Adding Run-time Designer to your Project

1. Click on the run-time designer icon in the toolbox.
2. Place the control on the form (shown below) and size it accordingly.

The run-time designer's appearance is the same as the ActiveReports ActiveX designer but the end user will not have direct access to the reporting events in Visual Basic. Instead, the user will use VBScript or JScript to handle the reporting events as needed. The run-time designer includes a syntax-highlighting editor for both languages.

The following sample demonstrates adding the run-time designer to a Visual Basic project and using ActiveReport's viewer control to view reports designed at run time.

1. Start a new Visual Basic standard EXE project.
2. Select the following components from Visual Basic's components list:
   • Data Dynamics ActiveReports Runtime Designer
   • Data Dynamics ActiveReports Viewer 2.0
   • Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control
3. Add the following references from Visual Basic's reference list:
   • Data Dynamics ActiveReports 2.0
4. Select Form1 and set its properties as follows:

   Name	frmMain
   Caption	Simple Designer Project
   Height	9465
   Width	11295

 

5. Add a SSTab control to frmMain and set its properties as follows:

   Height	9015
   Left	0
   Tabs	2
   Top	0
   Width	11175
6. Right-click on SSTab1 and select properties.
7. Set the TabCaption for Tab0 to Run-time Designer.
8. Set the TabCaption for Tab1 to Report Preview and select OK to close the tab control's property page.
9. Add the run-time designer to Tab0 and set its properties as follows:

   Name	ard
   Height	8415
   Left	120
   Top	480
   Width	10935

10. Add the viewer control to Tab1 and set its properties as follows:

    Name	arv
    Height	8535
    Left	120
    Top	360
    Width	10935
11. frmMain should look like this:

    

12. Add the following code to the Form_Load event:

    Dim rpt As DDActiveReports2.ActiveReport
     
    Private Sub Form_Load()
    	'Set active Tab to the designer
    	SSTab1.Tab = 0
    	Set rpt = New ActiveReport
    	'Activate all the toolbars
    	ard.ToolbarsVisible = ddTBToolBox + ddTBAlignment + ddTBExplorer + _
    		ddTBFields + ddTBFormat + ddTBMenu + ddTBPropertyToolbox + ddTBStandard
     
    	ard.ToolbarsAccessible = ddTBToolBox + ddTBAlignment + ddTBExplorer + _
    		ddTBFields + ddTBFormat + ddTBMenu + ddTBPropertyToolbox + ddTBStandard
    End Sub

    Note: When working with the designer, the toolbars cannot be customizing. The only available options are ToolbarsVisible and ToolbarsAccessible. If the project requires custom toolbars, a third party toolbar control will need to be substituted for the runtime designer's toolbars.

13. Add the following code to the SSTab1_Click event:

    Private Sub SSTab1_Click(PreviousTab As Integer)
    	Select Case PreviousTab
    		Case Is = 0
    			prepPreview
    		Case Is = 1
    			prepDesigner
    	End Select
     
    End Sub

14. Add the following code to prepare the viewer control and designer when its tab is selected:

    Private Sub prepPreview()
    	On Error GoTo errHndl
    	'Must be used to writes the designer's layout
    	'to the report so it can be previewed
    	ard.SaveToObject rpt
    	rpt.Restart
    	'Run the new report
    	rpt.Run False
    	'Add the report to the veiwer
    	Set arv.ReportSource = rpt
    	Exit Sub
     
    	errHndl:
    	MsgBox "Error Previewing the Report: " & Err.Number & " " & Err.Description
    End Sub
     
    Private Sub prepDesigner()
    	On Error GoTo errHndl
     
    	If Not arv.ReportSource Is Nothing Then
    		arv.ReportSource.Cancel
    		Set arv.ReportSource = Nothing
    	End If
     
    	Exit Sub
    	errHndl:
    	MsgBox "Error in Design Preview: " & Err.Number & " " & Err.Description
    End Sub

    Note: SaveToObject must be used to save the changes made in the run-time designer to an ActiveReport report object. You should always use that object to run and preview the report, do NOT use the designer's Report property to run and preview the report.

15. Save and run the project.
16. While the project is running, continue on to the next sample for a demonstration on using the designer at run time.

Working with the Designer at Run time