Designer vs Preview space

Designer vs Preview space

Posted by: jonathan.maes on 12 May 2025, 9:30 am EST

• 

  jonathan.maes

  • Post Options:
  • Link
    Copy

  Posted 12 May 2025, 9:30 am EST - Updated 12 May 2025, 9:38 am EST

  Hej,

  I’m new to creating reports with ActiveReports and have just installed the trial version of the Report Designer. I connected a *JSON *file as both my data source and dataset so I could explore the Designer’s capabilities.

  Here’s where I am so far:

  Bands and Data Looping

  I added two data bands: one to display the elements at the root level of my JSON, and another to iterate over an array inside a nested element.

  Question: I initially tried nesting data bands directly, but that doesn’t appear to be supported. Is there another way to achieve nested looping in ActiveReports?

  Design Surface vs. Print Layout

  The Design Surface extends beyond an A4 page, but the Preview renders correctly on A4.

  Question: If I place a text box past the A4 boundary on the Design Surface, it doesn’t appear in Preview. Can I constrain the designer grid to A4 dimensions so I don’t accidentally place items off-page?

  Field Placement and Whitespace

  In the Designer view, my bound fields appear neatly aligned and adjacent to each other.

  Question: In the Preview, however, there’s excessive white space between them. What settings or layout options might be causing that gap?

  Thanks for any guidance!

  

  790×895 7.1 KB

  

  1218×687 31.7 KB

  

  744×878 4.89 KB

• 

  anand.sinha

  

  • Post Options:
  • Link
    Copy

  Posted 21 May 2025, 6:46 am EST

  Hi Jonathan,

  ActiveReports supports nesting data regions, and when placing a TextBox past the A4 boundary the TextBox should appear in the next page on preview.
  
  And for the whitespace issue it could be due to different reasons.

  Unfortunately, for all of the three questions it will be very difficult to provide the exact solution which can resolve your issue as there could be various reasons for each issue.

  Could you please try sharing a sample report that replicates the problems so we can test the issue on our end and further investigate the same to find the cause behind all of your issues?

  Thanks,
  
  Anand