ActiveReports 11
Script for Simple Reports
ActiveReports 11 > ActiveReports User Guide > Samples and Walkthroughs > Walkthroughs > Section Report Walkthroughs > Script > Script for Simple Reports

ActiveReports allows you to use scripting to embed code in reports saved to the XML-based RPX file format. By embedding script in reports saved as RPX files, you can later load, run, and display reports directly in the viewer control without using the designer. This walkthrough illustrates how to include scripting in a simple report.

This walkthrough is split into the following activities:

Tip: For basic steps like adding a report to a Visual Studio project and viewing a report, please see the Basic Data Bound Reports walkthrough.
Note: This walkthrough uses the the Northwind database. By default, in ActiveReports, the NWind.mdb file is located in [User Documents folder]\GrapeCity Samples\ActiveReports 11\Data folder.

When you have finished this walkthrough, you will have a report that looks similar to the following at design time and at run time.

Design-Time Layout

Run-Time Layout

To add an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project

  1. Create a new Visual Studio project.
  2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
  3. In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 11 Section Report (code-based) and in the Name field, rename the file as rptSimpleScript.
  4. Click the Add button to open a new section report in the designer.

See Adding an ActiveReport to a Project for information on adding different report layouts.

To connect the report to a data source

Note: The following steps are just for convenience so that the fields list in the Report Explorer can be populated at design time.
  1. In the Report Data Source dialog, on the OLE DB tab, next to Connection String, click the Build button.
  2. In the Data Link Properties window that appears, select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click the Next button to move to the Connection tab.
  3. Click the ellipsis (...) button to browse to your database, for example the NWind.mdb sample database. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate database path.
  4. Click the Test Connection button to see if you have successfully connected to the database.
  5. Click OK to close the Data Link Properties window and return to the Report Data Source dialog. Notice that the Connection String field gets filled automatically.
  6. In the Query field on the OLE DB tab, enter the following SQL query.
    SQL Query
    Copy Code
    SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid = 
    products.categoryid ORDER BY products.categoryid, products.productid
                                            
    
  7. Click OK to save the data source and return to the report design surface.

To create a layout for the report

  1. Right-click the design surface of the report and select Insert then Group Header/Footer to add group header and footer sections to your report.
  2. Increase the group header section's height so that you have room to work.
  3. With the GroupHeader section selected, go to the Properties Window to set the following properties.
    Property Name Property Value
    BackColor LightBlue
    CanShrink True
    DataField CategoryName
    GroupKeepTogether All
    KeepTogether True
  4. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to the GroupHeader section and set the properties of each control as indicated.

    TextBox1

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField CategoryName
    Location 0, 0 in
    Size 6.5, 0.2 in
    BackColor CadetBlue
    Font Bold:True
    Font Size 12

    TextBox2

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField Description
    Location 0, 0.2 in
    Size 6.5, 0.2 in
    BackColor CadetBlue

    Label1

    Property Name Property Value
    Text Product Name
    Location 0, 0.4 in
    Size 1, 0.2 in
    Font Bold:True

    Label2

    Property Name Property Value
    Text Units in Stock
    Location 5.5, 0.4 in
    Size 1, 0.2 in
    Font Bold:True
    Alignment Right
  5. From the toolbox, drag the following controls onto the detail section and set the properties of each as indicated.

    TextBox1

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField ProductName
    Location 0, 0 in
    Size 5.5, 0.2 in

    TextBox2

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField UnitsInStock
    Location 5.5, 0 in
    Size 1, 0.2 in
    Alignment Right
  6. Click just below the fields to select the Detail section, and in the Properties Window, set the CanShrink property to True to eliminate white space in the rendered report. 
  7. In the Detail section, select both TextBox1 and TextBox2, right-click and select Format Border.
    • Select DarkCyan in the color combo box.
    • Select the solid line in the Line Styles pane.
    • Click the bottom edge in the Preview pane.
    • Click the OK button to add a solid cyan line to the bottom edge of the text boxes.
  8. Increase the group footer section's height so that you have room to work.
  9. With the GroupFooter section selected, go to the properties window and set the following properties.
    Property Name Property Value
    BackColor PaleGreen
    CanShrink True
  10. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to the GroupFooter Section and set the properties of each control as indicated.

    TextBox1

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField TotalLabel
    Location 2.5, 0 in
    Size 3, 0.2 in
    Font Bold:True

    TextBox2

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField ProductName
    Location 5.5, 0 in
    SummaryType Subtotal
    SummaryFunc Count
    SummaryRunning Group
    SummaryGroup GroupHeader1
    Alignment Right

    Label1

    Property Name Property Value
    Location 0, 0.25 in
    Size 6.5, 0.2 in
    BackColor White (creates white space after the subtotal)
    Text
    Note: Delete the default text.

To add scripting to the report to supply data for the controls

  1. Click in the grey area below the report to select it, and in the Properties Window, change the ScriptLanguage property for the report to the scripting language you want to use. The default setting is C#.
  2. Click the Script tab located at the bottom edge of the report designer to access the scripting editor. Add the scripting code.

The following example shows what the scripting code looks like.

Warning: Do not access the Fields collection outside the DataInitialize and FetchData events. Accessing the Fields collection outside of these events is not supported, and has unpredictable results.

To write the script in Visual Basic.NET.

Visual Basic.NET script. Paste in the script editor window.
Copy Code
Private Shared m_reader As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader
Private Shared m_cnn As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection

Public Sub ActiveReport_ReportStart()
  'Set up a data connection for the report
  rpt.DataSource = ""  
  Dim connString As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Users\[User Folder]\Documents\GrapeCity Samples\ActiveReports 11\Data\NWIND.mdb"
  Dim sqlString As String = "SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid = products.categoryid ORDER BY products.categoryid, products.productid"
     
  m_cnn = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connString)
  Dim m_Cmd As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlString, m_cnn)
   
  If m_cnn.State = System.Data.ConnectionState.Closed Then
     m_cnn.Open
  End If
  m_reader = m_Cmd.ExecuteReader
End Sub

Public Sub ActiveReport_DataInitialize()
  'Add data fields to the report
  rpt.Fields.Add("CategoryID")
  rpt.Fields.Add("CategoryName")
  rpt.Fields.Add("ProductName")
  rpt.Fields.Add("UnitsInStock")
  rpt.Fields.Add("Description")
  rpt.Fields.Add("TotalLabel")
End Sub

Public Function ActiveReport_FetchData(ByVal eof As Boolean) As Boolean
  Try
    m_reader.Read
    'Populated the fields with data from the data reader
    rpt.Fields("CategoryID").Value = m_reader("categories.CategoryID")
    rpt.Fields("CategoryName").Value = m_reader("CategoryName")
    rpt.Fields("ProductName").Value = m_reader("ProductName")
    rpt.Fields("UnitsInStock").Value = m_reader("UnitsInStock")
    rpt.Fields("Description").Value = m_reader("Description")
    'Concatenate static text with data
    rpt.Fields("TotalLabel").Value = "Total Number of " + m_reader("CategoryName")+ " Products:"
    eof = False
  Catch
    'If the end of the data file has been reached, tell the FetchData function
    eof = True
  End Try
 Return eof
End Function

Public Sub ActiveReport_ReportEnd()
  'Close the data reader and connection
  m_reader.Close
  m_cnn.Close
End Sub

To write the script in C#.

C# script. Paste in the script editor window.
Copy Code
//C#
private static System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader m_reader;
private static System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection m_cnn;

public void ActiveReport_ReportStart()
{
   //Set up a data connection for the report
   rpt.DataSource = "";   
   string m_cnnString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Users\[User Folder]\Documents\GrapeCity Samples\ActiveReports 11\Data\NWIND.mdb";
   string sqlString = "SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid = products.categoryid ORDER BY products.categoryid, products.productid";
   m_cnn = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(m_cnnString);
   System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand m_Cmd = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlString,m_cnn);
  
   if(m_cnn.State == System.Data.ConnectionState.Closed)
   {
      m_cnn.Open();
   }
   m_reader = m_Cmd.ExecuteReader();
}

public void ActiveReport_DataInitialize()
{
   //Add data fields to the report
   rpt.Fields.Add("CategoryID");
   rpt.Fields.Add("CategoryName");
   rpt.Fields.Add("ProductName");
   rpt.Fields.Add("UnitsInStock");
   rpt.Fields.Add("Description");
   rpt.Fields.Add("TotalLabel");
}

public bool ActiveReport_FetchData(bool eof)
{
   try
   {
     m_reader.Read();
     //Populated the fields with data from the data reader
     rpt.Fields["CategoryID"].Value = m_reader["categories.CategoryID"].ToString();
     rpt.Fields["CategoryName"].Value = m_reader["CategoryName"].ToString();
     rpt.Fields["ProductName"].Value = m_reader["ProductName"].ToString();
     rpt.Fields["UnitsInStock"].Value = m_reader["UnitsInStock"].ToString();
     rpt.Fields["Description"].Value = m_reader["Description"].ToString();
     //Concatenate static text with data
     rpt.Fields["TotalLabel"].Value = "Total Number of " + m_reader["CategoryName"].ToString() + " Products:";
     eof = false;
   }
   catch
   {
     //If the end of the data file has been reached, tell the FetchData function
     eof = true;
   }
   return eof;
}

public void ActiveReport_ReportEnd()
{
   //Close the data reader and connection
   m_reader.Close();
   m_cnn.Close();
}

To save the report to an XML-based RPX file

  1. From the Report menu, select Save Layout.
  2. In the Save dialog that appears, enter a name for the report, i.e. rptScript.rpx, and click the Save button.

To view the report

OR

See Also

Samples