You can create a page report that contains a map using the ActiveReports Map control. The Map shows your data on a geographical background. This walkthrough illustrates how to create a report that uses a Map to display data.
The walkthrough is split into the following activities:
- Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project
- Connecting the report to a data source
- Adding a dataset
- Adding Map control to the report and configuring its data
- Configuring appearance of the Map
- Viewing the report
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Note:
- This walkthrough use tables from the Reels database. By default, in ActiveReports, the Reels.mdb file is located in the [User Documents folder]\GrapeCity Samples\ActiveReports 9\Data folder.
- Although this walkthrough uses Page reports, but this can be implemented using RDL reports also.
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When you complete this walkthrough you get a layout that looks similar to the following at design time and at runtime.
Design Time Layout
Runtime Layout
To add an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project
- Create a new Visual Studio project.
- From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
- In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 9 Page Report and in the Name field, rename the file to CustomersPopulation.
- Click the Add button to open a new fixed page 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
- In the Report Explorer, right-click the Data Sources node and select the Add Data Source option or select Data Source from the Add button.
- In the Report Data Source Dialog that appears, select the General page and in the Name field, enter a name like ReportData.
- On this page, create a connection to the Reels database. See Connect to a Data Source for information on connecting to a data source.
To add a dataset
- In the Report Explorer, right-click the data source node and select the Add Data Set option or select Data Set from the Add button.
- In the DataSet Dialog that appears, select the General page and enter the name of the dataset as Customers. This name appears as a child node to the data source icon in the Report Explorer.
- On the Query page of this dialog, in the Query field enter the following SQL query.
SQL Query |
Copy Code
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SELECT Address.Region, Customer.CustomerID FROM (Address INNER JOIN Person ON Address.[AddressID] = Person.[AddressID]) INNER JOIN Customer ON Person.[PersonID] = Customer.[PersonID];
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- Click the Validate DataSet icon at the top right hand corner above the Query box to validate the query.
- Click OK to close the dialog. Your data set and queried fields appear as nodes in the Report Explorer.
To add a Map data region and configure its data
- From the Visual Studio toolbox, drag and drop a Map control onto the .
- In the Select a Map Template wizard that appears, select the USA Map template.
- Click the Map until the map panes appear.
- In the , right click PolygonLayer1 and select Layer Data to open Map Layer Data Properties dialog.
- In the Map Layer Data Properties dialog that appears, go to the Analytical data page.
- Select Customers from the Dataset property combo box and then click the Add (+) button located next to the Match label. This creates an empty match item and enables its Spatial and Analytical fields editor.
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Note: It is necessary to set match fields if you want to use a spatial data field from analytical data, or if you want to visualize analytical data on the map layer. Match fields enable the report processor to build a relationship between the analytical data and the spatial data. |
- In the Spatial field property, select
STATE_ABBR
from the combo box; and similarly, select =Fields!Region.Value
in the Analytical field property. This builds the match field expression and relates the analytical data to map elements on a polygon layer.
- Click OK to close the dialog.
To configure appearance of the Map
- In the , right click PolygonLayer1 and select Edit to open Map Polygon Layer dialog.
- In the General page of the dialog, select
#STATE_NAME
from the Label Text combo box to display as label inside polygons at runtime.
- Go to the Color Rule page of the dialog, and select Visualize data by using color palette option. This activates the tabs below.
- On the General tab, enter the following expression
=Count([CustomerID])
in the Data field property and set Palette property to SemiTransparent.
- On the Distribution tab, set the Method property to EqualInterval.
- On the Legends tab, click to select Show in Legend.
- In Legend Name, enter Legend. This name relates to the default legend that appears in the Legend collection.
- Click OK to close the dialog.
- On the design surface, click on the Map control to select it and go to the Properties Window to set the following properties:
Properties
Property Name |
Property Value |
BackgroundColor |
White |
BackgroundGradientEndColor |
White |
BorderStyle |
Solid |
ColorScale > Hidden |
True |
DistanceScale > Hidden |
True |
Location |
0in, 0.625in |
Size |
6.5in, 4.75in |
ViewPort > BackgroundColor |
LightSteelBlue |
ViewPort > BackgroundGradientEndColor |
White |
ViewPort > BorderStyle |
None |
ViewPort > CoordinateSystem |
Planar |
ViewPort > Margin > Right |
20pt |
ViewPort > Meridians > Hidden |
True |
ViewPort > Parallels > Hidden |
True |
ViewPort > View > Zoom |
115 |
- With the Map control selected, go to the Properties window, click the Legends (Collection) property and then click the ellipsis button that appears.
- In the LegendDesigner Collection Editor that appears, under the Members list, select the existing legend and set the following properties:
Properties
Property Name |
Property Value |
BackgroundColor |
LightSteelBlue |
BackgroundGradientEndColor |
White |
Location > DockOutsideViewport |
False |
Location > DockPosition |
RightBottom |
Title > (Caption) |
Number of Customers |
Title > Font |
Normal, Arial, 10pt, Bold |
- Click OK to close the dialog.
- With the Map control selected, go to the Properties window, click the Titles (Collection) property and then click the ellipsis button that appears.
- In the MapTitleDesigner Collection Editor that appears, with Title selected in the Members list set the following properties:
Properties
Property Name |
Property Value |
(Text) |
Customers Population |
Color |
Black |
- Click OK to close the dialog.
To view the report
- Click the to view the report at design time.
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