ActiveReports 18 .NET Edition
DevOps / ActiveReports Features / Report Import and Migration / Excel
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    Excel
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    The migration from Microsoft Excel file to ActiveReports can now be accomplished by using the ActiveReports Import Wizard. The ActiveReports Import Wizard is particularly useful when you want to convert multiple sheets of an Excel file to ActiveReports. It saves the time and effort of a developer to manually replicate the layout of each sheet of an Excel file in ActiveReports.

    You can import a single sheet or multiple sheets of an Excel file to a Page or an RDLX report with just a few clicks. A single Excel sheet is imported as a report file, and the report name is the name of the sheet. An Excel file with multiple sheets is by default imported as separate report files, and the report names are the name of the corresponding sheets in the Excel file. You can also set Merge all sheets into a single report file option in the ActiveReports Import Wizard to import multiple sheets of Excel file as different pages of the report.

    Note: The import formats that are not supported are .xls (Excel 97-2003) and .xlsm (Open XML with macro).

    Importing Excel files in the ActiveReports Import Wizard

    1. Run the ActiveReports Import Wizard. The wizard can be run from the start menu or by executing ActiveReports.Imports.Win.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\MESCIUS\ActiveReports 18\Tools location.
    2. In the ActiveReports Import Wizard that appears, click Next.
      ActiveReports Import Wizard screen
    3. Choose Microsoft Excel (xlsx) as the input format and click Next.
      Select Microsoft Excel (xlsx) as the input format
    4. Click the ellipsis button to browse to the location that contains the files that you want to import. A list of files that you can import appears.
    5. Select the sheets to import, click Open, and then click Next to analyze them. 
      Select the sheets to import
    6. Use the ellipsis button to select a destination folder to store the converted reports. You can set the following options:
      • Report Type: Choose from Page report or RDLX report formats to import the Excel file. Note that Page report does not support multiple data sources. You should select RDLX report type if you want to add multiple data sources to the report.
      • Merge all sheets into single report file: Choose this option to import sheets of the Excel file as separate pages of a Page report. The report name is the name of the first sheet of the Excel file.
      • Import Excel formula as text: Choose this option to import Excel formula as text. If you keep the option unchecked, the Excel formula is imported as a calculated result.
      Specify output folder and other options
    7. Click Next to start the conversion.
      ActiveReports Import Wizard screen
    8. Once the conversion process is complete, click Finish to close the wizard and go the destination folder to view the converted reports. You may optionally leave the check on for the Open Log file checkbox to see the results log.
      Click Finish to close

    Defining Table area in an Excel file

    Table area in Excel is the range of cells representing a Tabular data in the Excel.
    If an Excel file has the table area that you want to import into ActiveReports as the Table data region, you must define the Table area first and then run the ActiveReports Import Wizard. Otherwise, defining the table area is not required.

    1. Open the Excel file and select the table area.
    2. Right-click to view the context menu.
    3. Select the Define Name option.
    4. In the New Name dialog box, define the table area and the rows based on Naming Rules. These naming rules must be followed for defining table areas in Excel.
      New Name dialog box
    5. Click OK.

    Naming Rules for defining a Table area in Excel

    To obtain the required table sections in ActiveReports' Table data region, you need to define the table area and its rows in the Excel file. In general, the table area is defined as ARTable#.******, where:

    Example 1: To define a single table area

    Action Naming Rule
    Define whole table area ARTable
    Define each row ARTable.Detail
    ARTable.TableHeader
    ARTable.TableFooter
    ARTable.GroupHeader1
    ARTable.GroupFooter1

    Example 2: To define a multiple table area

    Action Naming Rule
    Define whole table area

    ARTable1

    ARTable2

    Define each row ARTable1.Detail
    ARTable1.TableHeader
    ARTable1.TableFooter
    ARTable2.Detail
    ARTable2.TableHeader
    ARTable2.TableFooter

    Conversion Rules for Table area in Excel

    The table area of Excel is imported as a Table data region in ActiveReports based on the following conversion rules.

    Note: For the Table Detail row, values for properties such as Value, Location, Size, etc. are imported from the cells of the first row.

    Supported Objects and Properties

    Excel Page/RDLX report
    Item Property Item Property
    Page Page setting Report -
       Size PaperSize
       Orientation: Portrait PaperOrientation: Portrait
       Orientation: Landscape PaperOrientation: Landscape
    Margins (Top, Bottom, Left, Right) Margins (Top, Bottom, Left, Right)
    Cell Value

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    TextBox

    Value
    Location Location (Left, Top)
    Size Size (Width, Height)
    Alignment -
       Horizontal alignment: General TextAlign: General
       Horizontal alignment: Left (Indent) TextAlign: Left
       Horizontal alignment: Center TextAlign: Center
       Horizontal alignment: Right (Indent) TextAlign: Right
       Horizontal alignment: Justify TextAlign: Justify
       Horizontal alignment: Distributed (Indent) TextJustify: DistributeAllLines
       Vertical alignment: Top VerticalAlign: Top
       Vertical alignment: Center VerticalAlign: Middle
       Vertical alignment: Bottom VerticalAlign: Bottom
       Text control: Wrap text WrapMode: WordWrap
       Text control: Shrink to fit ShrinkToFit: True
       Text direction: Left-to-Right Direction: LTR
       Text direction: Right-to-Left Direction: RTL
    Font -
       Name FontFamily
       Style: Regular FontStyle: Normal
       Style: Italic FontStyle: Italic
       Style: Bold FontWeight: Bold
       Style: Bold Italic FontWeight: Bold
       Size FontSize
       Color Color
       Underline: None TextDecoration: None
       Underline: Single TextDecoration: Single
    Border -
       Line style (Top, Bottom, Left, Right): xlLineStyleNone BorderStyle: None
       Line style (Top, Bottom, Left, Right): xlContinuous BorderStyle: Solid
       Line style (Top, Bottom, Left, Right): xlDot BorderStyle: Dotted
       Line style (Top, Bottom, Left, Right): xlDash BorderStyle: Dashed
       Line style (Top, Bottom, Left, Right): xlDouble BorderStyle: Double
       Line color BorderColor
       Line weight: xlThin BorderWidth: 1pt
       Line weight: xlMedium BorderWidth: 2pt
       Line weight: xlThick BorderWidth: 3pt
    Fill -
       Background color BackgroundColor
    Table area

    Each cell in a table area is converted to TextBox report item.

    Note: Whole table area is imported in ActiveReports even if table data is filtered.
    Table

    Location (Left, Top)
    Size (Width, Height)
    FixedSize (Width, Height)

    Picture Picture object is converted to Image report item. Image

    Value
    Source: Embedded
    Sizing: FitProportional
    Location (Left, Top)
    Size (Width, Height)

    Limitations