Paradigm Support Desk

Report Designer Picture Box Control

The Picture Box control is intended to display images of numerous formats in a report. An image can be loaded from an external file, from a bound data source, or from a web location using the specified URL.

The following image formats are supported: BMP, DIB, RLE, JPG, JPEG, JPE, JFIF, GIF, EMF, WMF, TIF, TIFF, PNG and ICO.

To quickly load an image from an external file, use the control's Smart Tag:

To bind the control to a data field containing images, right-click the corresponding Field List item, and then drag and drop it onto a report. This will invoke the Context Menu, where you can choose the Picture Box, and it will be automatically created and bound to the selected data field.

In the Property Grid, the Picture Box control's properties are divided into the following groups.

1. Appearance

  • Background Colour
    Specifies the background color for the control.
  • Borders, Border Color and Border Width 
    Specify border settings for the control.
  • 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 colour, border colour, etc.).
  • 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).
  • Location
    Specifies the floating-point representation of the coordinates of the control's upper-left corner.
  • Size
    Gets or sets the size of the control.

2. 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. The property setting is useful for data-bound controls located between upper and lower controls, which are allowed to resize depending on their contents.
  • Anchor Horizontally
    Specifies the horizontal anchoring type of a report control.
  • Can Publish
    Specifies whether or not a report control is displayed in a printed or exported document.
  • Edit Options
    Provides access to the options that define whether and how an image can be edited in Print Preview.
  • Image Alignment
    Specifies the alignment of a displayed image in relation to the XRPictureBox control's boundaries.
  • Keep Together
    Specifies whether a control can be split across pages.
  • Process Duplicates Mode
    Specifies how to process a XRPictureBox control with duplicate values.
  • Process Duplicate Targets
    Specifies whether to process duplicate values of the XRPictureBox.ImageSource, or XRControl.Tag property.
  • Process Null Values
    Specifies how to process a XRPictureBox control with null values.
  • Scripts
    This property contains events, which you can handle with the required scripts.
  • Sizing
    Defines the sizing mode of a contained image. To quickly adjust the image size and position within the control, click its Smart Tag, and choose Sizing.

The image sizing settings are briefly described in the following table.

ModeDescription
NormalThe image is placed in the upper-left corner of the control. The image is clipped if it is larger than the Picture Box which contains it.
Stretch ImageThe image within the control is stretched or shrunk to fit the size of a Picture Box.
Auto-SizeThe Picture Box size is adjusted to that of the image it contains.
Zoom ImageThe image is sized proportionally (without clipping) for best fit into the control.
SqueezeIf the dimensions of a Picture Box exceed that of the image it contains, the image is centered and shown full-size. Otherwise, the image is resized to fit into the Picture Box's dimensions.
TileThe original image is replicated within the Picture Box starting from the upper-left corner. The replicated image is clipped if it doesn't fit in the Picture Box which contains it.
CoverFills the PictureBox control fully with the image, without stretching the image. The image will be centered within the PictureBox but if the sizes do not match, the edges of the image may be cropped.
  • Visible
    Specifies whether the control should be visible in print preview.

3. Data

  • Accessible Description
    Gets or sets the description of a control used by assistive technologies.
  • Image Source
    Specifies an image to display in the Picture Box control. When you click the ellipsis button, you will see the Open File dialog that enables you to specify the file to load. Then, this image is embedded into a report and saved within this report, so it is always available. Note that this increases the size of a saved report definition. If you want to save only the image path, and not the image itself, use the Image URL property instead.
  • Image URL
    Specifies the URL of the image to display in the Picture Box control. It supports both absolute and relative paths. A relative path may be related to the Web site or to the current Web page. In the second case, the path to the image must start with the "~" symbol. Setting a relative path makes it easier to move the entire application to another directory on the server without having to update the code.
  • 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.

4. Miscellaneous

  • (Name)
    The name of the component.
  • Snap Line Margin 
    Specifies the margin (in report measurement units), which is to be preserved around the control when it is aligned using Snap Lines, or when other controls are aligned next to it.
  • Bookmark and Parent Bookmark 
    These properties are intended for the creation of a hierarchical structure within a report called a document map. 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". 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.Bindingdrop-down selector, select the required data field.


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