DxWinFormsReportingApp

A sample DevExpress-powered Windows Forms application demonstrating how an AI coding agent can design and implement DevExpress XtraReports entirely in the Visual Studio Report Designer by using the GitHub Copilot Custom Agents.

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What This Repo Demonstrates

Area	Description
Agent-driven report authoring	Every report is generated from a natural-language spec + a structured implementation plan
Spec → Plan → Code workflow	Each report has a human-readable spec and a detailed implementation plan before any code is written

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Tech Stack

• .NET 10 / Windows Forms (net10.0-windows)
• DevExpress.Win.Reporting 25.2

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Project Structure

DxWinFormsReportingApp/
├── .github/agents/
│   └── report-designer.agent.md     # VS Code agent definition for the DevExpress Report Designer Expert
├── Program.cs                       # Entry point
├── ReportViewerForm.cs/.Designer.cs # Host form with DocumentViewer
│
├── report-specs/                    # Plain-English report requirements
│   ├── customer-quote.md
│   ├── employee-directory.md
│   ├── inventory-stock.md
│   ├── invoice.md
│   ├── packing-slip.md
│   ├── payslip.md
│   ├── purchase-order.md
│   ├── sales-order.md
│   ├── sales-performance.md
│   └── statement-of-account.md
│
├── report-plans/                    # Detailed implementation blueprints created by GitHub Copilot 
│   ├── customer-quote-plan.md
│   ├── employee-directory-plan.md
│   ├── inventory-stock-plan.md
│   ├── invoice-plan.md
│   ├── packing-slip-plan.md
│   ├── payslip-plan.md
│   ├── purchase-order-plan.md
│   ├── sales-order-plan.md
│   ├── sales-performance-plan.md
│   └── statement-of-account-plan.md
│
├── Reports/                         # Implemented XtraReport subclasses
│   ├── Report.cs / .Designer.cs              # Base/demo report
│   ├── Invoice.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── CustomerQuote.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── Payslip.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── EmployeeDirectory.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── InventoryStock.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── PackingSlip.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── SalesOrder.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── SalesPerformance.cs / .Designer.cs
│   ├── PurchaseOrder.cs / .Designer.cs
│   └── StatementOfAccount.cs / .Designer.cs
│
└── Model/
    └── CountryData.cs

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Agent Workflow

Reports in this repo are authored using the following three-step workflow, driven entirely by an AI coding agent:

report-specs/<name>.md          Natural-language requirements authored by a human
        │
        ▼
report-plans/<name>-plan.md     Detailed implementation blueprint:
                                  • Band list with heights
                                  • Control layout and weights
                                  • Expression bindings
                                  • Style definitions
                                  • Field declaration list
        │
        ▼
Reports/<Name>.cs               Partial class — constructor only
Reports/<Name>.Designer.cs      Full InitializeComponent() following DevExpress
                                designer serialization order:
                                  1. Inline local objects (XRSummary, etc.)
                                  2. new() calls for all fields
                                  3. BeginInit() — all at once
                                  4. Property assignments + AddRange()
                                  5. Report-level setup (Bands, Styles, Parameters)
                                  6. EndInit() — in same order as BeginInit()

Agent Definition (.github/agents/report-designer.agent.md)

The repo includes a VS Code agent definition at .github/agents/report-designer.agent.md. It can be invoked directly in Copilot Chat using @report-designer. It enforces:

• File discipline — layout code only in *.Designer.cs, never in *.cs
• ExpressionBindings only — DataBindings.Add() is forbidden
• XRTable for columns — stacked XRLabel controls for tabular data are forbidden
• DXFont instead of System.Drawing.Font
• BeginInit/EndInit pairing — all BeginInit calls before any property assignments, all EndInit at the end
• Criteria Language — no C# ternary ? :, no double-quoted strings, Iif() / FormatString() / sumSum() / sumCount() patterns
• No DataSource in InitializeComponent() — assigned at runtime

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Building and Running

dotnet build
dotnet run --project DxWinFormsReportingApp

Requires a valid DevExpress license (v25.2). The application opens a ReportViewerForm displaying the default Report. To preview a specific report, change the DocumentSource assignment in ReportViewerForm.cs:

documentViewer1.DocumentSource = new Reports.Invoice();

Data sources are assigned at runtime — the InitializeComponent() methods contain no SqlDataSource wiring.

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Adding a New Report

1. Write a spec in report-specs/<name>.md describing the business requirements.
2. Ask the agent to create an implementation plan in report-plans/<name>-plan.md.
3. Ask the agent to implement Reports/<Name>.cs and Reports/<Name>.Designer.cs from the plan.
4. Run dotnet build to verify zero errors.