ActiveReports 6 contains many new features that enhance the reporting capabilities already praised by developers in previous versions of ActiveReports.

What's new in the ActiveReports 6 Service Pack 2 Hotfix 1?

Crystal Reports-to-ActiveReports converter

You have been able to convert all of your old 2005 and 2008 version Crystal Reports into ActiveReports 6 reports using shortcuts in the Start menu under All Programs, GrapeCity, ActiveReports 6, Tools: Crystal Reports to ActiveReports Converter. New features are as follows.

• Now supports converting datasources from Crystal Reports when converting to RPX format.
• Now supports conversion of Crystal Reports 2010 templates to RPX format.

Learn More | Converting Crystal Reports

End User Report Designer

A new public API allows you to update properties on reports, sections and controls at run time in your End User Designer applications.

Learn More | Update properties on reports, sections and controls at run time in the End User Designer

Exports and Report Properties

We continually enhance ActiveReports by adding properties based on your feedback. New properties in this hot fix include the following.

• The OnlyForPrint property of the PDFDocumentOptions class in PDFExport has been made public.
• Added DpiX and DpiY properties to set resolution for the TiffExport.
• Added a new DateTime category to the AxisType enumeration in the Chart control.
• Added the ability to change the PageMargin property in the PageStart event of a report.

Learn More | OnlyForPrint Property | DpiX Property | DpiY Property | AxisType Enumeration | PageMargin Property

Licensing

We have added the Silverlight Class Library License Generator to the ActiveReports installation so that you can license compiled assemblies containing the Silverlight Viewer.

• The DLL or EXE of an application can now be passed as a parameter in the ApplicationLicenseGenerator.
• The Silverlight Viewer hosted in a Silverlight Class Library project can now be licensed.

Learn More | License Your ActiveReports

What's new in the ActiveReports 6 Service Pack 2?

The latest ActiveReports service pack includes major features and a number of enhancements and fixes. Highlights include:

ActiveReports 6 Silverlight Viewer

Designed for reporting in Microsoft Silverlight 4 and higher, the Silverlight Report Viewer is simple, lightweight, flexible, localizable, and easy to customize for quick end user deployment. It includes these features:

• Preview reports loaded from a file, document stream, ASPX page, RPX Handler, or WCF service.
• End-user toolbar with Table of Contents (TOC), Thumbnails, Print, Search, Zoom, and Navigation buttons, plus you can add your own custom buttons.
• Printing support with an extra print-to-PDF option.
• Full UI customization with Themes and Localization support.
  • Use Silverlight Viewer XAML template to customize the look of the UI. We provide pre-customized templates in six useful themes.
  • Use resource files (*.resx) to create custom localizations of all text in the UI. We provide pre-localized satellite assemblies for Chinese, Japanese, and Russian.
• Out-of-browser support (see included OOB sample).
• Samples: Two new samples in CSharp and VB.
  • Silverlight Viewer sample.
  • Silverlight Viewer Out-Of-Browser sample application.

For more information, see our topics Silverlight Viewer (Pro Edition) and Silverlight Viewer Hot Keys and Shortcuts (Pro Edition). The Silverlight Viewer (Pro Edition) walkthrough will guide you through the process of creating a Silverlight application in Visual Studio and viewing a report in the ActiveReports Silverlight Viewer.

The ActiveReports Silverlight Report Viewer is licensed for use in the ActiveReports 6 Professional Edition. Existing ActiveReports 6 Professional Edition customers can download the latest service pack and use the Silverlight Report Viewer control at no additional charge. ActiveReports Standard Edition customers need to upgrade to the ActiveReports 6 Professional edition to use the Silverlight Report Viewer.

Learn More | Silverlight Viewer Walkthrough | Localize | Customize | Print to PDF

Enhanced Windows Azure Reporting

The latest release improves on the ActiveReports support for Windows Azure reporting. New enhancements include:

• Export your reports to Microsoft Excel from within Azure in full trust mode.
• PDF digital signatures are now supported in Azure full trust mode. 
• ActiveReports is supported in Azure under partial trust with standard platform limitations.

See Windows Azure Support for information on what is compliant with Windows Azure partial trust in ActiveReports 6.

Web Key Generator

This release includes a Web Key Generator utility that you can use on a licensed machine to create a Web key for your ActiveReports project.

Learn More (see the Web Key section).

For a full list of features, enhancements and fixes in ActiveReports 6 Service Pack 2, please visit the download page.

What's new in the ActiveReports 6 Service Pack 1 Hotfix 1?

Crystal Reports-to-ActiveReports converter

By popular demand, we have added a new Crystal Reports-to-ActiveReports converter! Now you can convert all of your old 2005 and 2008 version Crystal Reports into ActiveReports 6 reports. We provide two new executables with the installation, each with a shortcut in the Start menu under All Programs, GrapeCity, ActiveReports 6: CrystalToAR2005 and CrystalToAR2008. For more details, see our help topic on Converting Crystal Reports.

What's new in ActiveReports 6 Service Pack 1?

Support for Visual Studio 2010

ActiveReports 6 now supports Visual Studio 2010, as well as Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.

Support for .NET Framework 4.0 Client profile

By supporting the .NET Framework 4.0 Client profile, ActiveReports 6 now provides its users with lightweight and fast installation packages, thus expanding the large range of great features in ActiveReports 6. For more information on what is compliant with the .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile in ActiveReports 6, see ActiveReports and the .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile.

Support for Windows Azure (Full Trust)

ActiveReports 6 now includes support for Microsoft Windows Azure cloud services in full trust mode, granting access to the benefits of using this platform. See Windows Azure Support for information on what is compliant with Azure in ActiveReports 6. 

What's new in ActiveReports 6 Hot Fix 2?

Medium Trust Support

ActiveReports 6 can now generate ASP.NET reports in a medium trust environment. Understanding that many web hosting environments do not grant full trust, we have done our best to improve your ASP.NET reporting experience. So long as you avoid the high-end features, you can provide robust reporting solutions even in a medium trust environment! For more information on what is compliant with medium trust in ActiveReports, see Medium Trust Support, and for more information on medium trust in general, see MSDN's article How To: Use Medium Trust in ASP.NET 2.0.

Advanced Character Support

The PDF exporting feature in the Professional Edition now allows you to export End-User Defined Characters (EUDC) in East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. For example, old Chinese characters that are used for names in Japanese may require custom characters that users must create themselves, or must purchase in a third-party font package. In older versions of ActiveReports, the custom characters would not be rendered.  Now you can link fonts to one or sometimes more EUDC fonts in the Professional Edition.

The ActiveReports 6 Pro Edition PDF Export filter also features a new font fall-back mechanism. ActiveReports follows the conventional Windows font linking and font fall-back paradigm to detect linked fonts and use a predefined font as a fall-back font to render the characters in the exported PDF.

Another usage for font linking or font fall-back is for textboxes which contain multiple languages that require different fonts to render all of the glyphs. Since only one font at a time can be specified for a textbox, these new methods allow you to link fonts and specify fall-back fonts so that all of the glyphs are rendered in your PDF exports. See Font Linking (Pro Edition) and Custom Font Factory for more information.

Flash Viewer Client-Side API Support

Now you can customize the look and feel of the Flash Viewer using client-side JavaScript API functions. See Customizing the Flash Viewer UI for information on how to change the viewer appearance, load and print documents, as well as handle errors and various events. Here is a quick listing of things you can do with the JavaScript API:

• Load a document (RDF format)
• Navigate through the document
• Specify MultiPage settings
• Set a theme and hyperlink colors
• Specify settings for the Table of Contents panel
• Customize the FlashViewer toolbar
• Use event handlers to create custom commands
• Display error messages or warnings to users
• Control printing options and page settings

Localize Individual Controls and Entire Reports

With the new public Culture property on the following items, you can define how ActiveReports formats data when the OutputFormat property is set to D (date), C (currency), or other culture-specific .NET format specifiers.

• ActiveReport class
• TextBox control
• Chart control

This makes language- and culture-independent reporting possible, with no run-time dependency on the language and culture settings of the application or of the underlying operating system. Now you can design reports with data that is formatted the same regardless of the language under which it is run. See Localize ActiveReport Classes, TextBoxes, and Chart Controls for more details.

What's new in ActiveReports 6 Hot Fix 1?

The RPX Format Is Back

RPX, the Report XML format that was available prior to ActiveReports for .NET 3, is back, and it is better than ever. We now offer design-time support for the format, and you can access controls directly in script with no need to typecast them. In the new implementation, the improved script editor even allows you to use Me or this instead of rpt to access the report in script. RPX is an XML report layout format that allows you to change reports in an application without recompiling it. Instead of VB or C# code, you use VB or C# script with this format.

For more information, see ActiveReports Templates and Basic XML-Based Reports (RPX).

What's new in ActiveReports 6?

New Flash Viewer

The WebViewer control (Professional Edition) has a new ViewerType. The FlashViewer, which has no security risks, is interactive, comes with several skins, and you can create your own skins for a totally custom look. Since most users have Flash installed already, they need only download a small swf file to view your reports in their internet browsers.

For more information, see Flash Viewer, Flash Viewer Options, and the NEW Flash Web Viewer Sample.

New Cross Section Controls

Drop one of the new cross section controls into any header section, and it automatically stretches across any intervening sections to its related footer section. The CrossSectionLine control renders a vertical line that begins where you place it in a header section, grows with any intervening sections, and ends where you place it in the related footer section.

The CrossSectionBox control renders a rectangular outline with its corners where you place them in the header and footer sections, and its vertical lines growing with intervening sections. Set the Radius property to control the degree of rounding on the corners of the box.

For a demonstration, see the NEW Cross Section Control Sample topic.

New SnapLines

SnapLines let you glide controls freely around your report instead of snapping to a grid, and display blue horizontal and vertical alignment lines and slowed dragging when your control comes into alignment with  other controls or section edges. Visual placement of controls has never been easier.

See Snap Lines for more information.

New Detail RepeatToFill Property

The Detail section has a new RepeatToFill property that allows your green bar or other formatting to fill the page even if your data doesn't. For the simplest example, if you have a report with a PageHeader, Detail, and PageFooter section, and the detail section has a background color set, the background color on the last page would normally end with the data, and then the PageFooter section would render at the bottom of that page, leaving a white gap between the two sections. With the RepeatToFill property set to True however, the last page of the report would have the background color extending down to just above the PageFooter, leaving no white space.

For a demonstration, see the NEW Cross Section Control Sample topic.

New Professional Edition Digital Signature and TimeStamp Features on the PDF Export

The new Signature feature includes sixteen properties such as Certificate to prove that you created the document, and CertificationLevel to control users' access to your documents. And if you need to prove that data such as contracts or medical records existed before a certain point, set the new TimeStamp property on your PDF exports. To use the feature, provide the URL of a trusted third party acting as a time stamping authority (TSA). The digital signature and time stamp are concatenated with a one-way hash calculated from the report data.

New Support for External Style Sheets

With the addition of several options on the Report Settings window in the Styles page, you can now save the styles you set on report sections into external XML style sheets. Once saved, you can link these external style sheets to other reports for an easy way to keep related reports consistent.

See the NEW Style Sheets Sample and the Use External Style Sheets topic for more information.

New ToolStrips

The End User Designer no longer relies on clunky old toolbars or CommandBarManager. It has all been replaced with the Visual Studio ToolStrip component. See the refurbished EndUserDesigner Sample for a demonstration, or see the Add Designer ToolStrips topic for more information.

New Annotation Images

The Viewer now allows users to add images as annotations. To use it, drop down the Annotations list, drag the new Image annotation onto the report, right-click the image and choose Properties. In the Annotation's Properties window that appears, you can set the Background Image property to any image.

New TextJustify Property

Text justification in TextBox and Label controls now also supports single character justification. When you set the Alignment property to Justify, the new TextJustify property extends your justification options to include Auto (default), Distribute and DistributeAllLines.

New Padding on TextBoxes

The TextBox control now has a Padding property, with five settings at design time: All, Left, Top, Right, and Bottom. More settings, like Vertical and Horizontal, are available in code. The All property has a default value of -1, which means that all of the Padding values are not equal. Change this value to 10, and a space ten pixels wide is left around the text on all sides. The Left, Top, Right, and Bottom properties are 0, 0, 0, 0 by default.

New Direct Text Input for TextBox, Label, and CheckBox Controls

Double-click inside the control or select it and press the F2 key to edit text directly in the control instead of using the Properties window. If you do use the Properties window, the Text property now supports multi-line text input.

New Barcode Symbologies

With the addition of the six new barcode symbologies, developers are freed from the need to find a separate barcode component. This not only saves money, but also time, as the Barcode control is already integrated into ActiveReports.

New barcode symbologies include the following:

• Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) encodes Composite Component (CC) extended EAN and UPC information in less space. Here are the six variations included, and their usages:
  • RSS14 14-digit EAN.UCC item identification for use with omnidirectional point-of-sale scanners.
  • RSS14Truncated 14-digit EAN.UCC item identification plus Indicator digits for use on small items, not for point-of-sale scanners.
  • RSS14Stacked (pictured above) Same as RSS14Truncated, but stacked in two rows when RSS14Truncated is too wide.
  • RSS14StackedOmnidirectional Same as RSS14, but stacked in two rows when RSS14 is too wide.
  • RSSExpanded 14-digit EAN.UCC item identification plus AI element strings (expiration date, weight, etc.) for use with omnidirectional point-of-sale scanners.
  • RSSExpandedStacked Same as RSSExpanded, but stacked in two rows when RSSExpanded is too wide.

New Redistributable Help Project for the End User Designer

Now Professional Edition licensees have access to an Innovasys HelpStudio 3 User Guide project. If you have HelpStudio 3, you can customize it to create your own CHM or PDF file. If you have Adobe Acrobat, you can also customize the ActiveReports6EUD.pdf file. Or you can distribute the included ActiveReports6EUD.chm or ActiveReports6EUD.pdf file along with your Designer application.

For more information, see Customize End User Designer Help or Deploy End User Designer Help.

New Licensing

The SetLicense method has been deprecated. See License Your ActiveReports for information on using the new licensing.

See Also

 

 

---

©2011. GrapeCity, inc. All Rights Reserved.