Walkthrough: Exporting Output

Included with ActiveReports are several specialized export filters (HTML, PDF, RTF, Excel, TIFF and Text). With these export filters, reports easily can be made available to others in various file formats.

This walkthrough illustrates how to export a report to PDF, HTML, RTF, Text, TIFF and Excel files.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project
Adding the appropriate export filters to your project
Connecting the report to a data source
Adding controls to display the data
Using the export methods to export data to all available file formats

To complete the walkthrough, you must have access to the NorthWind database (NWind.mdb).

When you have completed this walkthrough, you will have created PDF, HTML, RTF, Text, TIFF and Excel files which can be found in the Bin/Debug (C#) or Bin (VB.NET) subfolder of your project's folder.

Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project

To add an ActiveReport to your project

Open a new project in Visual Studio.
Click on Project > Add New Item.
Select ActiveReports file and rename the file rptExports.
Click Open.

Adding the export filters to your project

To add the export filters to your project

Click on the following export controls one at a time in the appropriate toolbox to select them.
- HtmlExport
- PdfExport
- RtfExport
- TextExport
- TiffExport
- XlsExport
Drag each control onto the Windows Form.
The controls will appear in the tray underneath the Windows Form.

Connecting the report to a data source

To connect the report to a data source

Click on the yellow report DataSource icon in the Detail section. This brings up the report DataSource dialog box.
Click on Build...
Select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click Next >>
Click on the ellipsis to browse for the access path to NWind.mdb. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate access path.
Click OK to continue.
In the Query field, type "Select * from employees".
Click OK to return to the report design surface.

Adding controls to display the data

To add controls to the report

Add the following controls to the Detail section:

Control DataField Name Text Location

TextBox LastName txtLastName Last Name 0.0625, 0.0625

TextBox FirstName txtFirstName First Name 1.1875, 0.0625

Control	DataField	Name	Text	Location
TextBox	LastName	txtLastName	Last Name	0.0625, 0.0625
TextBox	FirstName	txtFirstName	First Name	1.1875, 0.0625

Using the export methods to export files to all available file formats

To write the code in Visual Basic

Right-click on Form1, and click on View Code to display the code view for the form. At the top left of the code view for Form1, click the drop-down arrow and select (Base Class Events). At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select Load. This creates an event-handling method for the Form1_Load event. Add code to the handler to:
- Export the report to all available file formats

To write the code in C#

Click on the blue section at the top of Form1 to select the form. Click on the events icon in the Properties window to display available events for Form1. Double-click Load. This creates an event-handling method for the Form1_Load event. Add code to the handler to:

Export the report to all available file formats

The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

' Visual Basic
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
	Handles MyBase.Load
	Dim rpt As New rptExports()
	rpt.Run()
	 
	Me.HtmlExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\HTMLExpt.html")
	Me.PdfExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\PDFExpt.pdf")
	Me.RtfExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\RTFExpt.rtf")
	Me.TextExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\TextExpt.txt")
	Me.TiffExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\TIFFExpt.tiff")
	Me.XlsExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\XLSExpt.xls")
End Sub

//C#
private void Form1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
	rptExports rpt = new rptExports();
	rpt.Run();
	 
	this.htmlExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + 
		"\\HTMLExpt.html");
	this.pdfExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\PDFExpt.pdf");
	this.rtfExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\RTFExpt.rtf");
	this.textExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + 
		"\\TextExpt.txt");
	this.tiffExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + 
		"\\TIFFExpt.tiff");
	this.xlsExport1.Export(rpt.Document, Application.StartupPath + "\\XLSExpt.xls");
}