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Migrate DevExpress Reports to .NET Applications

xtrareports-405215-dot-net-and-net-core-support-dot-net-migration-guides-migrate-reports-to-dotnet.md

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Migrate DevExpress Reports to .NET Applications

  • Nov 27, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read

The following help topic explains how to migrate reports created in .NET Framework applications to .NET Projects. You can reuse both a report definition stored as a .REPX extension and a report created in Visual Studio ( a .cs extension) in a report project on any available platform.

Note

You do not need to update report definitions each time you upgrade DevExpress Reporting. New versions of DevExpress Reporting Components will process existing reports correctly. However, a report created with a newer DevExpress version may not be rendered correctly in applications that use older versions of DevExpress Reporting Components.

Reports Designed in Visual Studio (.cs)

  1. Upgrade your existing .NET Framework application to the latest version of DevExpress components. Use the Project Converter tool for this purpose. Refer to the following help topic for additional information: Upgrade Your Application to a New DevExpress Version.

  2. Add required dependences to the .NET Project. You can do it in one of the following ways:

  3. Copy source code files of your reports (.cs, .designer.cs, .resx) directly into your new application. You may also need to move dependent classes and components from the existing project to the new one. Adjust the copied report code to fix compilation issues or resolve breaking changes.

You can now use migrated reports in your new .NET application. The following help topic outlines minor limitations compared to .NET Framework projects: Limitations of .NET Core Apps.

You may require additional packages to run our Reporting components on Linux or iOS: Use Reporting on Linux.

Reports Stored in REPX format

.NET applications only support reports saved to REPX format by using XML serialization. If you generate REPX reports with the latest version of DevExpress components or with the XtraReport.SaveLayoutToXml method overloads, no further actions are required to use such reports in .NET applications.

However, if you used REPX files created with legacy CodeDOM Serialization format or XtraReport.SaveLayout method overloads, convert these reports to XML format before migration.

For this conversion, use any application that targets the .NET Framework.

  1. Temporarily enable the Settings.AllowCodeDomLayoutDeserialization option at application startup.
  2. Load such reports in code (Load a Report in Code) and then save them in XML format as instructed in Save Reports in Code.