HTML, Tables and Exporting with RichText

ActiveReports supports exporting with tables in the RichText control. RichText controls can be loaded with an RTF file which contains tables, or even an HTML file, and the resulting report can be exported to any of a number of formats.

This walkthrough illustrates how to create and export a report which contains the RichText control.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

Adding an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project
Adding the appropriate export filters to your project
Adding controls to the report to contain data
Loading an RTF file into a RichText control
Creating an HTML file to be loaded into a RichText control
Loading the HTML file into a RichText control
Viewing the report
Using the export methods to export data to all available file formats

To complete the walkthrough, you will need an RTF file which contains a table.

Adding an ActiveReport to the 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 rptRich.
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 below the Windows Form.

Adding controls to the report to contain data

To add controls to the report

Add the following controls to the Detail section:

Control DataField Name Text/Caption Misc Details Location

RichText (Empty string) rtfRTF (Empty string) (Empty string) 0, 0

RichText (Empty string) rtfHTML (Empty string) (Empty string) 0, 0

Control	DataField	Name	Text/Caption	Misc Details	Location
RichText	(Empty string)	rtfRTF	(Empty string)	(Empty string)	0, 0
RichText	(Empty string)	rtfHTML	(Empty string)	(Empty string)	0, 0

Loading an RTF file into a RichText control

To load an RTF file into the RichText control

To write the code in Visual Basic

Right-click in any section of the design window of rptRich, and click on View Code to display the code view for the report. At the top left of the code view for rptRich, click the drop-down arrow and select Detail. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select Format. This creates an event-handling method for rptRich's Detail_Format event. Add code to the handler to:
- Load an RTF file into the RichText control

To write the code in C#

Click in the Detail section of rptRich to select it. Click on the events icon in the Properties window for Detail to display available events for the section. Double-click Format. This creates an event-handling method for rptRich's Detail_Format event. Add code to the handler to:
- Load an RTF file into the RichText control
The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.
```
[Visual Basic]
Private Sub Detail_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
	Detail.Format
        rtfRTF.LoadFile(Application.StartupPath & "\sample.rtf")
End Sub
```
```
[C#]
private void Detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
{
	rtfRTF.LoadFile(System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath + "\\sample.rtf");
}
```

Creating an HTML file to be loaded into a RichText control

To write a quick HTML file

Open a Notepad, and paste the following code into it.

<html>
<body>
<center><h1>Customer List by Country</h1></center>
<h2>Argentina</h2>
<ul>
<li>Rancho grande
<li>Océano Atlántico Ltda.
<li>Cactus Comidas para llevar
</ul>
<h2>Austria</h2>
<ul>
<li>Piccolo und mehr
<li>Ernst Handel
</ul>
<h2>Belgium</h2>
<ul>
<li>Suprêmes délices
<li>Maison Dewey
</ul>
<h2>Brazil</h2>
<ul>
<li>Familia Arquibaldo
<li>Wellington Improtadora
<li>Que Delícia
<li>Tradição Hipermercados
<li>Ricardo Adocicados
<li>Hanari Carnes
<li>Queen Cozinha
<li>Comércio Mineiro
<li>Gourmet Lanchonetes
</ul>
<table>
<tr><th>Month</th><th>Sales</th></tr>
<tr><td>October</td><td>$4,872</td></tr>
<tr><td>November</td><td>$8,517</td></tr>
<tr><td>December</td><td>$9,623</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

Save the file as "sample.html" in the bin directory (VB) or the debug directory in the bin (C#) of your project.

Loading the HTML file into a RichText control

To write the code in Visual Basic

Right-click in any section of the design window of rptRich, and click on View Code to display the code view for the report. In the event-handling method for rptRich's Detail_Format event created previously, add code to the handler to:
- Load the HTML file into the RichText control

To write the code in C#

Right-click in any section of the design window of rptRich, and click on View Code to display the code view for the report. In the event-handling method for rptRich's Detail_Format event created previously, add code to the handler to:

Load the HTML file into the RichText control

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

'Visual Basic
Private Sub Detail_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
	Detail.Format
    rtfRTF.LoadFile(Application.StartupPath & "\sample.rtf")

    Dim stream As New System.IO.FileStream(Application.StartupPath & "\sample.html", _
    	IO.FileMode.Open)
    rtfHTML.Load(stream, RichTextType.Html)
    stream.Close()
End Sub

//C#
private void Detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
{
	rtfRTF.LoadFile(System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath + "\\sample.rtf");

	System.IO.FileStream stream = new System.IO.FileStream(System.Windows.Forms
		.Application.StartupPath + "\\sample.html",System.IO.FileMode.Open);
	rtfHTML.Load(stream, RichTextType.Html);
	stream.Close();
}

Viewing the report

To view the report

Add the ActiveReports viewer control to Form1.
Set the viewer control's Dock property to Fill.
Add the code needed to set the viewer document equal to the report document.

To write the code for the viewer in Visual Basic

Double-click the center of the viewer control. This creates an event-handling method for the Viewer1 _Load event. Add code to the handler to:
- Format the viewer to show the report when it is run

To write the code for the viewer in C#

Double-click the center of the viewer control. This creates an event-handling method for the viewer1_Load event. Add code to the handler to:

Format the viewer to show the report when it is run

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

' Visual Basic
Private Sub Viewer1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
	Viewer1.
Load
	Dim rpt As New rptRich()
	Viewer1.Document = rpt.Document
	rpt.Run()
End Sub

//C#
private void viewer1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
	rptMain rpt = new rptMain();
	this.viewer1.Document = rpt.Document;
	rpt.Run();
}

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

To write the code in Visual Basic

In the event-handling method for the Viewer1_Load event created previously, add code to the handler to:
- Export the report to all available file formats

To write the code in C#

In the event-handling method for the Viewer1_Load event created previously, 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 Viewer1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
	Handles arv.Load
    Dim rpt As New rptDD
    rpt.Run()
    arv.Document = rpt.Document

    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 viewer1_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
	rptDD rpt = new rptDD();
	rpt.Run();
	arv.Document = rpt.Document;

	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");
}