ActiveReports for .NET 3 Online Help Request technical support
What's New
See Also
User Guide > Introducing ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 > What's New

Glossary Item Box

 ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 has many new features that enhance the reporting capabilities already praised by developers in previous versions of ActiveReports.

New Support for Visual Studio.NET 2005
ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 now offers support for Visual Studio .NET Versions 2003 and 2005.
New File Format
ActiveReports are now written in C# or Visual Basic for .NET, depending on the type of .NET environment in which you create the report. A new ActiveReports Report Converter can be used to convert RPX-based reports, ensuring that older ActiveReports will be fully supported by the new architecture.
New Chart types
With the addition of the seven new chart types, developers are freed from the need to find a separate charting component. This not only saves money, but also time, as the Chart control is already integrated into ActiveReports. New chart types include the following:
  • Funnel Charts show how the percentage of each data item contributes to the whole.
  • Gantt Charts graph the progress of project tasks.
  • Kagi Charts display supply and demand trends.
  • Point and Figure Charts define pricing trends.
  • Pyramid Charts share the same function as Funnel charts but show the data in a different format.
  • Renko Charts keep track of price movement.
  • Three Line Break Charts illustrate price changes.
New Design-time Functionality
ActiveReports boasts new design-time features that can reduce the amount of written code and give you greater control over the layout of your reports, such as the following:
  • The addition of a zoom toolbar item allows developers and end users to magnify the design surface of the report for more precise placement and viewing of report controls.

    The magnification ComboBox is viewable in Preview mode, at run time, and with the End-User Report Designer that is included in the Professional edition. Only the zoom control is available at design time.
  • A preview tab allows immediate visual feedback of what your report will look like at runtime. With a click of the mouse, you can preview your report and return to the designer to make changes. 

    To preview your ActiveReport, click the Preview tab below the report design surface. To return to the design surface, click the Designer tab.

     

  • The Report Explorer's Fields listbox has been replaced by the Fields node, giving the Report Explorer a more self-contained look and feel. Expanding the Fields node reveals the report's data fields.
  • The Report Explorer now contains a node for Calculated Fields. You can add, delete, and modify calculated fields at design time. 

     

  • A Parameters node has been added to the Report Explorer. You can easily add, delete, and modify report parameters at design time.  

     

  • .NET data components can now be dropped directly onto the design surface of an ActiveReport, resulting in a visual representation of the component in the new ActiveReports component tray. This makes it easy to use custom data.

     

  • More Shortcut Key Support
    • Copy a control to a different section by dragging it with the CTRL key depressed.
    • Move a control to a different section by dragging it with the SHIFT key depressed.
    • Select all controls in the active section by depressing CTRL + A.
  • New ReportInfo control can be dropped from the ActiveReports 3.0 toolbox onto any section of the report, allowing you to easily display report information such as "page N of M" and/or report run date in multiple formats through manipulation of the ReportInfo.FormatString property.

 

Viewer Enhancements
The Viewer control in ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 has been improved with several new features that improve the look and feel and behavior of your ActiveReports projects.
  • Annotations in the Viewer control

    The WinForms viewer control now provides for the placement of annotations on the viewer's report view. This makes it possible to add notes, special instructions, etc., directly on the ActiveReport itself, making team collaboration, feedback, and end-user support an easier task.

  • Tabbed Viewing in the Viewer control

    ActiveReports now uses the HyperLink property of controls to provide tabbed viewing for table of contents and Web links. If you click a hyperlink that navigates to a Web page or the TOC, a separate tab is opened within the viewer. Report navigation becomes much more appealing to end users, who can now quickly move from one view to another by clicking the tabs at the top of the report.

  • E-mail links in the Viewer control

    Links set to e-mail addresses in the viewer now use the operating system to find the appropriate e-mail program and create a new e-mail addressed to the specified recipient.

  • New HyperLink Properties for the Viewer Control

    Five additional hyperlink properties have been added to the viewer control that allow developers to further customize the look and behavior of their reports.
    Property Function
    HyperLinkForeColor Sets the foreground color of the viewer's hyperlinks
    HyperLinkBackColor Sets the background color of the control that hosts a hyperlink
    HyperLinkUnderline Determines whether hyperlinks will be underlined
    SearchResultsForeColor Sets the foreground color of the highlighted text when using the find dialog 
    SearchResultsBackColor Sets the background color of the highlighted text when using the find dialog 

Enhanced End-User Report Designer
The professional edition of ActiveReports now contains an enhanced end-user report designer that has been redesigned for ease of use. Among the enhancements is the addition of a CommandBarManager that can be used to place default toolbars on the designer. This gives your designer a consistent look and allows you to quickly create a functioning end-user report designer. Once the CommandBarManager has been added to the designer, you can add or remove individual command bars or command bar items to meet the needs of your end users.

Change to the Document.Print() Method

The Document.Print() method now returns Boolean overloads to indicate whether report printing has been aborted due to an unhandled exception, the user pressing the Cancel button, or if the report completed printing.
Added Scripting Capabilities
ActiveReports now supports the use of Visual Basic .NET and C# as scripting languages. To take advantage of this new feature, specify your preferred scripting language by setting the ScriptLanguage property on ActiveReports, which will be saved in the RPX file for the report.
To access the script editor, click the Script tab below the report design surface.
Enhanced Access Conversion
You can now select a single Microsoft® Access® report to import using the Access Import Wizard instead of importing all of the reports in the database.
New Barcode
New barcode type EAN128.
New CacheToDiskLocation property on the Document object
The new CacheToDiskLocation property allows users to specify the location of the CacheToDisk temp files.
A New Event in the End User Report Designer control
With the addition of the DataSourceIconClick event, developers can customize the datasource dialog that end users see in the Professional Edition.
New Web Viewer Export Options
You can now set export properties directly on the WebViewer control using the Properties grid. Expand the HtmlExportOptions and PdfExportOptions properties in the Properties grid to see all of the properties you can set.

        See Also

        ©2009. All Rights Reserved.