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ActiveReports allows you to bind reports to any type of data source, including arrays. You can create a report without setting its data source, then load the data into the control at run time. Use the ReportStart event to set up your data source, the ReportEnd event to close it, the DataInitialize event to create your fields collection, and the FetchData event to populate it.

Use the ReportStart event to connect the report to a data source

1. Double-click in the gray area below the report to create an event-handling method for the ReportStart event.
2. Add code to the handler to:
   • Set the database path (place this code above the ReportStart event)
   • Set the data source connection string
   • Set the data source SQL query
   • Open the connection to create the DataReader

The following examples show what the code for the method looks like.

Add using or Imports statements for System.Data and System.Data.OleDb.

To create a GetDatabasePath method in Visual Basic.NET

Private Function getDatabasePath() As String
   Dim regKey As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey
   regKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine
   regKey = regKey.CreateSubKey _
   ("SOFTWARE\\GrapeCity\\ActiveReports 6\\SampleDB")
   getDatabasePath = CType(regKey.GetValue(""), String)
End Function

Private conn As OleDbConnection
Private reader As OleDbDataReader
Private cmd As OleDbCommand

Private Sub rptYourReportName_ReportStart(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
   Handles MyBase.ReportStart
   Dim dbPath As String = getDatabasePath()
   Dim connString As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source= " + dbPath + "\\NWIND.mdb"
   conn = New OleDbConnection(connString)
   cmd = New OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON _
          categories.categoryid = products.categoryid ORDER BY products.categoryid, products.productid", conn)
   conn.Open()
   reader = cmd.ExecuteReader()
End Sub

To create a GetDatabasePath method in C#

private string getDatabasePath()
{
    Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey regKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine;
    regKey = regKey.CreateSubKey("SOFTWARE\\GrapeCity\\ActiveReports 6\\SampleDB");
    return ((string)(regKey.GetValue(""))); 
}
                
private static OleDbConnection conn;
private static OleDbDataReader reader;

string dbPath = getDatabasePath();
string connString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source= " + dbPath + "\\NWIND.mdb";
conn = new OleDbConnection(connString);
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid = products.categoryid ORDER BY products.categoryid, products.productid", conn);   
conn.Open();
reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

Use the ReportEnd event to close the data connection

The following examples show what the code for the method looks like.

To write the code in Visual Basic.NET

reader.Close()
conn.Close()

To write the code in C#

reader.Close();
conn.Close();

Use the DataInitialize event to add fields

The following examples show what the code for the method looks like.

To write the code in Visual Basic.NET

Fields.Add("CategoryName")
Fields.Add("ProductName")
Fields.Add("UnitsInStock")
Fields.Add("Description")

To write the code in C#

Fields.Add("CategoryName");
Fields.Add("ProductName");
Fields.Add("UnitsInStock");
Fields.Add("Description");

Use the FetchData event to populate fields

Reference the Fields collection only in the DataInitialize and FetchData events.

The following examples show what the code for the method looks like.

To write the code in Visual Basic.NET

Try
    reader.Read()
    Me.Fields("CategoryName").Value = reader("CategoryName")
    Me.Fields("ProductName").Value = reader("ProductName")
    Me.Fields("UnitsInStock").Value = reader("UnitsInStock")
    Me.Fields("Description").Value = reader("Description")
    eArgs.EOF = False
Catch ex As Exception
    eArgs.EOF = True
End Try

To write the code in C#

try
{
    reader.Read();
    Fields["CategoryName"].Value = reader["CategoryName"].ToString();
    Fields["ProductName"].Value = reader["ProductName"].ToString();
    Fields["UnitsInStock"].Value = reader["UnitsInStock"].ToString();
    Fields["Description"].Value = reader["Description"].ToString();
    eArgs.EOF = false;
}
catch
{
    eArgs.EOF = true;
}