What's New in ActiveReports v17

ActiveReports v17.2 - October 3, 2023

Preconfigure Controls for End Users With Report Parts

Using the new Report Parts feature, developers can create pre-configured controls that they can then add to the ActiveReports toolbox for their end-users to drag and drop onto the design surface. A good example of this could be a complex chart that might be a bit hard to understand for the average end user. You can set everything up just the way it needs to be, add it as a report part to a report library, and then let users add the premade chart to their reports. From there, they can just make small customizations to fit the report instead of making it all from scratch.

Learn More About Report Parts | Report Parts Sample

Shared Data Source Support Added to the Web Designer

The WebDesigner and Blazor WebDesigner components now support shared data sources, which are reusable data source connections that may be used in multiple reports.

Configure and Use Shared Data Sources in WebDesigner | Configure and Use Shared Data Sources in Blazor Designer

Improved Accessibility of PDF and HTML Document Exports

A new AccessibleDescription property has been added to the Page/RDL Report's Chart (both Classic Chart and default Chart), Image, Line, Map, Shape, Bullet, Barcode, Sparkline, and FormattedText controls, as well as all custom report items, to allow adding alternative text or an alt attribute for use by accessibility tools. The property on exporting reports translates to ‘alternate text’ in PDF and the ‘alt’ tag in HTML.

The PDF and HTML exports now support proper tagging of the structural content in the TextBox, Table, and Table of Content controls.

The PDF export versions that adhere to the PDF/UA standards are PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-2a, PDF/A-2u, PDF/A-3a, PDF/A-3u, and PDF/UA-1.

Conditionally hide sections in RDL Multi-section and RDL Dashboards

Using conditional formatting, you can now hide sections in both RDL Multi-section and RDL Dashboard reports. This can be useful if you want to conditionally display/hide various sections depending on some value in your data.

With the new Insert and Duplicate context menu items for report sections, users can now insert new sections between each other and duplicate existing ones instead of only being able to add new ones at the end.

Actions Can Now be Added to Checkbox Controls

This is key for using the Apply Parameters feature for interactive runtime filtering with checkboxes. Previously, you had to put the action on the textbox and then link the state of the parameters to the checkboxes to give the user a visual representation of what’s currently selected. Now, you can add the action directly to the checkbox instead, which streamlines the process a lot.

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ActiveReports v17.2.1 Hotfixes

[AR-31465] Exception appears in export as task specific report in PDF
[AR-31508] PDF export memory consumption issue in ActiveReports 17(v17.1.2)
[AR-31594] Report with parameters is not previewed on pressing Enter
[AR-31595] The request to add a possibility to change the order of Export options in JSViewer
[AR-31619] Preview shows "The json data source has not been found" if the report has the dataset bound parameter and the connection string as expression
[AR-31631] Full report page refresh on expanding/collapsing tablix groups in SinglePage and Continuous Views
[AR-31643] ExportReportError appears when exporting RPX reports to TIFF with CompressionScheme=None using JSViewer
[AR-31651] "Jump to report" action on the legends works incorrectly.
[AR-31652] Fix editors for AccessibleDescription property
[AR-31659] The theme loaded by CustomResourceLocator is not applied to the preview
[AR-31670] Sizing 'Fixed' property doesn't work for Part Items in design-time in WebDesigner
[AR-31690] WebDesigner: Size of Part item can be wrongly calculated on Preview in Page report
[AR-31696] Checkbox “Allow to select multiple nodes and create separate dataset for each node” is missing for RDLX reports
[AR-31706] [Apply Parameters] Reset doesn't work when parameter is single-value and has default value from dataset.
[AR-31797] The parameter does not filter chart data when changing it after loading for the first time.
[AR-31802] Update GcDocs dependencies in hotfix because of breaking changes in GcDocs 6.2.0
[AR-31810] Incorrect Barcode generated for type UCCEAN128 (GS1-128)-2
[AR-31843] IconSet not working with Embedded images/Themes.
[AR-31851] RDLX: ActiveReports not rendering EMF images in .NET 7 applications
[AR-31859] [Section]Failed to render eval banner on environment without fonts
[AR-31860] No VQD button in Classic EUD
[AR-31868] JSViewer: the custom parameters panel/view reorders and stretches controls
[AR-31959] [SectionReport][ExcelExport] | Misaligned detail and header TextBoxes in exported Excel.
[AR-31963] "Object reference is not set.." error appears when there is not enough space for header to display content for page report
[AR-31964] ApplyParameters doesn't work on charts when chart animation is enabled
[AR-31979] NRE in preview when credentials input is canceled
[AR-31981] NRE in preview when valid credentials are entered
[AR-31986] Adding TIFF images to the Picture Control of Section Report in ActiveReports 17 (v17.2) throws an Overflow Exception.
[AR-32005] Adding a GIF image to the Picture control of Section Report throws a FatalExecutionEngineError when exporting
[AR-32022] Encoding of non-digit characters for Barcode with symbology UCCEAN128 (GS1-128)
[AR-32071] Data requests twice for semantic report
[AR-32093] Error “Value does not fall within the expected range” on exporting to PDF

ActiveReports v17.1 - June 6, 2023

Apply Parameters - Runtime Filtering

The new “Apply Parameters” action is the most exciting new feature coming with 17.1. Using this new action, you can dynamically apply parameters to a report in the report preview, allowing you to filter the data displayed in the report when a user clicks on something in the report at runtime.

In the below example, we have a basic sales dashboard with hidden parameters for Asia, America, and Europe. When the user unchecks/checks the box for the respective countries, the parameters are changed using the Apply Parameters action, and the data is filtered to show only the currently checked options.

Apply Parameters

RDL Dashboard Support in WinForms Designer

With the release of 17.0, we released the new RDL Dashboard report type, but it was temporarily only supported in the Web version of the designer. With 17.1, we’ve finished adding support for RDL Dashboard reports to the WinForms version, so you can also start using RDL Dashboard reports in desktop applications.

For now, the report section tabs and scrollable containers are not supported in the WinViewer control, but that will be coming soon. Currently, in the WinViewer, different report sections will be rendered as separate pages. If these features are important to your use case, we recommend using the JSViewer for now.

Web Designer Customization API Added to Blazor Web Designer

With the release of 17.0, we released our new Blazor Web Designer and a new customization API for the normal Web Designer. With 17.1, we’re also adding that customization API to the new Blazor Designer.

Set Chart Colors Based On Values

The background colors of chart data points (ex., bars, pie slices, etc.) can now be set using conditional formatting based on values.

Freeze Table/Tablix Columns and Rows in the JsViewer

The JsViewer now allows the user to freeze columns and rows in both the Table and Tablix controls at runtime in the report preview.

ActiveReports v17.1.2 Hotfixes

[AR-30864] Winform project backend printing
[AR-30870] AR17, Server 2012R2: Standalone designer application throws exception related to GetDpiForWindow function
[AR-30883] [AR17.1] Different proportions and spacing in reports printed in continuous and single-page modes from VS template WinViewer app
[AR-30955] Cannot save the report when I set the PaperHeight to a large size
[AR-30781] FormattedText: HTML table appears garbled on preview and at design time
[AR-30828] [AR17.1.0-beta] Switch expression in category sort doesn’t work in chart
[AR-30835] [AR17.1.0 beta] Image nested to Table cell with property Autosize and Alignment to center and middle, the alignment does not take effect in Preview and Export
[AR-30837] [AR17.1.0-beta] Tablix cell value reference doesn’t work in case of column grouping
[AR-30862] [Demo site] Reports with custom fonts exported to PDF/Tiff without content
[AR-30895] [AR17.1]JSViewer: Dashboard toolbar is not displayed after ‘Jump to report’ and returning back
[AR-30921] [AR17.1] RPX report with chart and decoration not rendered in JSViewer/WebDesigner in CrossPlatform mode
[AR-30930] [AR17.1] 404 Error appears upon browsing through IIS JSViewer MVC sample published to folder
[AR-30931] [17.1] Section Report does not connect to .mdb (OLEDB JET) data source
[AR-30964] [PageReport] Unable to render report when all columns of TableHeaders and rows(>1) are merged
[AR-31041] Problems with some references in non-Core samples
[AR-31067] [AR 17.1] Pdf export return exception with ‘The object is disposed’ message when two exports as Task
[AR-30782] WpfViewer: the page’s contents appear cropped in multipage view, continuous view(depending on window size)
[AR-31046] Incorrect Field Names when using XML Data in Section Reports

ActiveReports v17.0 - January 24, 2023

Hey everyone! We’re pleased to announce that ActiveReports.NET v17 is now available! As our major annual release, this update offers a plethora of exciting new features and improvements to the ActiveReports ecosystem.

RDL Dashboard - New Report Type

RDL Dashboard

One of the most exciting features arriving with ActiveReports 17 is the new RDL Dashboard report type! RDL Dashboards offer a convenient way to display data visualization controls such as charts, tables, sparklines, maps, and more in a scrollable, interactive container. We already have plans to extend the interactability of these dashboard reports in our next update as well!

Report Sections

RDL Dashboard Reports can be multi-page like RDL Multi-Section Reports. With multiple pages or sections, you can make the dashboard report more informative with details spread across the pages. The pages can then be navigated using tabs in the preview.

Scrollable Container Component

The Container control in the RDL Dashboard report is scrollable. You need to adjust the Overflow and Can Grow properties for the container to be scrollable.

Actionable Items Provide Extensive Interactivity

The Action property in report controls and data regions makes the dashboards highly interactive and helps slice and dice the report metrics. You can click on an action and see the action. The action works across dashboard pages too.

Suppose, in addition, there is action(s) set on control(s) inside a Table cell, List, or BandedList. In that case, that action will be given priority over the action set on the Table's row, List data region, and BandedList's band.

.NET 7.0 Support

As Microsoft continues to push the limits of .NET, we need to stay on the cutting edge so our customers can too, so for ActiveReports 17, we’ve tested everything in .NET 7.0 and ensured that ActiveReports is now fully compatible with .NET 7.0. We will continue to keep it updated for future releases of .NET.

Not sure what changed in .NET 7.0? Check out our blog for a quick summary of some of the most exciting new features that .NET 7.0 brings to the table.

Blazor Web Designer

This exciting new feature brings the ActiveReports Web Designer you all know and love to the Blazor framework. The Blazor Web Designer requires both server-side and client-side parts similar to our standard Web Designer.

If you’d like to test it out, I recommend checking out our sample, which you can find here.

Blazor Web Designer

Web Designer UI Customization

Configure visibility of Web Designer Tabs

It is now possible to control the tabs of the Web Designer application bar visible to the user, for example, Home, Context Actions, Parameters, Script, and About tab, using the appBar function. See the Web Designer API.

New Runtime API

It is now possible to perform common editor actions from code and check their statuses with the editor function. See the Web Designer API.

Filter or Sort the Properties appearing in the Properties Panel

Developers can now filter out or sort properties from Property Panel with the new filterProperties function. See the Web Designer API.

Two New Chart Templates

Range Chart

Range Charts display a pair of values (low and high) for each data point to visualize a range of values rather than a single value. These charts emphasize the distance (range) between the two values. With our new range chart template, you can choose from a Range Bar Chart, Range column Chart, or Range Area Chart.

Learn More

Range Chart

Gauge Chart

A gauge chart is a bar chart with a radial axis and overlapping bars to show ranges. It uses the needle and the dial to represent the data. The direction of the needle and the colors in the dial shows the performance at a glance.

Learn More

Gauge Chart

Enhanced JSON Data Editor

The connection string now allows fetching a JSON from an external URL using the GET and POST methods, HTTP headers, and request body options. This enhancement has been made in Page, RDL, and RDL Multi-Section Reports in all report designers, including the Web Designer.

Learn More

Interactivity for Chart Encodings

Color, Size, and Shape encodings now support actions, so you can also add interactivity to the encodings. This enhancement is also available in Web Designer.

Learn More

Multi-Column List Layout

The list data region now has two new properties - 'RowsOrColumnsCount' and 'GrowDirection', the combination of which makes laying out content in a columnar layout easier.

Learn More

Web Designer Enhanced Copy/Paste

While designing any report, you might need to make a selection and/or copy and paste controls if you are using the same element multiple times in the design area. Now it is possible to paste copied report items to the cursor's position by clicking it within the design area; earlier, the items were pasted on the top-left corner.

Ready to use the latest version of ActiveReports.NET? Download a 30-Day Free Trial Today!

ActiveReports v17.0.3 Hotfixes

AR-30544 - [Section Reports] Image rendering issue for the first detail row of second page
AR-30512 - LocateDataSoruceevent not working for JSON Data in machines with ARM64 processors.
AR-30500 - Text box with multiple lines leaving large blank spaces between lines in word export.
AR-30453 - Unable to preview XML-based section reports in MacOS
AR-30357 - Unable to open RDF document in WebViewer from memory stream

ActiveReports v17.0.2 Hotfixes

AR-30428 - [Section Reports] Pie Chart not rendering when setting data points through code
AR-30375 - [Section Reports] RichTextBox RTF property throw null reference error when used in a class library.
AR-30315 - Unable to render Section Report 3D Bar/Cylinder Chart when using ActiveReports 15 report.
AR-30313 - PaperSource returning RawKind value of 257 for all printer trays

ActiveReports v17.0.1 Hotfixes

AR-30221 - [SectionReport] [RichTextBox] Assigning border-top to an HTML element gives NullReferenceException on report preview.
AR-30217 - [Section Reports] Subreport TextBox Text cut off on page break in CrossPlatform Rendering Mode
AR-30214 - [Printing] No events available in the new ‘GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Printing.Printer’ class.
AR-30212 - ‘Requested value ‘InvalidGroupingParent’ was not found’ error on preview
AR-30210 - ‘The object was not in the correct state’ exception on exporting to image
AR-30209 - Image text in EMF not exported to PDF / PNG / HTML etc.
AR-30207 - [SectionReport] [TextBox] | TextBox with padding overlaps line control placed beside it.
AR-30199 - [Printing] | Not able to choose a tray for printing.
AR-30150 - [SectionReport] [Load RPX] | Getting ‘The Buffer can not be null’ exception when loading ActiveReports 2 RPX report.
AR-30142 - Some charts in reports cannot be rendered with the enabled animation
AR-30138 - Target framework downgraded when upgrading to AR17