Creating an ActiveReports for .NET Project
Operating environment
- Windows
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- Windows 11 Pro 22H2
- Visual Studio
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- Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition
- ActiveReports for .NET
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- ActiveReports for .NET 16.0J
Prerequisites
- Windows
-
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 10
- Windows 11
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
- Visual Studio
-
- Visual Studio 2017
- Visual Studio 2019
- Visual Studio 2022
- .NET Framework
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- NET Framework 4.6.2
- NET Framework 4.7
- NET Framework 4.8
- .NET
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- .NET Core 3.1
- .NET 5
- .NET 6
- ActiveReports for .NET
-
- ActiveReports for .NET 16.0J
Create from a template project
When you install ActiveReports, Visual Studio adds several template projects for ActiveReports. If you use this to create a project, it will be created in a form that allows you to display ActiveReports reports from the beginning, so it will be a reference for how to create it. You can build it based on the template as it is, or you can recreate it according to the structure of your project.
Development will be done in Visual Studio, so start Visual Studio.
Select "Create a new project" in the bottom right.
In the search field above ActiveReports , type to display the list of ActiveReports-related templates.
The types are divided by "development language is C# or VB.NET", "whether it is a web app or a desktop app", and "the report type is RDL report, section report, or page report".
Choose the development language and platform that best suits your purpose.
The types of reports are ActiveReports terminology, so please refer to the following official page for how they differ.
In this case, I have selected the desktop page report.
Specify the project name, the folder path where the project will be created, and so on. This is the same as when you create a project with any other template.
As for the framework, the version that can be selected will change depending on the template you choose. Depending on the template, you may or may not be able to choose .NET(Core) or .NET Framrwork. If you're not sure, just choose it or choose the latest version.
When the creation is complete, the Visual Studio development screen appears. On the right, you can see the structure of the project, and there is also a sample report file.
PageReport1.rdlx Try opening the file. You should be taken to the report design surface.
In this way, you can design a report in Visual Studio.
By the way, this file is a new report file, so there are no objects.
Now, try building and running it as it is. As a project template, it is designed to display reports from the beginning, so just run it to launch the application that displays the report. By the way, in the case of the trial version, a message to that effect will be displayed in the report, so you need to purchase and register a license to prevent it from appearing.
From here, you can freely build a program, so please make it according to your purpose.
Create a project without using the ActiveReports template
If you create from an ActiveReports template, you may end up with files that are not needed for development purposes. Also, you may want to create a newer version of the ActiveReports template framework because it is an older version. In this case, you will need to create a project with another template and then add the ActiveReports-related libraries and components.
When you start Visual Studio, select Create a new project in the lower right.
You do not select the ActiveReports template here. In this article, we will create a project with ASP.NET Core RazorPages as an example. This is because the ActiveReports template does not have a ASP.NET Core RazorPages template.
After that, enter it according to the selected template.
Once you've created your project, add the necessary components from the Dependencies and References section of Solution Explorer. The components you need here will vary greatly depending on the framework of the project you are creating. It's a good idea to find out what you'll need by creating a project from an ActiveReports template beforehand.
If you need a report file, you can add it as a new item from the project. Again, depending on the framework you choose, the location and the type of report may vary.