Handling of PreviewControl.OnPrint and .OnExport events

2020-10-01

In FastReport 2019.4 added the ability to subscribe to PreviewControl.OnPrint and PreviewControl.OnExport events, which are called directly when the corresponding buttons are pressed.

When viewing a report, a viewer is called with a toolbar that has elements such as a print button and a drop-down list with report exports. Selecting any item in the list will trigger the OnExport event, and pressing the Print button will trigger OnPrint. Let's take an example and see how we can use these events in practice.

You can use the standard handler for these events, which is created for the visual component of PreviewControl:

 OnExport event setted

In this case you just add the necessary actions to the handler.

But if you add the PreviewControl component in the application code, you will have to sign your own handler for the event. For example, your handler may send you an export or print event alert. This could be, for example, a record in a database. Let us consider this example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
 private void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
 //create report
 Report report = new Report();
 //Load report
 report.Load("App_Data/Master-Detail.frx");
 //create data source
 DataSet data = new DataSet();
 //load data
 data.ReadXml("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\FastReports\\FastReport.Net\\Demos\\Reports\\nwind.xml");
 //register data
 report.RegisterData(data);
 //create preview object
 var prev = new PreviewControl();
 //add preview into the form
 this.Controls.Add(prev);
 prev.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
 prev.BringToFront();
 //subscribe to the event
 prev.OnExport+= new System.EventHandler<PreviewControl.ExportEventArgs>(ExportAction);
 //assign preview control to the report
 report.Preview = prev;
 //Show the report
 report.Show();
 }

 After creating the report object and registering data in it, we create a PreviewControl, subscribe to the OnExport event our event handler, which we will implement below. Then we assign the PreviewControl object to the preview report. And now we implement a custom event handler for the OnExport event:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
 public void ExportAction(object sender, PreviewControl.ExportEventArgs e)
 {
 SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(@"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=usersdb;Integrated Security=True");
 SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("insert into dbo.Status (ReportName, ExportType, ExportDate) Vales ('" + Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(e.Report.FileName) + "', '"+ e.Export.BaseName +"', '" + DateTime.Now + "')");
 command.Connection = conn;
 conn.Open();
 command.ExecuteNonQuery();
 conn.Close();
 }

 In this method, we record information about the export event in a database, with the report name, export type and transaction date. This is just one possible example of how to use this event. You can, for example, implement sending an email on this event, or saving an export file to a specific folder.

The OnPrint event is handled in the same way.

These two events are the most frequent operations on reports when viewed, so many people would like to automate their custom operations on the event. Now it is possible, it is easy to take information about the report, export or print settings from event arguments and dispose of it to create your own, additional operations.

.NET .NET FastReport FastReport Preview Preview
October 26, 2026

TfrImageComboBox: A drop-down list with images and text captions in FastReport VCL

TfrImageComboBox from FastEditors VCL: a drop-down list with icons and labels for FastReport VCL. Properties, events, and usage examples in Delphi.
October 26, 2026

Progress Bar in Delphi: The TfrProgressBar and TfrxProgressBar Components from FastReport VCL

Let’s take a closer look at the TfrProgressBar and TfrxProgressBar components from FastReport VCL: configuring the progress scale, thresholds and markers, binding to data, and a Delphi example.
October 23, 2026

FastGrid from the Inside: The View Object, Columns, and Events of the Delphi Grid Component

FastGrid’s internal structure: the View object, the Appearance property, columns, events, and the DB and Unbound data modes in Delphi. Analysis using the GridDemo.dpr demo project as an example.

© 1998-2026 Fast Reports Inc.