ActiveReports 9 new features: Innovative report layering design concept

Original: ActiveReports 9 new features: Innovative report layering design concept

Added a number of new features in the newly released ActiveReports 9 report control to help you create a beautiful, powerful reporting system in less time, this article will focus on the innovative report layering design concept, the report content group management and design, easy to achieve the report set dozen functions, The main contents are as follows:

• (a) What is the reporting layer
• (b) Why to use the reporting layer
• (iii) Other advantages of the report surface

(a) What is the reporting layer

In ActiveReports 9, the design concept of the first surface is presented, and the report layering design is the management and design of the different controls in the report, which can lock/unlock, add/delete, show/hide, adjust the transparency of all the controls in the same group, and reduce the difficulty of designing complex report templates. At the same time, through the report layer provided by the different device visibility settings options, including: Preview display, print display, export display, as well as any combination of these three options, can be 0 encoding to achieve a multi-copy, report set dozen and other Chinese reporting needs. The feature is supported in the ActiveReports page report and the RDL report.

(b) Why to use the reporting layer

The use of layers allows for precise positioning of pre-printed forms. This attribute is useful and can be printed when you place a scanned piece of a table on a layer to position the control.

This concept is understood through an example of a school diploma certificate. The requirement is to print the name of the graduate in the pre-printed school diploma certificate. The format of the certificate and the list of graduates ' names have been set up, and the correct design is used to print the certificate in the correct location.

Step 1: Scan for a copy of the school diploma certificate

Place this scanned copy on the layer and as a base picture to identify where the name is to be placed.

For a better experience, avoid placing print preview pictures on the default layer, because this layer cannot be deleted. You can create a new layer to place the scanned picture and want to remove the scanned picture from the background just delete the layer.

This can now be positioned in a layer containing pre-printed forms.

Step 2: Locate the field that contains the name of the graduate.

In the default layer, place a text box (textbox) control that is bound to the collection of graduate names in Report Designer. It is easy to place the studentname field in the appropriate position on the background of the scanned copy.

Step 3: Print the name of the graduate on the school diploma certificate.

Now that the field is in the correct position and is bound to the list of graduate names, the last step is to print the name on the official certificate.

Assume that the certificate you want to print is already placed on the printer, and that the layer containing the scanned copy of the certificate does not need to be printed. You can use the TargetDevice property of the layer to resolve this scenario.

The TargetDevice property acts on each individual layer and can be selected from screen, Paper, Export, all, or None . For example, set the TargetDevice property for the default layer to Paper to print the first Name field on the certificate that you want to print.

(iii) Other advantages of the report surface

• Do not want to make changes to the existing report but want to make small adjustments on the layout of this scene can reflect the advantages of the layer.
• Use layers to make changes to the same report without changing the original report layout. Take the sales receipts example to show how to use layers to resolve this issue.
• Create a multi-copy type report that only shows different specific data or areas in each copy.
• Fixed paper printing, and report set-up function, can only be done with one property setting.

For more features on the report surface, you can download ActiveReports 9 now for an experience.

For more ActiveReports 9 new features, please click ActiveReports V9 to view the text.

ActiveReports 9 new features: Innovative report layering design concept