The second version of ActiveReports for .NET incorporates several new features to enhance the reporting capabilities already praised by developers in previous versions of ActiveReports, including a new full-featured chart control, page thumbnails in the Windows viewer control, HTML support and enhanced table support in the RichTextBox control, an enhanced script editor with syntax highlighting, data binding to custom classes based on the iList interface in addition to other supported data types, and enhanced connection timeout capabilities.

ActiveReports for .NET is written in managed C# and provides integration with the Visual Studio .NET development environment. This allows Visual Studio .NET developers to leverage their favorite Microsoft .NET language (C# or Visual Basic .NET) when programming for ActiveReports for .NET. ActiveReports for .NET is licensed per developer and is royalty-free to distribute. The product comes with a report wizard and a Microsoft Access report conversion wizard so you can start creating reports quickly. ActiveReports for .NET includes export filters for Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel, RTF, HTML, Text and TIFF formats and a Windows Viewer control that supports split and multi-page views, includes a Table of Contents pane with a new Thumbnail view tab, can perform text searches of reports, and allows customization of the viewer's toolbar.

The Professional Edition of ActiveReports for .NET features an End-User Report Designer control that allows you to host the report designer in your own applications to provide end users with the ability to create and modify reports. It also includes a server-side Web Viewer control that takes advantage of ASP.NET's HTTP Handlers to allow you to display reports without having to write custom code for export to popular formats such as HTML and PDF.

Requirements

Design Time

• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
• Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server
• Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1

Run Time

• Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server.
• Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1

For Visual Studio .NET 2002 and Microsoft .NET Framework v1.0 Users

• If you are using Visual Studio .NET 2002 and Microsoft .NET Framework v1.0, you must use the original version of ActiveReports for .NET since the second version only supports Visual Studio 2003 and Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1.

Supported Languages

• Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
• Microsoft Visual C#

Features

New to 2.0 (Both Editions)

• New fully integrated Chart control
• RichText control with support for RTF tables and HTML tags
• Support for databinding to classes that implement the iList interface
• Streamlined PDF exports with WMF Files processed as metafiles

Standard Edition

• Provides an integrated report designer
• Supports OleDB, SQL Server, and XML Datasources, along with ADO.NET (Data Readers, Data Tables, DataViews, and DataSets)
• Includes a customizable Windows Viewer control
• Provides Crystal and Microsoft Access Import utilities
• Provides HTML, PDF, Excel, RTF, TIFF, and Text exports

Professional Edition

• Includes all of the Standard Edition features
• Includes an End-User Report Designer control
• Includes an ASP.NET Server Web Viewer control