ComponentOne Releases ActiveReports 8 with a new .NET Reporting Engine and Self-Service Options

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ComponentOne a division of GrapeCity, the largest component solution provider in the Microsoft Visual Studio Partner ecosystem, today announced the release of ActiveReports 8. The successor to ActiveReports 7, ActiveReports 8 is a .NET reporting tool for HTML5, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Forms, ASP.NET and Windows Azure.  With familiar Visual Studio designers and components, ActiveReports 8 offers its users an array of data visualization, server and designer capabilities.

"What sets ActiveReports 8 apart is the ability to create flexible layout reports ranging in functionality from form-based reports such as invoices and insurance documents, to transaction reports such as sales and accounting, to analytical reports such as budget and portfolio analysis, using just one tool," said Bhupesh Malhotra, principal consultant at ComponentOne . "Whether for the desktop, web or touch devices, the ActiveReports 8 collection provides the tools to tackle both core and trending technologies."

New to this 2014 release is the updated reporting engine in ActiveReports 8. Optimized for speed, the unique architecture of ActiveReports 8 allows the reporting engine to quickly read records from the data source and immediately render them to the output device. "The simplicity of the design allows the data to pass through quickly from processing to rendering," said Malhotra.

ActiveReports 8 also features a brand new HTML5 viewer optimized for the mobile device user experience with a touch-friendly UI and gesture support. The viewer provides mobile-friendly features including offline reports, drill down capabilities and report distribution.

Being offered for the first time as an optional add-on to ActiveReports 8 is a new scalable, distributed and load balanced enterprise-grade report server.  "Our server-based platform includes support for multi-tenant reporting, security extensibility, data caching along with report optimization features that every application needs to ensure high performance of the reports modules," said Malhotra. The company's website details how ActiveReports 8 Server has tailored its deployment capabilities specifically for developers, end-users and IT administrators.

Self-service reporting is a powerful business intelligence tool and ActiveReports 8 offers a new add-on Ad-hoc Designer. The 100% web-based ad hoc reporting solution enables business users to easily create interactive reports. Malhotra elaborated that the Ad-hoc Designer provides secure and scalable storage, plus support for multi-tenant reporting. "The ActiveReports 8 Ad-hoc Designer includes an SDK for accelerating self-service Business Intelligence (BI) and is significantly more effective than traditional reporting tools," said Malhotra.

The ActiveReports 8 release includes two other key highlights, a new Map Report item for spatial and analytical geographical representation and enhanced Barcode support with options for integrated barcode functionality.

The ActiveReports 8 product page provides additional details on the new features included in this release. http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/ActiveReports/

Availability
ComponentOne offers no-charge, 30-day trials of ActiveReports 8 which may be downloaded at www.componentone.com/Downloads.

About ComponentOne, a division of GrapeCity
Founded in 1980, GrapeCity is an award-winning Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a premier Visual Studio Industry Partner, and one of the world's largest providers of developer components. The company has more than 850 employees and hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide. For close to 30 years, GrapeCity has provided enterprises around the world with state-of-the-art developer tools and components, software services, and solutions. For more information, visit the ComponentOne division website at www.componentone.com.

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SOURCE ComponentOne