HOWTO: How to Convert Reports from ActiveReports 2.0 COM to ActiveReports .Net

10-18-2006, 2:28 PM

Please take the following steps when converting ActiveReports 2.0 COM projects to ActiveReports for .NET projects:

  1. Save your ActiveReports 2.0 COM reports as RPX format. You can do this by going to the designer and choosing Save from the File menu.
  2. Open up the RPX file in Notepad. At the top, you will see code similar to the following. 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<ActiveReportsLayout
            GUIDLIB="{DC3145C4-8A68-477E-9891-3BBF23F79975}" GUIDREP="{382F693E-3377-4E5F-991C-12E880E39849}"
            LICENSE="10000000"
            PrintWidth="9360"
            DocumentName="ActiveReports Document"
            ScriptLang="VBScript">
  3. Change the “VBScript” to “C#”, then save the file.
  4. Open a Visual Studio project and add a new report. Name the report whatever report name you are going to load from the RPX file.
  5. While in the design surface of the report, choose Load Layout from the Report menu. Select the RPX file that you just modified. You should see the report in the .NET environment.
  6. Click on the datasource icon for the detail section of the report.
  7. Set the datasource of the report to "Unbound," click OK and rebuild your report.

Note: Please realize that if your old report contained any script code you will need to change the script to reflect either VB.Net or C#. Additionally, any code-behind from the old report is lost in the upgrade. It will need to be rewritten in the new environment in the .NET language of your choice (C# or VB.NET).