ActiveReports Developer 7
Overlaying Reports (Letterhead)
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ActiveReports Developer 7 > ActiveReports Developer Guide > Samples and Walkthroughs > Walkthroughs > Section Report Walkthroughs > Overlaying Reports (Letterhead)

Glossary Item Box

ActiveReports Developer allows you to overlay static report formats over data reports. This walkthrough illustrates how to overlay an ActiveReport with a static letterhead report.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

Note: This walkthrough uses the Northwind database. By default, in ActiveReports, the Northwind.mdb file is located at [User Documents folder]\ComponentOne Samples\ActiveReports Developer 7\Data\NWIND.mdb.

When you complete this walkthrough you get a layout that looks similar to the following at design time and at runtime.

Design Time Layout (rptLetterhead)


Design Time Layout (rptData)


Runtime Layout


ShowTo add an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project

  1. Create a new Visual Studio project.
  2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
  3. In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 7 Section Report (code-based) and in the Name field, rename the file as rptLetterhead.
  4. Click the Add button to open a new section report in the designer.
  5. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
  6. In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 7 Section Report (code-based) and in the Name field, rename the file as rptData.
  7. Click the Add button to open a new section report in the designer.

See Adding an ActiveReport to a Project for information on adding different report layouts.

ShowTo connect the rptData to a data source

  1. On the detail section band, click the Data Source Icon.
  2. In the Report Data Source dialog that appears, on the OLE DB tab, next to Connection String, click the Build button.
  3. In the Data Link Properties window that appears, select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click the Next button to move to the Connection tab.
  4. Click the ellipsis (...) button to browse to your database, for example the NWind.mdb sample database. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate database path.
  5. Click the Test Connection button to see if you have successfully connected to the database.
  6. Click OK to close the Data Link Properties window and return to the Report Data Source dialog. Notice that the Connection String field gets filled automatically.
  7. In the Query field on the OLE DB tab, enter the following SQL query.
    SQL Query Copy Code
    SELECT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Country
  8. Click OK to save the data source and return to the report design surface.

ShowTo create a layout for the rptData

  1. Select the PageHeader section and in the Properties Window, set the Height property to 0.65. (This will match the height of the page header in the template.)
  2. On the design surface, select the grey area outside the report and in the Properties window, set the PrintWidth property to 6.5.
  3. Right-click the report and select Insert > GroupHeader/Footer to add group header and group footer sections.
  4. Select the group header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.
    Property Name Property Value
    Name ghCustomers
    BackColor MediumSlateBlue
    CanShrink True
    DataField Country
    GroupKeepTogether FirstDetail
    KeepTogether True
  5. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to ghCustomers and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

    ShowTextBox1

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField ="Customers in " + Country
    (DataField)
    Size 2, 0.2 in
    Location 0, 0 in
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor White
    Font Size 12

    ShowLabel1

    Property Name Property Value
    Text ID
    Size 0.6, 0.2 in
    Location 0, 0.2 in
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor DarkSlateBlue

    ShowLabel2

    Property Name Property Value
    Text Company Name
    Size 1.1, 0.2 in
    Location 0.7, 0.2 in
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor DarkSlateBlue

    ShowLabel3

    Property Name Property Value
    Text Address
    Size 1, 0.2 in
    Location 2.7, 0.2 in
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor DarkSlateBlue

    ShowLabel4

    Property Name Property Value
    Text City
    Size 1, 0.2 in
    Location 5.5, 0.2 in
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor DarkSlateBlue
  6. Click the Detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.
    Property Name Property Value
    BackColor LightGray
    CanShrink True
  7. From the toolbox, drag four TextBox controls onto the Detail section and set the properties of each textbox as follows.

    ShowTextBox1

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField CustomerID
    Size 0.6, 0.2 in
    Location 0, 0 in

    ShowTextBox2

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField CompanyName
    Size 2, 0.2 in
    Location 0.7, 0 in

    ShowTextBox3

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField Address
    Size 2.8, 0.2 in
    Location 2.7, 0 in

    ShowTextBox4

    Property Name Property Value
    DataField City
    Size 1, 0.2 in
    Location 5.5, 0.2 in
  8. Select the group footer and in the Properties window, set the Height property to 0. 

ShowTo create a layout for the rptLetterhead

  1. Select the Page Header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.
    Property Name Property Value
    BackColor DarkSlateBlue
    Height 0.65
  2. From the toolbox, drag a Label control onto the Page Header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

    ShowLabel1

    Property Name Property Value
    Size 6.5, 0.65 in
    Location 0, 0 in
    Font Size 36
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor White
    Text ComponentOne
  3. Select the Page Footer and in the Properties window, set the BackColor property to DarkSlateBlue.
  4. From the toolbox, drag a Label control onto the Page Footer and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.
    Property Name Property Value
    Size 6.5, 0.2 in
    Location 0, 0 in
    Alignment Center
    Font Bold True
    ForeColor White
    Text (919) 460-4551, http://www.grapecity.com, powersales@grapecity.com

ShowTo add code to overlay the data report pages with the letterhead report

ShowTo write the code in Visual Basic.NET

  • Add the ActiveReports viewer control to the Windows Form. Then, double-click the top of the Windows Form to create an event-handling method for the form's Load event. Add code to the handler to:
    • Set the viewer to display the rptData report document
    • Overlay rptLetterhead on rptData

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

Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event. Copy Code 
   Dim rpt As New rptData()
   rpt.Run()     
   Dim rpt2 As New rptLetterhead()
   rpt2.Run()
   Dim i As Integer
   For i = 0 To rpt.Document.Pages.Count - 1
      rpt.Document.Pages(i).Overlay(rpt2.Document.Pages(0))
   Next
   Viewer1.Document = rpt.Document

ShowTo write the code in C#

  • Add the ActiveReports viewer control to the Windows Form. Then, double-click the top of the Windows Form to create an event-handling method for the form's Load event. Add code to the handler to:
    • Set the viewer to display the rptData report document
    • Overlay rptLetterhead on rptData

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

C# code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event. Copy Code 
   rptData rpt = new rptData();
   rpt.Run();
   rptLetterhead rpt2 = new rptLetterhead();
   rpt2.Run();
   for(int i = 0; i < rpt.Document.Pages.Count; i++)
   {
      rpt.Document.Pages[i].Overlay(rpt2.Document.Pages[0]);
   }
   viewer1.Document = rpt.Document;

ShowTo view the report

Open the report in the Viewer. See Using the Viewer for further information.

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