ReportViewer control floating over form

Michele Santucci 1

I have some old ASP.NET WebForms that use ReportViewer control. The control works at runtime without problems but at design time it appears floating over the form instead being enclosed in the form where the control is declared.

<tr>
    <td>
        <rsweb:ReportViewer ID="rptDati" runat="server" Height="440px" Width="100%" />
    </td>
</tr>

I'm using the lastest version of Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportViewerControl.WebForms package (as long as the latest Visual Studio RDLC extension).
How can I fix it?

XuDong Peng-MSFT 10,096 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-04-02T02:47:02.467+00:00

Hi @Michele Santucci , I'm not sure if you are describing the dotted lines outside the table cells in the design view, it may seem to make the entire ReportViewer control float on the form, but it will not have any effect on the results. If you move the ReportViewer control out of the table, there will be no such dotted lines.
If I understand something wrong, could you describe your problem more accurately?
Michele Santucci 1 Reputation point

2021-04-02T07:37:03.117+00:00

Hi @XuDong Peng-MSFT , since an image is worth thousand words, this's the result.

ReportViewer should be placed below lblStatus element but as you can see it is rendered over it... but only at design time ... at runtime it correctly show in the correct place.
The behaviour get worse if I wish to specify height attribute for ReportViewer .. in such case object extend and overlaps with much of the form layout.
It may depends on css styles applied on the form? It needs to be enclosed inside particular tags?
Albert Kallal 4,651 Reputation points

2021-04-07T23:50:40.713+00:00

I can't say you can 100% rely on the web forms designer in that view mode. The problem is with the rise of css, and a HUGE and RAPID change in web technologies?

Well, then most developers don't' have or use a GUI for the web form layout. In fact, if you jump to MVC web development, you DO NOT have a web forms design surface anymore.

So all those developers? They simply do the layout via mark-up, and then say hit ctrl-s to save, and then go to the running browser (probably on their 2nd monitor) and then hit f5 to refresh. So, to see changes occurs in very little time.

Because web based technology is moving so fast? Well, then for that design surface to REALLY work correct, then that surface designer would requite the latest browser updates. This is something that no company can keep up to date - including Microsoft. And as a result, most developers don't use a web design surface, they use a real browser to see/display/show the layout and how it will look.
Albert Kallal 4,651 Reputation points

2021-04-07T23:56:24.683+00:00

However, having noted the above? Well, I did come form a desktop environment over to web based. So we love drag + drop designers . We love and use these design surfaces. And it also VERY much why I continue to use and love webforms and that whole design approach to software.

New developers thus don't much miss these surface designers, since they never had them anyway in web land. But from desktop land, this concept of drag + drop and then double clicking on a control to jump to code behind? This WHOLE asp.net system was created as what we call a transition technology. It allowed folks like me to easy jump to web development. Since back then, most developers were NOT coming from a web environment. This means that asp.net + webforms is not only a brilliant transition technology, but one that I still know and love, and MUCH easer for those from desktop land.

I thus don't think you can do much to fix this - but only live with some poor rendering, and I often have to do so.