Show All

Hide All

When you upgrade reports from previous versions of ActiveReports or Data Dynamics Reports, there are several breaking changes.

In ActiveReports 11, data engine has been revamped to improve the data manipulation tasks such as sorting, filtering, and grouping.

Control Changes from Previous ActiveReports Versions to ActiveReports 11

The Excel Transformation Device option, the File menu item Microsoft Excel WorkSheet - Data (XLS), is no longer available for RDL reports in the default export dialogs of the viewer and designer applications shipped with the product. For backward compatibility, the Excel Transformation Device API is still available, but it does not support the new Tablix control. In order to successfully export reports using the new Tablix control, please use the Excel Rendering Extension option, the File menu item Microsoft Excel WorkSheet - Layout (XLS, XLSX).

The Matrix data region has been replaced in the toolbox with the new Tablix data region. However, it is still available in the API for backward compatibility. See the Matrix Class in the Class Library.

The OleObject control is now hidden by default in the toolbox for Section reports. To show this control in Visual Studio, open the GrapeCity.ActiveReports.config file and change the EnableOleObject value to true, and include this file with your application. You can find this file in a path like the following. C:\Program Files (x86)\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 11.

To show the OleObject control in the Designer control in your own end users designer applications, select the Designer control and, in the Properties window, change the EnableOleObject property to True.

The WebViewer control is now AJAX-based, and requires ActiveReports.ReportService.asmx to be in the root of the Web site or Web application. This is added automatically when you drop a WebViewer control on a Web form, or you can add it from the Add New Item dialog by selecting ActiveReports 11 Web Service, or manually by copying it from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 11. ExceptionOccurring, QueuingReport, ReportCreating and ReportDisposing events are no longer available in WebViewer class.

The Viewer control no longer has Annotations turned on by default. To enable Annotations, set the AnnotationDropDownVisible property of the Viewer control to True. DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Viewer.ReportViewer.MultiplePageMode property is now integrated into ViewType property of Viewer class. Viewer.ReportViewer.PaperColor property has been removed. Viewer.PageOffset property's type has been changed from Integer to System.Drawing.Point.

The Toolbar is now a Windows ToolStrip. Please see the MSDN ToolStrip Class for more information.

In RDL and Page reports, the default behavior of the Series Border Style setting for Area, Pie and Doughnut chart types has been changed. Now, the default value of this setting is None, thus no style formatting is applied.

Other Changes

Rendering Extensions (Image): ColorDepth is an obsolete property of GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Image.Page.Settings class.

Expressions: In Page report and RDL report expressions, "True" and "False" values are now handled as String, and not as Boolean values.
For example, =IIF(Fields!FieldName.Value = "True", 1, 0) is now an invalid expression when FieldName.Value returns a Boolean value, instead, use =IIF(Fields!FieldName.Value = True, 1, 0) expression.

Classes in Different Namespaces

In ActiveReports 11, some classes have been moved to different namespaces from previous versions of ActiveReports and Data Dynamics Reports. Drop down the table below to see some of the most commonly used classes that are in new namespaces.

Class Name	New Namespace	Former Namespace
Report	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReportModel	DataDynamics.Reports.ReportObjectModel
SectionReport (formerly ActiveReport)	GrapeCity.ActiveReports	DataDynamics.ActiveReports
PageReport (formerly ReportDefinition)	GrapeCity.ActiveReports	DataDynamics.Reports
SectionDocument (formerly Document)	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Document
SystemPrinter	GrapeCity.ActiveReports	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Interop
Printer	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.Printing	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Document
Field	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.Field	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Field
FieldCollection	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.FieldCollection	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.FieldCollection
ReportExplorer	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design.ReportExplorer.ReportExplorer	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Design.ReportExplore
Images	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design.Resources.Images	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Design.Images
Exports
HtmlExport	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Html.Section	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Html
PdfExport	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Section	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf
PdfSignature	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Section.Signing	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Signing
PdfStamp	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Section.Signing	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Signing
RtfExport	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Word.Section	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Rtf
TextExport	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Xml.Section	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Text
TiffExport	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Image.Tiff.Section	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Tiff
XlsExport	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Section	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Xls
ImageRenderingExtension	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Image.Page	DataDynamics.Reports.Rendering.Graphics
HtmlRenderingExtension	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Html.Page	DataDynamics.Reports.Rendering.Html
PdfRenderingExtension	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Page	DataDynamics.Reports.Rendering.Pdf
XmlRenderingExtension	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Xml.Page	DataDynamics.Reports.Rendering.Xml
WordRenderingExtension	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Word.Page	DataDynamics.Reports.Rendering.Word
ExcelTransformationDevice	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page	DataDynamics.Reports.Rendering.Excel
Report Controls
Barcode Chart CheckBox CrossSectionBox CrossSectionLine Label Line OleObject PageBreak Picture ReportInfo RichTextBox Shape SubReport TextBox	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.SectionReportModel	DataDynamics.ActiveReports
Chart CheckBox Container CustomReportItem Image Line List Tablix OverflowPlaceHolder Shape Table TextBox	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReportModel	DataDynamics.Reports.ReportObjectModel

Namespace Changes and Restructuring

Some of the changes that are not picked up by the upgrade tool may cause some issues in your code. The two most frequently encountered changes are:

DataDynamics.ActiveReports.ActiveReport is now GrapeCity.ActiveReports.SectionReport
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Document.Document is now GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.SectionDocument

These are all of the assemblies and namespaces that have changed, with any major changes noted.

ActiveReport class is now called SectionReport.
BarWidth property is now called NarrowBarWidth.

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports	GrapeCity.ActiveReports GrapeCity.ActiveReports.SectionReportModel GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.DataSources	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Interop	GrapeCity.ActiveReports
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Options	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.SectionReportModel

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Chart	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Chart
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Chart.Annotations	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Chart.Annotations
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Chart.Graphics	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Chart.Graphics

The Report property is now an Object that gets or sets a GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.SectionDocument or GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument.

The ColorTheme property of the Designer class is deprecated.

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Design	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Design.ReportExplorer	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.ReportExplorer
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Design.Toolbox	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design.Toolbox

The Document class is now called SectionDocument.

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports	GrapeCity.ActiveReports
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Document	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.Section GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.Printing(GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.v11)
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Html	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Html
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Document.Annotations	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.Section.Annotations

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Html	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Html.Section

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Section
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Signing	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Section.Signing

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Rtf	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Word.Section

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports	GrapeCity.ActiveReports

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Text	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Xml.Section

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReportsExport.Tiff	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Image.Tiff.Section

The History class is now an interface, IHistoryApi, that resides in the GrapeCity.Viewer.Common namespace.
The SearchResultsForeColor property now gets applied as the border around the searched text.
The DisplayUnits and RulerVisible properties of the Viewer class have been removed as the Viewer no longer uses a ruler.
The TabTitleLength property of the Viewer class is not available as the tab function of the Viewer has been removed.
The ViewerToolbar.DisplayToolTips property of the Viewer.ViewerToolbar class is now ViewerToolbar.ToolStrip.ShowItemToolTips.
The ViewerToolbar.Enabled property of the Viewer.ViewerToolbar class is now ViewerToolbar.ToolStrip.Enabled.
The ViewerToolbar.Visible property of the Viewer.ViewerToolbar class is now ViewerToolbar.ToolStrip.Visible.
The TargetView enumeration now has two enumeration values (Primary and Secondary).
The ToggleVisibility() method is now Visible property that determines whether sidebar is visible or hidden.
The Print method is implemented as an extension method of the PrintExtension.Print method, which is present in Grapecity.ActiveReport namespace of GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Viewer.Win.v11 assembly.

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Toolbar	The viewer now uses Visual Studio ToolStrips. Please see MSDN ToolStrip Class for more information.
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Viewer	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Viewer.Win GrapeCity.Viewer.Common

Note: GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Viewer.Win.v11.dll does not get added automatically to the project references when the report layout is added. You need to either add the Viewer control or manually add the reference to this assembly.

The Report property is now an Object that gets or sets a SectionDocument or ReportDocument.

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Web
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Controls	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Web.Controls
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.ExportOptions	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Web.ExportOptions
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers

ActiveReports Namespace (previous versions)	ActiveReports 11 Namespace
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Xls	GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Section
DataDynamics.SpreadBuilder	GrapeCity.SpreadBuilder
DataDynamics.SpreadBuilder.Cells	GrapeCity.SpreadBuilder.Cells
DataDynamics.SpreadBuilder.Imaging	GrapeCity.SpreadBuilder.Imaging
DataDynamics.SpreadBuilder.Printing	GrapeCity.SpreadBuilder.Printing
DataDynamics.SpreadBuilder.Style	GrapeCity.SpreadBuilder.Style