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Posted by: John.Reynolds on 20 January 2022, 10:19 am EST
John.Reynolds
Posted 20 January 2022, 10:19 am EST
Hello,
I checked the AR 16 documentation but could not find any reference. Currently using VS 2019 and AR 15 in a dotnet 5 project, we have to create a separate dotnet framework project and link to reports in the dotnet 5 project in order to use the designer. Is that still required for VS 2022 and AR 16 and dotnet 6?
John.Reynolds
Posted 20 January 2022, 10:24 am EST
To be clear, this is about section reports, which are the only kind of reports we use.
abdias.michael
Posted 20 January 2022, 8:20 pm EST
Unfortunately yes, you still need to create a separate dot net framework project to use the designer for code-based SectionReports in ActiveReports 16 and .Net 6.
John.Reynolds
Posted 21 January 2022, 2:45 am EST
Thank you. Is there any roadmap available - is creating section based reports without the extra project something which will eventually be supported again?
abdias.michael
Posted 24 January 2022, 5:58 pm EST
For the time being no roadmap is available. We will let you know if there is any update on this.
cjorgensen
Posted 2 June 2022, 5:36 am EST
I don’t understand why this is still a problem. The .Net work around doesn’t work. The purpose of a Code Behind section report is I can write code. If my library that I use for all my code behind is a .Net 6 Core library, it can’t reference that from a .Net 4.72 project that is linked. Why do all the other designers work but the section report designer doesn’t? Can you explain why this is a Microsoft issue?
To me this is unacceptable. I have been using Active Reports when this was a product from Datadynamics Version 2. All of your documentation and website sales information say that you still support code behind section reports. I pay my money to upgrade again this year and find out that I can’t use it in .Net 6 Core application which I am currently converting my application to. I do not want to be stuck developing code using old tech.
I almost feel like you are trying to phase out section reports without telling everyone you want us to switch. I would switch to rdl reports if you had an easy way to convert my many section reports to that format… even if it was just the design.
John.Reynolds
Posted 2 June 2022, 7:49 am EST
I don’t know if this helps, but we have dotnet core 6 projects which work OK using the method suggested in the help documentation.
We did two things. First, we created a dotnet 6 class library, and that’s where all of our reports are stored. Our main dotnet 6 projects (usually razor pages or MVC or console) then reference that compiled DLL. We did this to shield our other projects from the NuGet carpet bombing abomination and conflicts from their dozens of required packages.
The second thing is - as you know - you can’t edit the design in a dotnet 6 project. So we create a second dotnet framework project as described in the help file, solely for linking to the dotnet 6 active reports project reports. In the AR help PDF file it’s page 1251 titled, “Designing Code-based Section Reports in .NET Core”. We follow those steps, and then when you need to use the designer, you double-click the linked report in the dotnet framework to edit the designer. You still edit the code from the original.
This has worked fine. It’s completely less than great for us, considering every single report we’ve ever written is a code-based section report. I’ve never been given a technical answer as to why this is required, but AR blames it directly on Microsoft.
Oh, and the stand-alone report designer doesn’t allow me to edit the code-based section reports. I though that would be an “out”, but no joy.
akshay.rajput
Posted 5 June 2022, 9:37 pm EST
Hello Cory,
We are waiting for issue https://github.com/dotnet/winforms-designer/issues/4126 (private Repository) to be fixed. We are expecting this issue to be fixed in Visual Studio 2022 17.4/17.5 or 17.6. Once this issue has been fixed we will require few months to complete and verify everything. So the current ETA for this is about ActiveReports 17.0 or later versions such as ActiveReports 17.1/16.3.
Please accept our sincere apologies on the case. We understand your concern. However, we are not trying to phase out Section Reports by any means. Also we are currently working on adding SectionReport designing support in our Web Designer as well.
As John has mentioned in the above reply, until the integrated section report designer is supported in .Net Core applications please refer to the following page of our documentation for designing Code Based Section Reports for your .Net Core application: Designing Code-based Section Reports in .NET Core | ActiveReports 16 .NET Edition
alexander.kainz
Posted 8 February 2023, 2:48 am EST
Hi,
code-based SectionReports didn’t work in ActiveReports 17.0.0 and .NET 7!
Is there any roadmap for this request available?
Thank you.
akshay.rajput
Posted 8 February 2023, 7:19 pm EST
Hi Alexander,
Currently there is no road map available for this. We are estimating to introduce a Code-based Section Report Visual Studio integrated designer for .Net core in ActiveReports 18 at the end of this year or next year.
For now, I would suggest you to use the following workaround for designing Code-based Section Reports in .Net Core environment: Designing Code-based Section Reports in .NET Core | ActiveReports 16 .NET Edition
Or just switch to Xml-based Section Reports(.RPX)