Data Presentation and Analysis

1. Tabular Data Representation

   Cross tabs and tables give you the ability to display data in a matrix format, used to present and analyze the relationship between two or more variables simultaneously. Cross tabulation is a vital part of any business intelligence (BI) solution, because it provides the end user with a tabular data format which is easy to understand, and more importantly - to analyze. The Telerik Reporting Cross Tabs offer the same intuitive interface within Visual Studio developers have become to expect from Telerik.

   The Table item is a generalized layout report item that displays report data in cells that are organized into rows and columns. Report data can be any detail data as it is retrieved from the data source, or aggregated detail data organized into groups that are specified by the user.

   The Table, Crosstab, and List report items are variations of the same data presentation, optimized for the specific data layout. By default, the Table and the Crosstab items display group data in a grid layout, while the List displays detail data in a free-form layout.

   All tabular representation items offer design-time support in Visual Studio thus giving developers an extra level of detail in their report design.

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1. Graphical Data Representation - Charts

   By using RadChart, Telerik .NET Reporting is capable of displaying data in a visually compelling way and helps the user/decision maker understand and analyze data in a more efficient manner. The chart can bind to live data and display 17 popular chart types, such as Bar, Pie, Gantt, Line, Area, Bubble, and more. See demo.
   
   

2. Barcodes

   Thanks to the specialized Barcode Report Item you can create barcodes, and add them to your reports. The barcodes can be very practical for commercial purposes of small or medium sized businesses, where you can use them for the products you sell. See  Barcode demo.
   

1. Comprehensive Reports (dashboards)

   Telerik Reporting is perfect for creating professional and comprehensive reports for an array of business needs. By using data bound items like Charts (link), Crosstabs (link) and SubReports you can achieve scenarios where data needs to be presented in a custom and complex logical layout. The data shown can be filtered, grouped, formatted conditionally to show trends, and styled to fit your needs. See demo.

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2. Labels

   Similar to Microsoft Word, with Telerik Reporting you can create labels in the form of predefined page settings that represent standard paper formats. Designing labels is made easy by the built-in Report Wizard. Labels are very handy for mailing, pricing, or other commercial purposes. See  Labels demo.
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Creating Reports

1. Innovative WYSIWYG Report Designer

   Telerik Reporting is the first reporting tool in the industry to introduce an innovative WYSIWYG design surface in Visual Studio .NET. The surface simulates graph paper and represents the actual layout of the report elements as they would appear on a printed sheet of paper. There are no bulky section dividers or other elements that clog the designer. To make the process of accurate positioning, aligning, and sizing of report elements easy and intuitive, Telerik Reporting implements some techniques used in drawing software.

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2. Report Converters

   Reuse your existing XtraReports, Crystal Reports and Active Reports* with the help of the intuitive ?쏳eport Converter??Wizard. When creating a new report Telerik Reporting automatically detects whether you have XtraReports, Crystal Reports or Active Reports installed on your machine and guides you through the conversion process.

   Crystal Reports is a trademark of Business Objects; Active Reports is a trademark of Data Dynamics; XtraReports is a trademark of Developer Express Inc.

3. Format Builder

   Following established usability standards, Telerik Reporting features a Format Builder which will assist you in formatting numbers and dates in Microsoft Excel짤 fashion. From decimals to currency, from dates and times to custom formats, the Format Builder supports them all.

   
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4. Full Visual Studio 2008 Integration

   Telerik Reporting was the first reporting tool on the market to fully support the new VS2008! You can style any report to your preference, add/remove items and groups, and even preview the report through the provided HTML Preview mode for Web, and the Preview mode for Windows Forms. VS2005 is also fully supported.

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1. Report Wizard with Layouts and Templates

   Creating new reports should not be an adventure. We provide an easy to use Report Wizard which helps you create your report in a flash. Simply start it, select your data source, design the layout, and style your report혻- no coding is required.

   The혻Report Wizard혻also provides a handy way to configure label settings in case you decide to create a Label Report. You can select from a number of standard label formats or create custom ones if needed; the generated report will be customized according to the selected label specification.

   Several pre-defined layouts and professionally styled themes are also included to ease up the report creation even further.

   
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2. Report Explorer

   In addition to the regular design-time characteristics, Telerik Reporting integrates a additional tool for better report management in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008:

   The Report Explorer displays the tree representation of the report structure with all present items, parameters and global styles that are being used in the report. Using the Explorer, you can quickly access any element in your report or create and edit styles, which makes it much easier to work with

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3. Dynamic Layout

   Telerik Reporting offers a brilliant way to providing dynamic layouts by docking/anchoring report items:

   • Docking a report item causes its edges to adhere to the edges of its container. When a report item is docked to an edge of its container, it is always positioned to flush against that edge when the container is resized.
   • Anchoring is used to dynamically resize report items with their container. It keeps the distance between the edge of the report item and the corresponding edge of the container in which it is anchored.

   

1. Project Upgrade Wizard

   We take care of your upgrade needs, so you do not have to. The Project Upgrade Wizard helps you migrate your existing Telerik Reporting project to newer or older versions of Telerik Reporting in an instant, taking care of all compatibility issues on the fly. It will even create a backup of your existing project, if needed. The upgrades are effortless and trouble-free as never before.

   
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3. Report Book

   The Report Book (aka Report Merge) gives you the ability to combine many reports into a single report instance혻for the purposes of printing them at once or exporting them to a single file. This feature is very handy when you need to print/review related reports at once (i.e. to combine two or more reports into one for easy review/print/export), or when you have to produce a complex statement which contains other reports.

   Each report's page settings are preserved allowing for an easy print/export without any further modifications. Each report in the book is processed as a stand alone item and the result is compiled in an aggregate document. There is no additional performance cost outside of the performance costs for each individual report the report book holds in itself.혻Reports are displayed in the order they were added to the report book. See demo.혻

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4. Group Explorer

   The Group Explorer visualizes each report?셲 and crosstab?셲 group hierarchy allowing for easy maintenance. The Group Explorer is a dockable ToolWindow that can be conveniently docked or moved around the Visual Studio design surface.

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Styling and Appearance

1. Extended Text Formatting through HTML

   Telerik Reporting supports inserting HTML-formatted content directly into the report via the HtmlTextBox item to produce customizable and good looking results. The HTML value can be specified at design time (either through a WYSIWYG or an expression editor). It can also retrieve content directly from a data source by using any expression that evaluates to correctly formatted HTML. Various formatting options that are available to control the text presentation are:

   • Font, size, color
   • Bold, Italic, Underline
   • Lists
   • Paragraphs
   • Inline styles (background, border, color, font, padding)

   Formatted text can be rendered to HTML, PDF, and Image formats, in both windows forms and web applications. The HtmlTextBox item also supports injecting complex expressions into the HTML-formatted text for mail merge functionality.

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2. Conditional Formatting

   Formatting your reports, based on pre-defined conditions is made extremely simple through the혻Microsoft Excel짤-like functionality directly in the Visual Studio design-time. It offers codeless generation of rules and uses the supreme styling mechanism of Telerik Reporting to tweak the colors, fonts, and background presentation of your data.
   혻
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1. Report Globalization

   Due to business globalization, the need of multi-lingual and culturally aware applications is a requirement. Telerik Reporting is culturally aware and you can use more than one culture for your reports at the same time. The cultures can be applied to the whole report or to specific items.

   Culture determines the way date, time, numbers and currencies are displayed, and specifies the appropriate text direction (LTR or RTL). This means that Telerik Reporting can be used with any RTL language, such as Hebrew and Arabic. Globalization is fully supported in all export formats (HTML, TIFF, PDF, Excel).

   In addition, all Telerik reports are localizable. Localization is controlled through the Localizable property of the report, much like the standard .NET controls.
   
   

2. Rich Set of Measurement Units

   A typical challenge in report design is the precise layout and sizing of elements for the purposes of proper printing and viewing in different formats. Telerik Reporting supports a variety of measurement units, which can be used for any element, including borders, padding, and even font sizes. Examples:
   Font.Size=1cm
   BorderWidth.Left=2in
   You can also use combinations of different measurement units where appropriate. A default report measurement unit allows you to quickly enter dimensions and positions without specifying the unit.

1. Fine-Grained CSS-like Styling

   Telerik Reporting introduces an advanced and much enriched styling mechanism through its build-in styling model, which closely follows CSS specifications. This model provides for quicker and very fine-grained visual customization of all reporting controls, all in the Visual Studio designer. This CSS-like mechanism offers full control over the item?셲 background, images, colors, borders, styles, paddings, etc.
   You can assign styles to one or more reporting items by using the known CSS selectors: Type, Attribute, Style, and Descendant. Styles can also be applied globally and then saved to an external file for later use. If extra control over visual appearance is needed, cascading styles can be applied manually.
   External style sheets can be referenced from local path, relative path, resource, and/or URL for extra flexibility when using style sheets. See online demo.
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2. Reuse of Corporate Design and Branding

   Telerik Reporting introduces an advanced and rich styling mechanism through its built-in styling model, which closely follows CSS specifications. This CSS-like mechanism offers full control over the item?셲 background, images, colors, borders, styles, paddings, etc. Once created, just save your corporate design as a new theme and reuse it each time a new report is needed.

End-User Capabilities

1. Report Parameters

   Advanced, easy-to-use report parameters is one of the key highlights of Telerik Reporting. With the help of expressions (which can be used throughout a report definition to control content and appearance), report parameters can be used to specify the data to be used in a report, connect related reports and subreports, modify presentation, filter data, control sorting and grouping, and even change text box properties. Watch video or see online demo.

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1. Report exporting and saving in different formats

   Telerik Reporting gives users the ability to export and view their reports in the most commonly used formats and environments. This feature is very handy if you would like to handle the report outside the application, such as forward it via email, perform additional calculations in Excel, or simply archive it in PDF format. Among the supported export formats are: RTF, Excel, PDF, MHTML, CSV and all graphic formats that are supported by GDI+.

2. True Printing Through Web Viewers

   Telerik Reporting does not depend on the browser's printing capabilities; instead it uses its own paging and rendering capabilities for exact positioning of elements when printing through the Silverlight or Asp.Net report viewer.
   

1. Document Map

   The Document Map is a separate pane in the report viewer that displays a list of bookmarked report items in a TOC-like format. It allows you to quickly navigate through a report and/or track your location in it.

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Working with Data

1. Visual Studio-identical Datasource Wizard

   Telerik Reporting offers an advanced Data Source Connection Wizard, much like the one in VS2005. The wizard gives you the ability to hook your report to any existing database of your choice, in an intuitive and codeless manner.

2. Conditional Formatting Builder

   The혻Microsoft Excel짤-like Conditional Formatting Builder offers familiar interface for codeless generation of rules, which helps you tweak the colors, fonts, and background presentation of your data, depending on a preset condition. The wizard is easy to use and requires no coding whatsoever.
   
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3. Format Builder

   Following established usability standards, Telerik Reporting features a Format Builder which will assist you in formatting numbers and dates in Microsoft Excel짤 fashion. From decimals to currency, from dates and times to custom formats, the Format Builder supports them all.

   
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4. Filtering Report Data

   Filters are very handy when you need to limit the number of records in a report or group. By using conditional rules through the Edit Filter Dialog you can filter what records are included in the report. For extended flexibility, Telerik Reporting also supports creating multiple filter rules, that can be defined to make up a single filter.

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5. Master Detail Data Presentation

   There are several different ways to display unlimited levels of data with Telerik Reporting:

   • The tabular report items (CrossTab, Table, List) are very handy for displaying hierarchical data directly in a report. Here, the report is bound to a master table, whereas the tabular report item is bound to a detail field. For deeper hierarchies can be achieved with nested tables;
   • Reusable SubReports are also very handy when you need to create master-detail relations. Here, a master report shows the master data, and SubReport(s) are used for the detail section(s). Since SubReports are separate reports, they can be reused in several master reports, giving you more flexibility;
   • By grouping master table fields and showing the detail data in separate sections, Master Detail data presentation can also be achieved

   Joined tables and self-referencing tables are also fully supported.

1. Support for Embedded Expressions

   Embedded expressions give you the freedom to get and insert data-driven information to produce customized reports. The TextBox and HtmlTextBox report items support data-driven fields in-line, which are customizable in a WYSIWYG manner directly in the Report Designer.

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2. Expression Builder

   The Expression Builder is another tool that was developer to save you time when creating your reports. Used throughout the tool, it is very handy when creating parameters or filters. There is no need to write code, nor event handlers. Full control over conditional formatting, grouping, filtering, and even sorting is achieved with a few mouse clicks.

   
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3. User Defined Functions

   You can extend the built-in functionality of the reporting engine infinitely by providing the혻developer with a set of pre-defined expressions that can be used throughout a report. User defined functions are public static methods (shared in Visual Basic.NET), defined per report, and are available in both run-time and design-time.

4. Grouping Report Data

   In many cases you will need to break the data into groups in order to make it easier to read and to analyze. For example, a list of products within a common category can be grouped by category. Telerik Reporting supports Grouping Report Data by triggering breaks in the report based on changes in the report data. Multiple levels of grouping can be nested within the report for extra clarity.

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5. Sorting Report Data

   Telerik Reporting supports sorting, which can be performed at both group and report levels. Group Sorting controls the order of grouping data, but not the report detail data. Group level sorting occurs before the sorting for the report as a whole to ensure that data is displayed in the proper order. Sorting can be either ascending or descending and is defined by an Expression, which can be a data field or defined using the Edit Expression Dialog.

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1. Filters

   Telerik Reporting comes with an intuitive filtering mechanism with helpful presets. Instead of building expressions to show the top N performers in a category, simply set the filter to the TOP N and you are done. See online demo. 
   
   
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2. Data Explorer

   In addition to the regular design-time characteristics, Telerik Reporting integrates a additional tool for better report management in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008:

   Data Explorer tool window shows the relevant data sources of the report. You can use it to drag and drop a data source field onto your report for codeless, intuitive and easy report creation

   

3. Extensive Data Source Support

   We do not set any limits on what data sources you should use. You can bind Telerik Reporting to whatever data source your application is using, because we support the widest variety of data-sources on the market.

   You can databind Telerik Reporting to Business Objects, XML, Web Services and any ADO.NET datasource. The variety of data providers that ADO.NET offers means that the report can be connected to most of the common databases, such as SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft Access, OLE DB , etc. See online demo.

4. Expressions

   Item binding expressions are used to specify the data that will be displayed in a Report. They allow you to dynamically populate a report item by using the data from database field(s). With the help of expressions, the database fields can also be manipulated, making them perfect for creating filtering, grouping and sorting criteria. Expressions can also be used to conditionally format data, to define master-detail hierarchies, to embed data in a single field, and more. The task of writing expressions is quite simplified by the Expression Builder utility, which provides a list of predefined and dynamic elements that can be used in your expression, such as aggregates, constants, database fields, and functions, making the process of creating expressions simple and effortless.

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Report Items

1. Crosstab Item

   Use a CrossTab item to display aggregated data summaries, grouped in rows and columns. The number of rows and columns for groups is determined by the number of unique values for each row and column groups.You can set up your crosstab report with the help of the Crosstab Wizard item, which helps you bind to the database, set the layout and style the crosstab in few easy steps. See demo
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2. Table Item

   The Table item is a generalized layout report item that displays report data in cells that are organized into rows and columns. Report data can be any detail data as it is retrieved from the data source, or aggregated detail data organized into groups that are specified by the user. See demo.

3. List Item

   The List item displays detail data in a free-form layout.. You are not limited to a grid layout, but can place fields freely inside the list. You can use a list to design a form for displaying many dataset fields or as a container to display multiple data regions side by side for grouped data. For example, you can define a group for a list; add a table, chart, and image; and display values in table and graphic form for each group value. See demo.

4. PictureBox Item

   The PictureBox report item is used to display images on a report. It shows images from the data base, .NET image object, the file system or the Web (URL). See demo.
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5. Panel Item

   The Panel report item is used to group multiple report items together. You can set properties such as Visible on the Panel to affect all of the report items hosted in that Panel.
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1. Chart item

   By using RadChart, Telerik .NET Reporting is capable of displaying data in a visually compelling way and helps the user/decision maker understand and analyze data in a more efficient manner. The chart can bind to live data and display 17 popular chart types, such as Bar, Pie, Gantt, Line, Area, Bubble, and more. See demo.
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2. SubReport Items

   The SubReport report item lets you display one report within another report. See demo
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3. Barcode Item

   The Barcode report item is used for automatic barcode generation directly from a numeric or character data without need of any barcode font being installed in the end user?셲 PC. ?ver 20 widely used industry barcode standards supported, including:EAN (8, 13, 128), UPC (A, E), MSI, Standard 2 of 5, Code (11, 39, 93, 128). See demo
   

4. Shape Item

   The Shape report item is used to display one of a selection of predefined shapes on a report. See demo.
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1. HtmlTextBox Item

   The HtmlTextBox report item allows developers to insert HTML-formatted text into a report. You can specify the HTML value at design time, or retrieve it from a data source using any simple or complex expression that evaluates to correctly formatted HTML.
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2. TextBox Item

   The TextBox report item is used to display text on a report.
   

3. Checkbox Item

   The CheckBox report item is used to display both text and a check mark on a report. The text part of the Checkbox report item supports embedded expressions for mail merge functionality. Embedded expressions give you the freedom to get and insert data-driven information directly into the CheckBox.Text property to produce customized reports and mail merging.
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Export Formats

1. Excel

   We use a custom Excel Rendering Extension, which produces Excel files without relying on Microsoft Office being installed on the server. The Excel Rendering Extension also preserves the look and feel of the original report and gives you the opportunity to manipulate data further. Exported files can be opened by the user with Microsoft Excel 97 and later.

2. XPS/XAML

   The XML Paper Specification (XPS) provides users and developers with a robust, open and trustworthy format for electronic paper. The XML Paper Specification describes electronic paper in a way that can be read by hardware, read by software, and read by people. XPS documents print better, can be shared easier, are more secure and can be archived with confidence.

3. MHTML (Web Archive)

   A web page archive format used to bind resources which are typically represented by external links (such as images, Flash animations, Java applets, audio files) together with HTML code into a single file. The content of an MHTML file is encoded as if it were an HTML e-mail message.

1. PDF

   PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout 2D document that includes the text, fonts, images, and 2D vector graphics which compose the documents.

2. Dynamic file naming

   When exporting reports, you can dynamically name the exported file based on the built-in expressions. Expressions support parameters, fields, user defined functions, etc. and give you full control over the naming conventions of the exported files.

3. Rich Text Format (RTF)

   Most word processing software implementations support RTF format importing and exporting, and/or direct editing, often making it a "common" format between otherwise incompatible word processing softwares and operating systems. These factors contribute to its interoperability.

1. Comma separated values (CSV)

   A Comma separated values (CSV) file is used for the digital storage of data structured in a table of lists form, where each associated item (member) in a group is in association with others also separated by the commas of its set. CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, for example between a database program and a spreadsheet program.

2. GDI+ formats

   All graphic formats that are supported by GDI+ (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and metafile (EMF)). Telerik Reporting comes with the ability to export to TIFF using a variety of compression types, providing for an optimized file size, including:
   • LZW
   • CCITT3
   • CCITT4
   • RLE
   • NONE

ASP.NET, Silverlight, Windows Forms Support

1. Windows Forms Viewer

   The Windows Forms Report Viewer is designed to render Telerik Reports within Windows Forms projects.The viewer is also available as preview tab within Visual Studio, saving you the time to build and run your application in order to review your work each time you make changes to the reports. With the help of Report Book you can combine many reports into a single report instance for the purposes of printing them at once or exporting them to a single file.

   The Windows viewer uses the same rendering engine as the Web viewer, which guarantees that you will always get the same look and feel of your reports, regardless of the environment. 

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2. Toolbar Skinning (web only)

   Telerik Reporting supports skinning of the Asp.Net Web Viewer toolbar. You can choose to use the predefined skins, or create a new one with the help of few images and simple CSS modification.

   
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1. ASP.NET Web Forms Viewer

   This Report Viewer is designed to render Telerik Reports within ASP.NET projects. The viewer is also available as preview tab within Visual Studio, saving you the time to build and run your application in order to review your work each time you make changes to the reports. With the help of Report Book you can combine many reports into a single report instance for the purposes of printing them at once or exporting them to a single file.

   The Asp.Net viewer uses the same rendering engine as the Windows Forms viewer, which guarantees that you will always get the same look and feel of your reports, regardless of the environment.

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2. Support for ASP.NET AJAX (web only)

   For added swiftness, Telerik Reporting communicates with the web server by using Ajax calls. This way only data that need to be displayed is fetched, without burdening the server. This adds desktop-like feeling to the web and users find the application to be more responsive and intuitive.

   Ajax can be used hide/show the WebViewer, to page through reports, or filter data via report parameters. Both Microsoft?셲 ASP.NET AJAX and Telerik?셲 own RadAjax are supported.

1. Silverlight Viewer

   The Silverlight Report Viewer is designed to render Telerik Reports within Silverlight projects. The Silverlight viewer uses the same rendering engine as the other viewers, which guarantees that you will always get the same look and feel of your reports, regardless of the environment.

   With the help of Report Book you can combine many reports into a single report instance for the purposes of printing them at once or exporting them to a file.

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2. Telerik Reporting WCF Service

   The Telerik Reporting Service is a WCF service that enables the remote access to the Telerik Reporting Engine. The Reporting Service acts as a communication interface between the client programs and the report server.

   The Telerik Reporting WCF Service is usually exposed to the clients through a .NET 3.5 application.

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