Shape

The Shape control allows you to embed simple graphic objects into your report. You can choose one of multiple predefined shapes (e.g. rectangles, ellipses, arrows, polygons, crosses and brackets of various kinds).

In the Property Grid, the Shape's properties are divided into the following groups.

Expanded Appearance

  • Background Color

    Specifies the background color for the control. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ().

  • Borders, Border Color and Border Width

    Specify border settings for the control.

  • Fill Color

    Specifies the color to fill the contour of a Shape, if applicable. It is transparent by default.

  • Foreground Color

    Determines the color of a Shape's contour. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ().

  • Formatting Rules

    Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the control during report generation, and define the precedence of the applied rules. To learn more on this, refer to Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance.

  • Line Width

    Here you can set the width of a line used to draw the Shape, expressed in the measure units defined by the report's Measure Units property. To learn more about this, refer to Change Measurement Units of a Report.

  • Padding

    Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of the control.

  • Style Priority

    Allows you to define the priority of various style elements (such as background color, border color, etc.). For more information on style inheritance, refer to Understanding Style Concepts.

  • Styles

    This property allows you to define odd and even styles for the control, as well as to assign an existing style to the control (or a newly created one). For more information on style inheritance, refer to Understanding Style Concepts.

Expanded Behavior

  • Anchor Vertically

    Specifies the vertical anchoring style of the control, so that after page rendering it stays attached to the top control, bottom control, or both.

  • Angle

    The value in degrees specifies the rotation angle of a Shape. It indicates counterclockwise rotation.

    You can hold CTRL while pressing the left mouse button to rotate a Shape within the control's borders.

  • Scripts

    This property contains events, which you can handle with the required scripts. For more information on scripting, refer to Handle Events via Scripts.

  • Shape

    Determines which of the various built-in shapes to use within the control.

    A certain shape has its own unique set of properties. The following list is intended to give a brief overview of these special properties specific to a certain shape.

Property

Description

Supported by Shapes

Fillet This property specifies how much a Shape's corners are rounded. It enables display of rounded boxes and triangles. Arrows, Polygons, Stars and Cross
Number of Sides This property allows you to set the number of sides. Polygons
Count of Star Points This property allows you to set the number of star points. Stars
Concavity Defines the level of inward-curve for the lines connecting the vertices of a Star. It may be an integer in the range of 0 - 100. Stars
Tip's Length This property specifies the length of the Bracket's ends. Bracket and Brace
Tail's Length This property specifies the tail length of a Brace. Brace
  • Stretch

    If the Shape is rotated to some degree (that is, its Angle property is not zero), you may turn on the Stretch property. The Shape image will be stretched to cover maximum space within the control's borders.

  • Visible

    Specifies a value indicating whether the current control should be printed (when set to Yes) or hidden (No) on report generation.

Expanded Data

  • (Data Bindings)

    If the current report is bound to data, this property allows you to bind some of the control's properties (Bookmark, Navigation URL and Tag) to a data field obtained from the report's data source, and to apply a format string to it. For more information on this, refer to Displaying Values from a Database (Binding Report Elements to Data).

  • Tag

    This property allows you to add some additional information to the control; for example its id, by which it can then be accessible via scripts.

    If the current report has a data source, the Tag property can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Tag.Binding drop-down selector, select the required data field.

Expanded Design

Expanded Layout

Expanded Navigation

  • Bookmark and Parent Bookmark

    These properties are intended for the creation of a hierarchical structure within a report called a document map. For an explanation and help, refer to Add Bookmarks.

    If the current report has a data source, the Bookmark property can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Bookmark.Binding drop-down selector, select the required data field.

  • Navigation URL and Navigation Target

    Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation when a user clicks the control. The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified by the Navigation Target property. Note that a URL should have an appropriate prefix (e.g. "http://"). You can create cross-references within the report by assigning the name of the target control to the Navigation URL property, and setting the Navigation Target property to "_self". For more information, refer to Create Hyperlinks.

    If the current report has a data source, the Navigation URL property can be bound to a data field obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Navigation URL.Binding drop-down selector, select the required data field.