ModelKit Suite 3.9 perfect!

 

Evaluate .Net ModelKit Suite 3.9 and let your work bring you satisfaction!

February 18th, 2009

Free Pre-Sales support service provides qualified help in product evaluation.

Marketing Dept

Pre-Sales SupportLooking for powerful software capable of addressing your demands? But there are so many products and so little time to evaluate their functionality and create the needed project?

Perpetuum Software LLC Technical Team is ready to offer help in the creation of one report template, chart and gauge from scratch or redesign of existing, using Report Sharp-Shooter, Chart ModelKit and Instrumentation ModelKit.

Perpetuum Software offers to take advantage of a new service – Pre-Sales Support. Pre-Sales Support includes such benefits as:

Chart or Gauge design.
We can design a free template of chart or gauge that fully addresses your requirements.

Report template design.
We can create a free report template on the basis of your data and description.

Perpetuum Software hopes that this service will be very useful for developers who are using or used any competing software component and consider switching to any Perpetuum Software product.

Give us a chance to prove that our products are capable to solve your problem!

February 2nd, 2009

New Chart Collection for Any Application Design!

Marketing Dept

Perpetuum Software is glad to attract your attention to a new collection of charts and diagrams.

Why this collection is worth seeing and using?

Firstly, you will solve your problems with design and color representation of your charts. Graphs are created in 10 unique color styles like GlassBlue, Purple, Aqua, Bright colors and so on. Thus, you will be able to visualize your information in any tone which will be the most appealing to your client’s eye.

Secondly, this new collection can be used in any application design. They will perfectly blend any application appearance: no matter if it is created in light calm colors or bright cheerful ones.
Thirdly, it is very easy to implement a new set of charts in your projects. You just need to download the file which includes a new charts collection from the site (http://www.perpetuumsoft.com) and upload charts to the Chart ModelKit designer.

And last but not least advantage is the possibility to combine these new charts with instruments designed in the same styles and create a unique stunning digital dashboard. .Net Dashboard Suite package allows the use of new charts collection and new gauges collection in one application.

You can download a new charts and diagrams collection absolutely free!

January 13th, 2009

Do you think that you know how to deliver reports over the web? Think again!

Eugene Akinshin

So, I will start posting our existing articles, so that the blog contains complete list of Perpetuum articles at a single place for your convenience. Enjoy the article about web reporting right now.

Author: Eugene Akinshin, Ph.D., Chief Technical Evangelist for Perpetuum Software LLC

It’s amazing but although reports are the essential part of any business application, nowadays there is no simple, convenient, safe and universal way of distributing reports over the web.

I know that many developers don’t agree with this statement. Ok, let’s analyze the difference between client and web reporting solutions.

Today’s desktop applications provide representation of reports (as well as of any other print documents) on display that exactly corresponds to print output according to WYSIWYG concept. At the same time applications provide high reports interactivity starting from simple functions such as zoom, search, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and switch of preview mode to sophisticated scenarios specific for a particular application.

The only way to provide all these features in a web browser is to implement such software components as ActiveX or Java Applet into the page. The use of such solutions is inappropriate in most cases despite they are extremely functional, as they don’t address cross-platform requirements and don’t provide the necessary level of security, i.e. they are not true web applications.

All other approaches include conversion of the initial print report to some other format; it leads to the deformation of initial document.

Two solutions are wide spread and very often are used in tandem. They are representation of reports as HTML documents and conversion to one of the popular formats used to view print documents. Let’s analyze advantages and disadvantages of both solutions.

When you view complex reports via HTML, significant deformation of the previewed document is inevitable. Moreover, the format itself is not designed to represent print documents: one and the same document is displayed differently in different browsers. If the font used in the report is not installed on the user computer or when the installed font differs from the one on the server, then you should just forget about visual equivalence of the documents. Unavailability of support for vector graphic makes it necessary to convert any design element to bitmap image (except for the vertical and horizontal lines emulated by the rectangle borders). It results in large volumes of information passed through the net and low print quality.

Though report viewers provide virtually all standard features, they are far from being perfect. For example, when you zoom in\out document, additional request to the server is executed and the document is rendered from scratch for a new size. It causes significant delay, overloads server and very often the zoomed document looks different.

And what if the application should perform some specific actions when the report is viewed? No problem – just use JavaScript. In this case the developer is required:

  • “Just” to know one more programming language;
  • “Just” to learn object model of the client viewer, that is conceptually different form the server model;
  • “Just” to write code in two languages (one to write server application and JavaScript) with absolutely different syntax and development principles;
  • “Just” to debug the code written in dynamically typed language; and it takes much more time then to debug the statically typed language;
  • “Just” to test the application under all existing browsers and find out why one and the same code snippet works differently in different systems.

Summarizing all aforesaid, conversion of reports to one of print document formats is a more preferable solution. One of the most popular print formats is PDF that is a de facto standard. Some other formats are also used: they are a promising XPS format, RTF and Microsoft Word. Evident advantage of PDF is that it is possible to get almost complete visual equivalence with the original document. “Almost”, as there slight differences in algorithms of positioning and displaying characters. PDF viewers are available virtually for all platforms and provide all necessary functions.

Significant disadvantage is that PDF documents are opened in a separate viewer and are out of the application. So, application developer is not able to control document preview and doesn’t have the ability to perform additional actions.

The reviewed solutions are satisfactory, but they don’t address today’s requirements to Rich Internet Applications (RIA).

Fortunately, life changes and evolves and software vendors offer new technologies to design web applications. The most promising platform for RIAs is Silverlight 2.0 by Microsoft.

For more information on Silverlight, please, visit official Silverlight website and view article.

Silverlight report viewer allows:

  • The ability to precisely display reports on the client side using built-in fonts, vector graphics, gradient fills, semi transparency, formatted text, etc;
  • Full-featured implementation of standard preview functions: smooth zooming and scrolling, report preview mode;
  • Page load and caching of the uploaded pages on the client side;
  • Easy interaction with other controls included in the application;
  • Ability to execute code written on any .Net compatible language on the client side using all advantages of object oriented development and strong typing. As compared with JavaScript code, .Net code is faster, safer and can be written in the same language the server side is written;
  • Ability to delicately setup viewer appearance by using styles and templates. Such component will seamlessly fit into design of any application.

Reporting for Silverlight Perpetuum Software offers the first report generator supporting Silverlight.

Report Sharp-Shooter is a powerful and flexible reporting component designed for Windows Forms, Web Forms and Silverlight. It is possible to design any type of reports: simple, multicolumn, group, sub-report based, side-by-side, hyperlink, cross-tab, nested and others. Generated documents can be previewed, printed and exported to most popular formats: PDF, Excel, HTML, MS Word, RTF and others. Report Sharp-Shooter can use any .Net data sources for reports; multiple data sources in a single report are supported. End user designer is available: you can offer to your customers the freedom in reports design and modification. Report data can be visualized as various charts and gauges, so your customers will have the most comprehensive reports possible. Availability of source code provides total control over the report design process. And all these advantages work in tandem with Silverlight power and flexibility.

Report Sharp-Shooter Silverlight demo is available.

Now you can use one of the most powerful solutions to design print reports in RIA for Silverlight platform.

November 19th, 2008