This is the final blog post from the pre-release series. In it we are going to share with you some of the updates coming to our reporting solution in Q1 2010. A new Declarative Data Source Engine will be added to Telerik Reporting, that will allow full control over data management, and deliver significant gains in rendering performance and memory consumption. Some of the engines new features will be: Data source parameters - those parameters will be used to limit data retrieved from the data source to just the data needed for the report. Data source parameters are processed on the data source side, however only queried data is fetched to the reporting engine, rather than the full data source. This leads to lower memory consumption, because data operations are performed on queried data only, rather than on all data. As a result, only the queried data needs to be stored in the memory vs. the whole dataset, which was the case with the old approach
Support for stored procedures - they will assist in achieving a consistent implementation of logic across applications, and are especially practical for performing repetitive tasks. A stored procedure stores the SQL statements and logic, which can then be executed in different reports and/or applications. Stored Procedures will not only save development time, but they will also improve performance, because each stored procedure is compiled on the data base server once, and then is reutilized. In Telerik Reporting, the stored procedure will also be parameterized, where elements of the SQL statement will be bound to parameters. These parameterized SQL queries will be handled through the data source parameters, and are evaluated at run time. Using parameterized SQL queries will improve the performance and decrease the memory footprint of your application, because they will be applied directly on the database server and only the necessary data will be downloaded on the middle tier or client machine;
Calculated fields through expressions - with the help of the new reporting engine you will be able to use field values in formulas to come up with a calculated field. A calculated field is a user defined field that is computed "on the fly" and does not exist in the data source, but can perform calculations using the data of the data source object it belongs to. Calculated fields are very handy for adding frequently used formulas to your reports;
Improved performance and optimized in-memory OLAP engine - the new data source will come with several improvements in how aggregates are calculated, and memory is managed. As a result, you may experience between 30% (for simpler reports) and 400% (for calculation-intensive reports) in rendering performance, and about 50% decrease in memory consumption. Full design time support through wizards - Declarative data sources are a great advance and will save developers countless hours of coding. In Q1 2010, and true to Telerik Reportings essence, using the new data source engine and its features requires little to no coding, because we have extended most of the wizards to support the new functionality. The newly extended wizards are available in VS2005/VS2008/VS2010 design-time. More features will be revealed on the product's what's new page when the new version is officially released in a few days. Also make sure you attend the free webinar on Thursday, March 11th that will be dedicated to the updates in Telerik Reporting Q1 2010.
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