How to Use a JavaScript Report Designer in Your Web Application
| Quick Start Guide | |
|---|---|
| What You Will Need | |
| Controls Referenced | |
| Tutorial Concept | Learn how to integrate a JavaScript Report Designer into your web application using ActiveReportsJS, enabling users to create and modify reports directly in the browser. This tutorial walks you through setting up the designer, loading reports, and configuring features to enhance the reporting experience without server dependencies. |
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Key Features of the Designer
The Report Designer has several key features used for building reports:
- The Design Surface
- Data Panel
- Properties Panel
- Control Toolbox
The Design Surface
The design surface serves as the template area for the report. You can drag and drop controls from the control toolbox onto the design surface to include them in the report, use the properties panel to customize the selected control in the design surface, and tie controls in the design surface to your data sets via the data panel.
Data Panel
To the right of the design surface is the data panel. It can be viewed by clicking the “Data” button in the top-right of the designer. The data panel is used to create data sources that link your report to a REST API and data sets that pull data from your data sources into your report for use.
The data panel also includes the ability for report authors to create parameters. Parameters allow your users to select what portions of the data they want to view in the report. This could be something such as selected sales that occurred between two dates.
Properties Panel
The properties panel also lives to the right of the design surface; it can be viewed by clicking the “Properties” button in the top-right of the designer. Here you’ll find the properties of the currently selected control or element.
By default, the properties panel displays the most common properties in “Basic Mode”. You can switch to “Advanced Mode” to display all available properties for the selected control or element.
The properties panel also has a search panel that can be used to search for a property.
Control Toolbox
To the left of the design surface is the control toolbox. The toolbox can be expanded by clicking the hamburger menu in the top-left of the designer. The control toolbox allows authors to drag-and-drop controls from the toolbox onto the design surface. If the control that was dropped onto the design surface has a creation wizard, it will display and allow the user to customize the control.
How to Create a Report with the ActiveReportsJS Designer
To create a report with the ActiveReportsJS Standalone Designer, check out the video above, or review our documentation.
Conclusion
Integrating a JavaScript Report Designer into your web application provides a powerful way to create, edit, and manage reports dynamically. With ActiveReportsJS, you can offer users an intuitive, web-based design experience that supports rich data visualization, customization, and interactive reporting—all without server dependencies. Whether you're building dashboards, financial reports, or operational summaries, ActiveReportsJS empowers developers to deliver a seamless reporting solution tailored to their application’s needs.
Ready to enhance your web application with ActiveReportsJS? Get started today and unlock the full potential of embedded report design.
If you’d like to try ActiveReportsJS, you can download your free trial from here.
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