Rendering to Excel

Microsoft Excel is one of the formats to which you can render your report using ExcelRenderingExtension. You can export excel files in two formats, i.e. Xls and Xlsx.

The following steps provide an example of rendering a report in the Microsoft Excel format.

Create a new Visual Studio project.
In the New Project dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 13 Page Report Application and specify a name for the project in the Name field.
Click OK to create a new ActiveReports 13 Page Report Application. By default a Page report is added to the project.
Add reference to GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.dll, GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Core.Export.Excel.Page.dll, and GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Core.Rendering.dll assemblies in the project.
On the Form.cs or Form.vb that opens, double-click the title bar to create the Form_Load event.

Add the following code inside the Form_Load event.

Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event.	Copy Code
' Provide the page report you want to render. Dim report As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport() Dim reportDocument As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument(report) ' Create an output directory. Dim outputDirectory As New System.IO.DirectoryInfo("C:\MyExcel") outputDirectory.Create() ' Provide settings for your rendering output. Dim excelSetting As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtensionSettings() excelSetting.FileFormat = GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.FileFormat.Xls Dim setting As GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.Rendering.ISettings = excelSetting ' Set the rendering extension and render the report. Dim excelRenderingExtension As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension() Dim outputProvider As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Rendering.IO.FileStreamProvider(outputDirectory, System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(outputDirectory.Name)) ' Overwrite output file if it already exists. outputProvider.OverwriteOutputFile = True reportDocument.Render(excelRenderingExtension, outputProvider, setting.GetSettings())

Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event.

Copy Code

' Provide the page report you want to render.
Dim report As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport()
Dim reportDocument As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument(report)

' Create an output directory.
Dim outputDirectory As New System.IO.DirectoryInfo("C:\MyExcel")
outputDirectory.Create()

' Provide settings for your rendering output.
Dim excelSetting As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtensionSettings()
excelSetting.FileFormat = GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.FileFormat.Xls
Dim setting As GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.Rendering.ISettings = excelSetting

' Set the rendering extension and render the report.
Dim excelRenderingExtension As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension()
Dim outputProvider As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Rendering.IO.FileStreamProvider(outputDirectory, System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(outputDirectory.Name))

' Overwrite output file if it already exists.
outputProvider.OverwriteOutputFile = True

reportDocument.Render(excelRenderingExtension, outputProvider, setting.GetSettings())

C# code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event.	Copy Code
// Provide the page report you want to render. GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport report = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport(); GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument reportDocument = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument(report); // Create an output directory. System.IO.DirectoryInfo outputDirectory = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(@"C:\MyExcel"); outputDirectory.Create(); // Provide settings for your rendering output. GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtensionSettings excelSetting = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtensionSettings(); excelSetting.FileFormat = GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.FileFormat.Xls; GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.Rendering.ISettings setting = excelSetting; // Set the rendering extension and render the report. GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension excelRenderingExtension = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension(); GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Rendering.IO.FileStreamProvider outputProvider = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Rendering.IO.FileStreamProvider(outputDirectory, System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(outputDirectory.Name)); // Overwrite output file if it already exists. outputProvider.OverwriteOutputFile = true; reportDocument.Render(excelRenderingExtension, outputProvider, setting.GetSettings());

C# code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event.

Copy Code

// Provide the page report you want to render.
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport report = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport();
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument reportDocument = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Document.PageDocument(report);

// Create an output directory.
System.IO.DirectoryInfo outputDirectory = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(@"C:\MyExcel");
outputDirectory.Create();

// Provide settings for your rendering output.
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtensionSettings excelSetting = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtensionSettings();
excelSetting.FileFormat = GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.FileFormat.Xls;
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Extensibility.Rendering.ISettings setting = excelSetting;

// Set the rendering extension and render the report.
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension excelRenderingExtension = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension();
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Rendering.IO.FileStreamProvider outputProvider = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Rendering.IO.FileStreamProvider(outputDirectory, System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(outputDirectory.Name));

// Overwrite output file if it already exists.
outputProvider.OverwriteOutputFile = true;

reportDocument.Render(excelRenderingExtension, outputProvider, setting.GetSettings());

Caution: To be able to successfully compile application in Visual Studio 2012, you need to edit app.config file as follows:

If target framework version of the sample is 4.6.2:
<dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.IO.Compression" culture="neutral" publicKeyToken="b77a5c561934e089"/> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.2.0.0" newVersion="4.0.0.0"/> </dependentAssembly>
If target framework version is 4.7.0 or higher:
<dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.IO.Compression" culture="neutral" publicKeyToken="b77a5c561934e089"/> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.2.0.0" newVersion="4.2.0.0"/> </dependentAssembly>

Excel Rendering Properties

ActiveReports offers several options to control how reports render to Microsoft Excel.

Property	Description
PageSettings	Returns an ExcelRenderingExtensionPageSettings object for initializing Excel file print setting.
Pagination	Forces pagination or galley report layout mode.
Security	Returns an ExcelRenderingExtensionSecurity object for initializing document security.
UseDefaultPalette	Indicates whether to export the document with the default Excel palette.
FileFormat	Specifies the output format of the Excel document, i.e. Xls or Xlsx.
OpenXmlStandard	Specifies the level of Open XML document conformance on exporting in Xlsx file format. You can choose from the following values: Strict The default value. Transitional The Excel file generated by scheduled task execution using Strict (the default value of OpenXMLStandard) cannot be viewed on IOS devices. To change the default value of OpenXMLStandard, add following configuration settings in GrapeCity.ActiveReports.config file: <ReportingConfiguration> <Extensions> <Render> <Extension Name="Excel" Type="GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.ExcelRenderingExtension, GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc4967777c49a3ff" > <Settings> <Property Name="OpenXmlStandard" Value="Transitional" Type="GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel.Page.OpenXmlStandard, GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Excel, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc4967777c49a3ff"/> </Settings> </Extension> </Render> </Extensions> </ReportingConfiguration>
MultiSheet	Indicates whether to generate a single-sheet or multi-sheet Excel document.
EnableToggles	Allows to export collapsible rows in the detail and row groups of the Table control of an RDL report. This property gets displayed in the Export menu when the Pagination property is set to False.

Interactivity

Reports rendered in Excel support a number of interactive features like Bookmarks and Hyperlinks. However, in case you have any data hidden at the time of rendering (like in a drill-down report), it does not show up in the output. It is recommended that you expand all toggle items prior to rendering.

Limitations

BackgroundImage and rounded corners (for Shape and Container) are not exported.
Overlapping controls are not supported and an incorrect result will be obtained in the case of export.
LineSpacing is not retained after export.
Exported FormattedText control does not preserve styles and formatting. It exports FormattedText as TextBox with plain text without any tags.
Barcodes are exported as an image object so scanning of barcode image may fail in some cases. It depends on printer settings and the scanner quality. Barcodes may be blurred on export and the caption may get truncated in case of physical printing.
Exported Boolean values are displayed in uppercase in both Xls and Xlsx files.
TextIndent property and FillCharacter property of the TableOfContents control's Level setting are not supported.
Text decoration (Underline and LineThrough) gets applied to the indented area, when left padding is applied to the TableOfControl's levels.
When a report is exported to Excel, CharWrap mode is ignored.