ActiveReports 2 for ActiveX/COM

ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM V2.0 is now offered in two editions to suit your development needs. Both editions build on ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM 1.0 and add many new features and enhancements. The Standard Edition now supports distributable XML report layouts, ActiveScripting (VB/Script/JScript) events and expressions and XML data sources. The Professional Edition adds a royalty-free customizable end-user report designer control. Other new features include: Access Reports and Crystal Reports import wizards, ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM V1.0 upsizer, Barcode Control, Report bookmark and internet hyperlinks, Controls Style property editor based on standard Cascading Sytlesheets (CSS) syntax, and an improved ActiveX Viewer

ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM combines Microsoft Visual basic with advanced ActiveX Designer Component technology to provide the a report designer for Visual Basic developers.

ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM is fully integrated in the Visual Basic programming environment. It feels and works like VB. No more cryptic scripts or work arounds. It provides a fully open architecture that lets you use VB code, ActiveX, and OLE Objects in your reports so you can handle the toughest of reports without limits.

ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM includes a Report Wizard that steps you through creating simple reports without writing any code. The wizard is integrated into the Visual Basic environment as an add-in module.

ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM is based on the Active Designer specification, which allows a component to be integrated into the hosting design environment, and allows it to make full use of the environment's services.

The designer is a fully compliant ActiveX control and object host. You can insert any control or OLE object, such as graphs and documents, into your reports. OLE objects can be bound to BLOB fields in your database.

The significant differences between the two versions are the ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM Professional version includes a Web Caching Service, a Property Listbox Control and a customizable royalty free End User Report Designer Control.

Difference between Professional and Standard:

The professional version of ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM includes all the new advanced capability of the Standard version and also allows you to host the ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM designer inside your application to provide royalty-free end-user report editing capabilities. It even includes the new WebCache service to manage report output on web servers running Microsoft Internet Information Server. The caching service is a COM component that runs as a service on the web server and caches the report's output.

Design Environment

• Easy to use Office-like designer environment
• New! Access Reports import wizard
• New! Crystal Reports import wizard
• New! VBScript and JScript events and expressions and a built-in syntax-highlighting script editor
• New! ActiveReports for ActiveX/COM 1.0 upsizer. Includes data bound text, checkbox, image, OLE objects, rich text and subreports ActiveX control host. Use 3rd party controls or your own custom controls in your reports
• New! Barcode Control New! Report bookmark and internet hyperlinks
• New! Controls Style property editor based on standard CSS syntax Pro! Royalty-free end-user designer control

Data Access

• Supports DAO, RDO, ADO
• New! Support for XML data sources and XPath, XSL expressions
• Supports unbound data from arrays, collections, and other data providers
• Binds to recordsets and resultsets for maximum flexibility and connection efficiency

Architecture

• Full runtime access to objects, data sources and binding, ability to add controls/sections dynamically at runtime to modify the report behavior
• Full control over printer jobs, properties and ouput devices
• Hosts ActiveX components and OLE objects

Deployment

• Reports can be compiled for maximum security and speed
• New! Report layouts can be distributed as XML based reort layout (RPX files) (application host independent)
• Enhanced! Java viewer based on JDK 1.3 with printing support
• New! TIFF export in addition to Text, RTF, Excel, PDF and HTML export filters
• Enhanced! PDF export supports table of contents bookmarks and embedded fonts

ActiveX Viewer

• New! Multipage thumbnails
• New! Split Views
• New! Ruler
• New! Text Search