The Database Class

The ReportDocument class, shown in Figure 17-5, manages the connections to your report’s data sources. It gives you runtime access to the methods and properties to dynamically manipulate and optimize the connections.

Figure 17-5. The Database class diagram.

This diagram shows the ReportDocument class and the two properties that work with data sources. The first is the Database property. It is a collection of tables and table links. Each table has properties that set the relevant information for connecting to the table as well as the fields in each table. This is the class that this chapter focuses on. The second property of the ReportDocument class is the DataDefinition class. It has the SQL expression field.

The following sections discuss the different topics for working with and manipulating a report’s data sources. Each topic makes use of different properties and methods of the ReportDocument classes.