Get Started With the Standalone Report Designer

The Standalone Report Designer is a cross-platform desktop application that is the primary tool for creating new or modifying report templates.

Installation

To install the Standalone Report Designer, download the package for your operating system, extract the downloaded archive, locate the installer file in the designer folder, make it executable, if necessary, and run.

Operating System	Download link	Installer file	Installer Type
Windows	Download Windows package	ActiveReportsJS-Designer.exe	Windows Installer
macOS	Download macOS package	ActiveReportsJS-Designer.dmg	Apple Disk Image
Desktop Linux	Download Linux Package	ActiveReportsJS-Designer.AppImage	App Image

Configuration

When creating reports for your application, it is important to ensure consistent report output across the standalone report designer, browsers on report readers' machines, and exported PDF documents. The best way to achieve that is to establish the proper Font Configuration.

You might also want to turn on the standalone report designer's debug mode if something goes wrong. Check the Troubleshooting page for detailed information.

In addition, you can configure the report item templates for the standalone report designer application. After the first run, the app creates the Defaults folder within the app files directory:

Windows : %AppData%\ActiveReportsJS Designer
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ActiveReportsJS Designer
Linux: ~/.config/ActiveReportsJS Designer

The Defaults folder contains the following report item templates:

cplImperialTemplates.rdlx-json: Continuous Page Layout Report Items Template with imperial units
fplImperialTemplates.rdlx-json: Fixed Page Layout Report Items Template with imperial units
cplMetricTemplates.rdlx-json: Continuous Page Layout Report Items Template with metric units
fplMetricTemplates.rdlx-json: Fixed Page Layout Report Items Template with metric units

AI Assistance Configuration

The standalone report designer can generate report items — tables, tablixes, and charts — directly from your data using AI. Only the structure of your data — the dataset's field names and types — is sent to the AI provider; the actual data values never leave your machine. This capability is off by default and requires connecting the designer to an AI provider.

To enable it, add an ai-config.json file to the same app files directory described above:

Windows: %AppData%\ActiveReportsJS Designer
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ActiveReportsJS Designer
Linux: ~/.config/ActiveReportsJS Designer

The file must contain a provider property along with the connection settings required by that provider. Supported providers are openAI, azureOpenAI, google, and ollama:

OpenAI

{
  "Provider": "OpenAI",
  "ApiKey": "9JwEkCBx...",
  "Model": "gpt-4o",
  "Timeout": "90000",
}

Azure OpenAI

{
  "Provider": "AzureOpenAI",
  "ApiKey": "9JwEkCBx...",
  "Model": "gpt-4o",
  "Timeout": "90000",
  "DeploymentName": "gpt-4o-deployment",
  "Endpoint": "..."
}

Google Gemini

{
  "Provider": "gemini",
  "ApiKey": "AQ.Ab8R...",
  "Model": "gemini-3.7-flash",
  "Timeout": "90000",
}

Ollama (local)

{
  "Provider": "ollama",
  "Model": "qwen2.5",
  "Timeout": "90000",
  "Endpoint": "http://localhost:11434",
}

apiKey and model are specific to the selected provider. Azure OpenAI additionally requires endpoint and deploymentName; Ollama runs against a local server and needs no apiKey, but requires endpoint instead.

Once ai-config.json is in place, restart the standalone report designer, and the AI-assisted actions become available in the report designer interface.

Security tip: ai-config.json stores your AI provider's API key in plain text. Keep it out of source control and any location shared between users.

User Interface

The user interface of the standalone report designer consists of multiple parts.

The report designer interface to create report templates
The report viewer interface to preview report output
The Main Menu that includes the following items

Open, Save, and Save As buttons

These buttons are shortcuts for the standard Open, Save and Save As... commands of the File menu.

Preview button

This button switches the standalone report designer to preview mode to read the report output. You can return to the design mode by clicking the Left Arrow icon located in the top-left corner. Check the Report Viewer Interface documentation to learn how to navigate a report output.

Expand to watch switching between design and preview modes in action

File Menu

The File Menu opens the sidebar that allows you:

To create a New report selecting from Continuous Layout and Fixed Layout templates.
To Open the existing report template.
To Save[As...] the current report template.
To read the information About the product version and set the license key. See the Licensing Page for more information.