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Hide AllActiveReports Developer includes a Viewer control for Windows Forms that lets you show report output in a custom preview form. You can modify the viewer toolbar and set custom commands. For example, in the following sample code we remove the Print button and add a new Print button that calls a custom dialog.
To create a basic preview form
- In Visual Studio, create a new Windows Forms project.
- From the Visual Studio toolbox on the ActiveReports 7 tab, drag the Viewer control onto the form. If you do not have the Viewer in your toolbox, see Adding ActiveReports Controls.
- With the viewer control selected, in the Properties window, set the Dock property to Fill.
- From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
- Select ActiveReports 7 Section Report (code-based) and click the Add button.
- Double-click in the title bar of the form to create a Form Load event.
- Add the following code to run the report and display the resulting document in the viewer.
To write the code in Visual Basic.NET
Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event. Copy CodeDim rpt as new SectionReport1 Viewer1.LoadDocument(rpt)
To write the code in C#
C# code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event. Copy CodeSectionReport1 rpt = new SectionReport1(); viewer1.LoadDocument(rpt);
- Press F5 to run the project.
To add a custom print button to the viewer control
- Add a second Windows Form to the project created above and name it frmPrintDlg.
- Add a label to frmPrintDlg and change the Text property to This is the custom print dialog.
- Add a button to frmPrintDlg and change the Text property to OK.
- Back on the viewer form, double-click the title bar of the form to go to the Form Load event.
- Add the following code to the Form Load event to remove the default print button and add your own.
To write the code in Visual Basic.NET
Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event. Copy Code'Remove the print button. Viewer1.Toolbar.MainBar.Items.RemoveAt(2) 'Remove the extra separator. Viewer1.Toolbar.MainBar.Items.RemoveAt(1) 'Add a new button to the end of the main bar with the caption "Print." Dim tsbPrint As New ToolStripButton("Print") Viewer1.Toolbar.MainBar.Items.Add(tsbPrint) 'Create a click event handler for the button. AddHandler tsbPrint.Click, AddressOf tsbPrint_ClickTo write the code in C#
C# code. Paste INSIDE the Form Load event. Copy Code//Remove the print button. viewer1.Toolbar.MainBar.Items.RemoveAt(2); //Remove the extra separator. viewer1.Toolbar.MainBar.Items.RemoveAt(1); //Add a new button to the end of the main bar with the caption "Print." ToolStripButton tsbPrint = new ToolStripButton("Print"); viewer1.Toolbar.MainBar.Items.Add(tsbPrint); //Create a click event handler for the button. tsbPrint.Click += new EventHandler(tsbPrint_Click); - Add the following code to the Form class below the Load event to display frmPrintDlg when a user clicks the custom print button.
To write the code in Visual Basic.NET
Visual Basic.NET code. Paste BELOW the Form Load event. Copy Code'Call the custom dialog from the new button's click event. Private Sub tsbPrint_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Me.CustomPrint() End Sub 'Call the custom print dialog. Private Sub CustomPrint() Dim _printForm As New frmPrintDlg() _printForm.ShowDialog(Me) End SubTo write the code in C#
C# code. Paste BELOW the Form Load event. Copy Code//Call the custom dialog from the new button's click event. private void tsbPrint_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { this.CustomPrint(); } //Call the custom print dialog. private void CustomPrint() { frmPrintDlg _printForm = new frmPrintDlg(); _printForm.ShowDialog(this); } - Press F5 to run the project and see the custom print button on the viewer.
You can also remove any of the other buttons from the three toolbars: MainBar, MouseModeBar, and NavigationBar. For this example, we only added a button with text, but you can also add an icon or an icon plus text. You can see custom icons, custom menus, and more in the included Custom Preview sample that is located in ...\Documents\ComponentOne Samples\ActiveReports Developer 7\Section Reports\C#\CustomPreview.
Although this topic and the sample both demonstrate using section reports, customized viewers support page reports as well. The only difference is in the way that you load reports. For more information, see Using the Viewer.