We have made a number of changes since the last version of ActiveReports Server. Here are the major ones.
Our licensing now focuses on which features you use, rather than how many users you have. In ActiveReports 8 Server, you can scale up as much as you need to without purchasing additional agents, and the browser-based Designer is now sold as a separate Addon for those who need it. For more information, see License Types.
In addition to page reports (*.rdlx format) and XML-based section reports (*.rpx format), you can now serve up traditional code-based ActiveReports. For more information, see Using Code-Based Section Reports.
In addition to support for parameters in page reports and end-user-created reports, we have added support for SQL query parameters as well as Report Explorer parameters in all section reports. For more information, see Setting a Parameter in the Preview.
The new HTML5 Viewer is a javascript component that you can use to show reports in a web browser. It includes a Mobile UI that is optimized for mobile devices, a traditional Desktop UI, and a Custom UI that developers can configure using the public API methods and properties. For more information, see Previewing Reports in HTML5 Viewer and How to Work with the HTML5 Viewer using Javascript.
We have ensured that you have an easy path to migrate all of your existing reports by allowing you to install the new version in the same folder over the previous version. The installer detects the previous version and suggests uninstalling it, and then adapts any existing agents, models, roles, groups, users, schedules, permissions, themes, reports, styles, audit settings and SMTP settings to work with ActiveReports 8 Server. For more information, see Migration from Previous Versions.