ActiveReports allows you to add pages to your report in Visual Studio for previewing in the viewer control or printing. The document containing the inserted pages can also be saved to an RDF file or exported.

This walkthrough illustrates how to create two reports and insert the second report as a cover page for the first one.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

• Adding two ActiveReports to a Visual Studio project
• Connecting the report to a data source
• Adding controls to both reports
• Adding code to the detail format event of rptInsertPage to alternate colors
• Adding code to the Windows Form Load event to set the viewer document equal to the report document and to insert the second report as a cover page
• Viewing the report
• Adding code to insert a page into a specific report location using the AddNew() method

To complete the walkthrough, you must have access to the Northwind database.
A copy is located at C:\Program Files\Data Dynamics\ActiveReports for .NET 3.0\Data\NWIND.MDB.

When you have completed this walkthrough, you will have a report that looks similar to the following. Please note that this image reflects a "1 X 2 Pages" view.

Adding two ActiveReports to a Visual Studio project

To add two ActiveReports to a Visual Studio project

1. Open a new project in Visual Studio.
2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
3. Select ActiveReports 3.0 File and rename the file rptInsertPage.
4. Click Open.
5. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
6. Select ActiveReports 3.0 File and rename the file rptCoverPage.
7. Click Open.

Connecting the report to a data source

To connect rptInsertPage to a data source

1. Click on the gray report DataSource icon in the Detail section to open the report DataSource dialog.
2. Select the "OLE DB" tab.
3. Click the Build button.
4. Select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click Next.
5. Click the ellipsis button to browse for the access path to the Northwind database. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate access path.
6. Click OK to continue.
7. In the Query field, type "Select * from products order by productname".
8. Click OK to return to the report design surface.

Adding controls to display the data

To add controls to rptInsertPage

1. Make the following changes to the PageHeader section:
   • Change the BackColor property to LightSteelBlue
2. Add labels with the following properties to the page header:

   Font Style	Name	Text	Location
   Bold	lblProductID	Product ID	0, 0
   Bold	lblProductName	Product Name	1.3, 0
   Bold	lblUnitsInStock	Units In Stock	2.65, 0
   Bold	lblUnitsOnOrder	Units On Order	3.9, 0
   Bold	lblUnitPrice	Unit Price	5.25, 0

3. In the Report Explorer, expand the Fields node, then the Bound node. Drag the following fields onto the detail section and set the following properties of each textbox as indicated. 

   Field	Text	Miscellaneous	Location
   ProductID	Product ID		0, 0
   ProductName	Product Name		1.3, 0
   UnitsInStock	Units in Stock		2.65, 0
   UnitsOnOrder	Units on Order		3.9, 0
   UnitPrice	Unit Price	OutputFormat = Currency	5.25, 0

To add controls to rptCoverPage

1. Make the following changes to the PageHeader section:
   • Change the Height property to 0.8
   • Change the BackColor property to LightSlateGray
2. Add the following controls to the page header:

   Control	Name	Text	Miscellaneous	Location
   Label	lblCompanyInfo	Company Street Name Company City, Company State Company Zip Code	Alignment = Center Size = 2, 0.56	0.2, 0.13
   Label	lblCompanyName	Company Name	Font Size = 16, Style = Bold	3.5, 0.25
   Line	Line1			X1 = 2.3 X2 = 6.4 Y1 = 0.06 Y2 = 0.06
   Line	Line2			X1 = 2.3 X2 = 6.4 Y1 = 0.72 Y2 = 0.72
   Line	Line3			X1 = 2.3  X2 = 2.3 Y1 = 0.06 Y1 = 0.72
   Line	Line4			X1 = 6.4 X2 = 6.4  Y1 = 0.06 Y2 = 0.72

3. Set the Height property of the Detail section to 2.8.
4. Add the following controls to the detail section:

   Control	Name	Text	Miscellaneous	Location
   Label	lblFax	Fax	Font Size = 24, Style = Bold	0.25, 0
   Label	lblTo	To:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	1, 0.75
   Label	lblFax2	Fax #:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	1, 1
   Label	lblPhone	Phone #:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	1, 1.25
   Label	lblRe	Re:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	1, 1.5
   Label	lblCC	CC:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	3, 1.5
   Label	lblDate	Date:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	3, 1.25
   Label	lblPages	Pages:	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	3, 1
   Label	lblFrom	From	Font Size = 12, Style = Bold	3, 0.75
   CheckBox	chkUrgent	Urgent		0.5, 2
   CheckBox	chkForReview	For Review		1.5, 2
   CheckBox	chkPleaseComment	Please Comment		2.75, 2
   CheckBox	chkPleaseReply	Please Reply		4.5, 2
   Line	Line5			X1 = 0.06 X2 = 6.44 Y1 = 2.38 Y2 = 2.38
   Label	lblComments	Comments:		1, 2.5

Adding code to the detail format event of rptInsertPage to alternate colors

To write the code in Visual Basic or C#

• Double-click the detail section of rptInsertPage to create an event-handling method for the detail format event. Add code to the handler to:
  • Alternate background colors 

  The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

  'Visual Basic
  Private color As Boolean
  Private Sub Detail1_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
        Detail1.Format
      If color Then 
         color = False
         Detail1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Gainsboro
      Else
          Detail1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Transparent
          color = True
      End If
  End Sub
  
  //C#
  bool color;
  private void detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
  {
     if(color)
     {
        color =false;
        this.detail.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Gainsboro;
     }
     else
     {
        this.detail.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Transparent;
        color = true;
      }
   }

Adding code to the Windows Form Load event

To write the code in Visual Basic or C#

• Add the ActiveReports viewer control to the Windows Form. Then, double-click the top of the Windows Form to create an event-handling method for the form's Load event. Add code to the handler to:
  • Set the viewer document equal to the rptInsertPage report document  
  • Insert rptCoverPage at the beginning of rptInsertPage

  The following example shows what the code for the Insert method looks like.

  'Visual Basic
  Private Sub myForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
       Handles MyBase.Load
     Dim rpt As New rptInsertPage()
     Viewer1.Document = rpt.Document
     rpt.Run()
     Dim rpt2 As New rptCoverPage()
     rpt2.Run()
     rpt.Document.Pages.Insert(1, rpt2.Document.Pages(0))
  End Sub
  
  //C#
  private void myForm_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  {
     rptInsertPage rpt = new rptInsertPage();
     viewer1.Document = rpt.Document;
     rpt.Run();
     rptCoverPage rpt2 = new rptCoverPage();
     rpt2.Run();
     rpt.Document.Pages.Insert(1, rpt2.Document.Pages[0]);
  }

Viewing the report

To view the report

• Press F5 to run the project and view the report.

Adding code to insert a page into a specified report location using the AddNew() method

To write the code in Visual Basic or C#

• Double-click the Windows Form to create an event-handling method for the form's Load event. Add code to the handler to:
  • Insert a page into a specific report location using the InsertNew() method

  The following example shows what the code for the InsertNew() method looks like.

  'Visual Basic
  Private Sub myForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
     Handles MyBase.Load
     Dim rpt As New rptInsertPage()
     rpt.Run()
     rpt.Document.Pages.InsertNew(3)
     Viewer1.Document = rpt.Document
  End Sub
  
  //C#
  private void myForm_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  {
     rptInsertPage rpt = new rptInsertPage();
     rpt.Run();
     rpt.Document.Pages.InsertNew(3);
     viewer1.Document = rpt.Document;
  }

See Also

 

 

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