Reportviewer tool missing in visual studio 2017 RC

Question

I just started to write reporting software in new version of visual studio named visual studio 2017 RC but just noticed that core reportviewing tools is missing from both windows forms and WPF application template. Can anyone tell me why the reportviewer tool is disappeared from visual studio 2017 ? Really having trouble without it . Is there any alternate to work with this tool in new visual studio ?

Answer 1

** Update**: 11/19/2019

Microsoft has released a new version of the control 150.1400.0 in their Nuget library. My short testing shows that it works again in the forms designer where 150.1357.0 and 150.1358.0 did not. This includes being able to resize and modify the ReportViewer Tasks on the control itself.

** Update**: 8/18/2019

Removing the latest version and rolling back to 150.900.148.0 seems to work on multiple computers I'm using with VS2017 and VS2019.

You can roll back to 150.900.148 in the Nuget solution package manager. It works similarly to the previous versions. Use the drop down box to select the older version.

It may be easier to manually delete references to post 150.900 versions of ReportViewer and readd them than it is to fix them.

Remember to restart Visual Studio after changing the toolbox entry.

Update: 8/7/2019

A newer version of the ReportViewer control has been released, probably coinciding with Visual Studio 2019. I was working with V150.1358.0.

Following the directions in this answer gets the control in the designer's toolbox. But once dropped on the form it doesn't display. The control shows up below the form as a non-visual component.

This is working as designed according to Microsoft SQL BI support. This is the group responsible for the control.

While you still cannot interact with the control directly, these additional steps give a workaround so the control can be sized on the form. While now visible, the designer treats the control as if it didn't exist.

I've created a feedback request at the suggestion of Microsoft SQL BI support. Please consider voting on it to get Microsoft's attention.

Microsoft Azure Feedback page - Restore Designtime features of the WinForms ReportViewer Control

Additional steps:

• After adding the reportviewer to the WinForm
• Add a Panel Control to the WinForm.

• In the form's form.designer.cs file, add the Reportviewer control to the panel.

    // 
    // panel1
    // 
    this.panel1.Controls.Add(this.reportViewer1);
  

• Return to the form's designer, you should see the reportViewer on the panel

• In the Properties panel select the ReportViewer in the controls list dropdown
• Set the reportViewer's Dock property to Fill

Now you can position the reportViewer by actually interacting with the panel.

Update: Microsoft released a document on April 18, 2017 describing how to configure and use the reporting tool in Visual Studio 2017.

Visual Studio 2017 does not have the ReportViewer tool installed by default in the ToolBox. Installing the extension Microsoft Rdlc Report Designer for Visual Studio and then adding that to the ToolBox results in a non-visual component that appears below the form.

Microsoft Support had told me this is a bug, but as of April 21, 2017 it is "working as designed".

The following steps need to be followed for each project that requires ReportViewer.

• If you have ReportViewer in the Toolbox, remove it. Highlight, right-click and delete.
  • You will have to have a project with a form open to do this.

Edited 8/7/2019 - It looks like the current version of the RDLC Report Designer extension no longer interferes. You need this to actually edit the reports.

• If you have the Microsoft Rdlc Report Designer for Visual Studio extension installed, uninstall it.

• Close your solution and restart Visual Studio. This is a crucial step, errors will occur if VS is not restarted when switching between solutions.

• Open your solution.
• Open the NuGet Package Manager Console (Tools/NuGet Package Manager/Package Manager Console)

• At the PM> prompt enter this command, case matters.

  Install-Package Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportViewerControl.WinForms

  You should see text describing the installation of the package.

Now we can temporarily add the ReportViewer tool to the tool box.

• Right-click in the toolbox and use Choose Items...

• We need to browse to the proper DLL that is located in the solutions Packages folder, so hit the browse button.

• In our example we can paste in the packages folder as shown in the text of Package Manager Console.

  C:\Users\jdoe\Documents\Projects\_Test\ReportViewerTest\WindowsFormsApp1\packages

• Then double click on the folder named Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportViewerControl.Winforms.140.340.80

  The version number will probably change in the future.

• Then double-click on lib and again on net40.

• Finally, double click on the file Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms.dll

  You should see ReportViewer checked in the dialog. Scroll to the right and you will see the version 14.0.0.0 associated to it.

• Click OK.

ReportViewer is now located in the ToolBox.

• Drag the tool to the desired form(s).

• Once completed, delete the ReportViewer tool from the tool box. You can't use it with another project.

• You may save the project and are good to go.

Remember to restart Visual Studio any time you need to open a project with ReportViewer so that the DLL is loaded from the correct location. If you try and open a solution with a form with ReportViewer without restarting you will see errors indicating that the “The variable 'reportViewer1' is either undeclared or was never assigned.“.

If you add a new project to the same solution you need to create the project, save the solution, restart Visual Studio and then you should be able to add the ReportViewer to the form. I have seen it not work the first time and show up as a non-visual component.

When that happens, removing the component from the form, deleting the Microsoft.ReportViewer.* references from the project, saving and restarting usually works.