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How to view your report designer for a TFS Bound web-based project in Visual Studio

Background:

Normally when you create a project and add a report to the project, you can right-click the Report in the Solution Explorer and be able to see “View Designer” as an option.  When you right-click your report in the solution explorer when your working with a TFS Bound Web-Based project, you are unable to see the “View Designer” option.

Steps to Complete:

1. From the Website menu, select Add New Item.

2. Select ActiveReports 12 Section Report (code-based)and click OK.

3. Close the project.

4. From Windows Explorer, open the FileAttributes.xml file in an editor and add the new ActiveReports file (or one of your current ActiveReport files), setting the subtype to Component, using code like the following.

5. Paste XML code inside FileAttributes.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?>

<DesignTimeData>

   <File RelativeUrl="App_Code/NewActiveReport1.cs" subtype="Component" />

   <File RelativeUrl="Default.aspx.cs" subtype="ASPXCodeBehind" codebehindowner="Default.aspx"/>

   <File RelativeUrl="Default.aspx" subtype="ASPXCodeBehind" />                      

</DesignTimeData>

1. The xml is located at C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebsiteCache\[WebSite1]\ (Windows XP), or at C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache\[WebSite1]\ (Windows 7).

2. Save the FileAttributes.xml file.

3. Reopen the Web site project.

Evan Warren