ActiveReports is an integrated ad-hoc report designer for
Microsoft .NET developers. It is the .NET reporting tool of
choice for hardcore developers who can push it to the limit
using the extensive APIs, but still makes it easy to create
entry-level reports using the familiar Visual Studio integrated
designers. ActiveReports satisfies the needs of virtually any
.NET reporting or ASP.NET reporting application in a wide variety
of business sectors including healthcare, insurance, financial,
banking, engineering, manufacturing and scientific.
Features and Highlights
Whether you develop for desktop, web or touch devices,
this collection provides the tools to tackle both core and
trending technologies.
Multiple
Report Types to Fit Your .NET Reporting Needs
Whether you develop for desktop, web or touch devices,
this collection provides the tools to tackle both core and
trending technologies.
- Fixed Page Layout gives developers
a new way of creating reports where layout is the primary
focus. Great for creating invoices, prospectus reports,
forms, or other highly structured reports.
- Continuous Page Layout makes it
easy to create reports using tables, crosstabs, charts,
and other data regions with flexible layouts.
-
Section-based
Reports follow the tradition of previous ActiveReports
versions as well as being similar to Access reports.
Using code-behind or scripts, you can respond to the
various events that occur while the report generates
to create extremely customised reports that are hard
to produce with other products.
Fast .NET Reporting Engine
ActiveReports is optimised for speed. Its unique architecture
allows the lean reporting engine to quickly read records
from the data source and immediately render them to the
output device. The simplicity of the design allows the data
to pass through quickly from processing to rendering.
Flexible
.NET API
The extensive ActiveReports API allows Visual Basic and
C# developers to completely control the report processing
engine to fit their needs. Events and properties control:
- Data retrieval
- Data transformation
- Layout
- Rendering
In addition, the API gives the developer complete control
over the rendered document to allow selective printing or
export, post-render drawing or stamping on pages, n-page,
and booklet printing. For added control, ActiveReports provides
unmanaged access to the print job, allowing tray selection
and duplex printer management as the document is rendered
to the printer.
Data
Visualisation and Layout
Whether you need a simple listing or groups with keep-together
control, master-detail reports, sub-reports, horizontal
and vertical multi-column reports, address labels and badges,
or richly formatted letters with mail merge support, ActiveReports
is the solution.
Simple and lightweight report controls allow you to easily
create dazzling reports. With a selection including textbox,
checkbox, line, shape, cross-section box, image, formatted
text with mail merge, barcode (2D and 3D), chart, and other
data visualisation controls, they support a wide range of
business reports. You can create reports of any size with
nearly endless layout options.
Rich
Data Binding
.NET data sources allow you to connect to any of the
standard databases, plus .NET in-memory objects and collections.
In addition, unbound data mode opens up the report to data
from anywhere, in any form. If your application can access
it, so can the report engine.
Visual
Studio Integrated Design Time
The ActiveReports report designer integrates with the
Microsoft Visual Studio IDE allowing C# and Visual Basic
developers to create reports and compile them into their
Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and Silverlight applications. ActiveReports
Professional Edition users can also use the royalty-free
end-user report designer control to give similar report
design functionality to end users within the business application.
View
Anywhere
ActiveReports offers versatile viewers to extend the
reach of your reports to every platform. Built-in report
viewers include HTML5, Windows Forms, Adobe Flash, WPF,
and a rich HTML viewer, all with built-in search functions,
hyperlink interaction, a table of contents, and multi-page
zoom view support.
ActiveReports includes Adobe PDF export with advanced
encryption and international font support, Microsoft Excel
export, and Rich Text Format (RTF) export. The extensive
API allows fine control over the exported documents and
their properties. The ActiveReports reporting engine supports
cloud computing on Microsoft's Windows Azure platform under
partial trust as well as full trust.
Support for Migration from Other Reporting Tools
ActiveReports helps you preserve your past investments
with easy report conversion from Microsoft Access and SAP
Crystal Reports, thus greatly reducing the effort involved
in recreating old reports when you migrate. No need to start
from scratch!
Global Options and Localisation Support
Localise the ActiveReports user interface to meet the
needs of all of your international users. (There are fully
localised Chinese and Japanese versions for those specific
markets.) Localisation also extends to the reports themselves:
the reporting engine can use locale-specific text and formatting
without the need to create multiple reports.
Deployment
ActiveReports uses XCOPY deployment, making installation
of your applications incredibly simple. There are no special
merge modules to include, no licensing servers to install
alongside your application, and no difficult activation
procedures to go through.
Visual Studio 2013 Ready
Get even more out of Visual Studio 2013 with ActiveReports: see increased productivity with less code required and
added functionality. ActiveReports offers full support
for Visual Studio 2013. While ActiveReports allows you
to adopt the latest technologies, it also supports versions
3.5 and higher of the .NET Framework.
Multiple Report Types to Fit Your Reporting Needs
- Fixed Page Layout gives developers
a new way of creating reports where layout is the primary
focus. Great for creating invoices, prospectus reports,
forms, or other highly structured reports.
- Continuous Page Layout makes it
easy to create reports using tables, crosstabs, charts,
and other data regions with flexible layouts.
- Section Reports follow the tradition
of previous ActiveReports versions and are similar to
Access reports. Using code-behind or scripts, you can
respond to the various events that occur while the report
generates to create extremely customised reports that
are hard to produce with other products.
Seamless Visual Studio Integration for an Easy Start
When you install ActiveReports, report design templates
are added to the Visual Studio installed templates list.
You can choose from page report, code-based section report,
or XML-based report templates. We also install entire-project
templates to get you started with creating a reporting application
quickly!
Easy-to-use Report Designer
Easily design great looking reports using the ActiveReports
report designer. The Designer tab organises your design
elements in one place:
- The dockable Report Explorer keeps all report controls,
fields, parameters, and report settings at your fingertips
- The ActiveReports toolbox allows you to drag and
drop controls onto your report and customise them
- The Preview tab lets you see how your reports will
look at run time without running the project
Use the Report Designer Control in your Own Apps
The ActiveReports Professional Edition features a royalty-free,
fully customisable end-user report designer control for
Windows Forms. This allows you to host the report designer
in your own Windows Forms applications and allow your end
users to create and modify their own reports. You can also
combine the Designer and Visual Studio PropertyGrid controls
for full reporting functionality. As a starting point for
your own application, see the sample project included in
the installation.
Localise Reports for Different Cultures
All report types in ActiveReports support localisation
of reports. Localise the content of your reports in the
same way that you do a Windows Forms application. You can
also specify that certain controls always use a particular
culture for formatting purposes (for example, when displaying
US Dollar values from your database while viewing the report
in France).
Localise Controls and the Entire UI for Different Cultures
ActiveReports uses standard .NET localisation satellite
assemblies. Included with the installation is the complete
set of resource files needed to localise the controls and
the engine so your users see everything in their own language.
Customisable Report Viewer Control for Windows Users
The included Windows Forms Viewer control allows you
to offer your end users:
- Selection of report parameter values
- Report zooming and previewing
- Multiple tabs for viewing hyperlinks
- Split-page and multi-page views
- Table of Contents pane
- Thumbnails pane with thumbnails of report pages
- Text searches
Customise the toolbar with extra buttons, and hide features
that you don't want to use. To get started, simply add the
control to your Visual Studio toolbox and drop it on a form.
Silverlight Viewer for Rich Reporting in Silverlight
The Silverlight Viewer control included in ActiveReports
Professional Edition allows developers to display reports
within their Silverlight applications. The control supports:
- Report parameters
- Report drill through
- Exporting the report into the various formats supported
by the product
Built on the MVVM design model, the viewer control will
fit right in with the rest of your applications. Use your
own template resources to alter the way the viewer looks,
for example, to add or remove toolbar buttons.
Flash Report Viewer Provides Rich Browsing on the Web
The Flash-based report viewer, included in ActiveReports
Professional Edition, provides a seamless, interactive report
viewing experience and one-touch printing.
- Choose from pre-defined themes (including Office,
Windows XP, Vista, and Windows Classic)
- Enhance the viewer experience by controlling the
printing, paging, table of contents, thumbnail views,
and other options with the extensive client-side API
- Localise the Flash Viewer with one of several included
locales - if your language is not available, you can
translate it for us and we'll integrate it into the
product
* This feature requires Adobe Flash version 10 or higher.
AJAX-based ASP.NET WebViewer
The ASP.NET WebViewer control, included in ActiveReports
Professional Edition, provides developers with multiple
ways of displaying reports all with the same server-side
control. Display reports using a:
- Rich HTML-based viewer that uses AJAX for page requests
as well as passing parameter information back to the
server.
- Raw-HTML dump that precludes the interactivity options,
but is good for just giving the user everything at once.
- PDF-based viewer, gives your users the best printing
option available as it avoids issues that come from
printing HTML.
Flash-based viewer.
Support for Windows Azure Reporting
ActiveReports supports reporting within Microsoft Windows
Azure cloud services in full trust mode. Although there
are some restrictions because of the underlying platform
limitations, you have early access to the benefits of using
this platform. In addition to PDF, ActiveReports also
supports the Excel Export filter in Azure full trust.
ASP.NET Medium Trust Support
ActiveReports supports ASP.NET medium trust environment,
with some restrictions. Understanding that many web hosting
environments do not grant full trust, we've done our best
to improve your ASP.NET reporting experience.
Built-in, Customisable Charts with Advanced Features
The ActiveReports toolbox includes a Chart control that
supports the most commonly used 2D and 3D chart types, including
XY charts and financial charts.
Report Parameters Enable Dynamic Filtering of Data
Use the ActiveReports Parameters collection to:
- Pass values directly into a textbox or a chart on
a report
- Choose what subset of data from your data source
to display in a particular instance of a report
- Pass values from a main report into a subreport
Specify report parameter values in code prior to running
the report or collect them at run time through any of the
various viewer controls. Page reports support rich report
parameters that let you prompt the user to select values
from a list that can be data bound, or use cascading parameters
to let the user narrow down their selection.
Wide Report Layout Flexibility
- Section Reports allow you to use
group headers and footers to section off portions of
data in your reports. Or, if necessary, you can embed
a report in another report using the Subreport control.
Once you place the Subreport control on a report, you
attach a report object to it in code. You can pass parameters
to the subreport from the main report, ensuring that
data related to the main report displays in each instance
of the subreport.
- Page Reports offer a wide array
of layout choices, focused on letting "data regions"
do their own layout and design. The new Fixed Page Layout
report type offers a true WYSIWYG report design experience.
You can also use the Continuous Page Layout model which
allows controls to grow and flow as needed.
Export to a Wide Range of Document Formats
ActiveReports includes tools for exporting your reports
to popular formats like:
Adobe PDF with advanced encryption and international
font support
- Microsoft Excel
- HTML
- Rich Text Format (RTF) or Microsoft Word
- Text or XML
- Various image formats (such as PNG, JPG, BMP, and
TIFF)
The extensive APIs allow fine control over the exported
documents and their properties. You can use the exported
documents in both Windows-based and Web-based applications.
Provide export options for your users, or have your application
create the exports automatically. With a separate DLL for
each export format, you are free to use and deploy any combination.
Advanced PDF Reporting Features
By using a single setting, you can prompt users to print
a report when the PDF opens. Additionally, the well-known
PDF reporting features of ActiveReports just got even
better in the Professional Edition. While exporting .NET
reports to PDF, you can now digitally sign your reports
with a hidden signature or with visible text and graphics.
Personalise your signature using 16 attributes. For example:
- Use the Signature to validate the report author
- Use a Certification Level attribute to control user
access
- Use the Time Stamp feature to create third-party
authorised versions of your documents
These features are fully compatible with Adobe's new
security guidelines.
Provide Powerful Printing Capabilities
With ActiveReports, printing your reports is not only
easy but it's powerful and fast. At design time and run
time, configure duplex printing, print multiple copies,
and configure page orientation. The Windows Viewer control
also has additional advanced printing options such as page
scaling, n-up printing, and watermarks.
Built-in Barcode Control
ActiveReports has excellent integrated barcode functionality,
including two new barcode symbologies in the latest version:
- Intelligent Mail barcode (the US Postal Service
is replacing the Postnet barcode with IM beginning in
2013)
- DataMatrix
Several options have also been added to the EAN and UPC
symbologies.
Crystal Reports and Access Report Conversion Tools
ActiveReports comes with an ActiveReports Import tool
that supports the conversion of Microsoft Access and Crystal
Reports (versions 2008 and 2010) to ActiveReports. Due to
differences between products, the extent to which your reports
are converted depends on your specific report layout.
External Style Sheets and Themes for Consistent Style
With ActiveReports, you can set up styles and apply them
to various controls within your reports, and then save the
styles to an external XML file for use in other reports.
Then, if you want to distribute the same reports with a
different look, simply change the style sheet instead of
changing fonts and colors and sizes on individual controls
in each report. Themes can also include images, allowing
logos or other ornamental images to be swapped out easily.
Extensive Public Knowledgebase
When you buy ActiveReports and related products, you're
getting a market leading product, and the confidence of
knowing that for more than a decade, over 50,000 developers
have adopted and enriched the product with their experience
and skills and have contributed to a global online knowledge
base with innumerable links, articles, forum discussions,
comparisons, blogs, and emails.
Royalty-free XCOPY Deployment Eliminates Costs and Overhead
With ActiveReports, you can create code-based section
reports within Visual Studio and compile them directly into
the executable. Additionally, you can use Page reports or
XML-based section reports with script that can be distributed
without compiling them into the application. You can distribute
ActiveReports assemblies using XCOPY deployment or place
them in the Windows global assembly cache (GAC). With XCOPY
deployment, developers can easily distribute applications
without being forced to use complicated installer technologies.
