Join us, along with Microsoft, for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Virtual Tech Briefing, a one-day virtual event showing you what you need to know about this new release – just out in beta.
Following the Microsoft presentation, we will be presenting our session entitled, “Deliver Complete .NET Business Intelligence Solutions by combining Spreadsheets, Reporting and Data Visualization in Microsoft Visual Studio”.
This session will for the first time ever, bring together world class development tools and components such as ActiveReports and FarPoint Spread, both by GrapeCity in one single demo to show how to rapidly develop business intelligence applications with Microsoft Visual Studio.
Registration is free! Register now at CodeProject.com - http://www.codeproject.com/webcasts/vs2010Beta/
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
GrapeCity sponsors .NET Community Event at PDC
GrapeCity will be the Grand Prize Sponsor for the INETA Birds-of-a-Feather Community Roundtable at the Microsoft PDC on Tuesday, 11/17 from 6:00-7:00 pm. GrapeCity will be donating a HDTV as the grand door prize at the event.
INETA provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft® .NET user groups.
Learn more about INETA web site, ActiveReports and FarPoint Spread set of award-winning, best-selling .NET spreadsheet, and .NET reporting and business intelligence tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.
INETA provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft® .NET user groups.
Learn more about INETA web site, ActiveReports and FarPoint Spread set of award-winning, best-selling .NET spreadsheet, and .NET reporting and business intelligence tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
GrapeCity acquires FarPoint Technologies
GrapeCity today announced that it has executed an acquisition agreement with FarPoint Technologies, Inc., developer of world’s best selling and award-winning Excel-compatible spreadsheet software components for Microsoft’s development platform. Under the terms of the agreement, GrapeCity will be purchasing all FarPoint products and the resulting revenues.
The decision was taken based on a long standing relationship between the two companies since the very first time the FarPoint Spread VBX component was launched for Microsoft Visual Basic over a decade ago. Since that time, GrapeCity has exclusively localized, marketed, sold and supported FarPoint Spread in Japan making it one of their top selling component product in Japan.
GrapeCity is also the world’s largest component developer and seller by company size and revenues. So when the time came for FarPoint owners to carefully weigh their options aimed at growing worldwide even beyond the success it enjoys today, joining GrapeCity was a logical next step.
The FarPoint team, just like the Data Dynamics team last year will become part of GrapeCity and continue serving mutual customers. All FarPoint Product Managers, Sales and Marketing personnel and other FarPoint team members will continue the good work under the GrapeCity name starting October 1st, 2009.
This is great news for customers of both Data Dynamics and FarPoint as it brings together two technology pillars - "Reporting and Business Intelligence" and Excel compatible "Spreadsheet technologies" that form the underpinning of most data processing and data visualization needs of today's business users. Customers can look forward to seeing more synergies between the two product lines in the months to come even as both product lines will continue to grow in exciting ways.
To learn more, read the joint press release, and more coverage by SD Times and the Visual Studio Magazine.
The decision was taken based on a long standing relationship between the two companies since the very first time the FarPoint Spread VBX component was launched for Microsoft Visual Basic over a decade ago. Since that time, GrapeCity has exclusively localized, marketed, sold and supported FarPoint Spread in Japan making it one of their top selling component product in Japan.
GrapeCity is also the world’s largest component developer and seller by company size and revenues. So when the time came for FarPoint owners to carefully weigh their options aimed at growing worldwide even beyond the success it enjoys today, joining GrapeCity was a logical next step.
The FarPoint team, just like the Data Dynamics team last year will become part of GrapeCity and continue serving mutual customers. All FarPoint Product Managers, Sales and Marketing personnel and other FarPoint team members will continue the good work under the GrapeCity name starting October 1st, 2009.
This is great news for customers of both Data Dynamics and FarPoint as it brings together two technology pillars - "Reporting and Business Intelligence" and Excel compatible "Spreadsheet technologies" that form the underpinning of most data processing and data visualization needs of today's business users. Customers can look forward to seeing more synergies between the two product lines in the months to come even as both product lines will continue to grow in exciting ways.
To learn more, read the joint press release, and more coverage by SD Times and the Visual Studio Magazine.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
ActiveReports 6 and the GrapeCity Factor - A look back and what to expect in future
With the soon to be launched ActiveReports 6, this seems an appropriate time to take a step back and look at what the GrapeCity acquisition has meant for Data Dynamics and what it implies for the future.
The ActiveReports 6 launch marks a major milestone in two respects. Firstly, it is a reflection of the commitment to not only continue the product development and support but in fact, take ActiveReports, Data Dynamics Reports and Data Dynamics Analysis to the next level in terms of their strategic direction and overall product features, quality and support.
Read the full article on the ActiveReports Blog.
Monday, July 13, 2009
About GrapeCity and ActiveReports
When GrapeCity acquired Data Dynamics late last year and the GrapeCity name started appearing in all Data Dynamics promotions, it was a relatively unknown name for a number of customers who probably wondered who GrapeCity was.
As it turns out, GrapeCity's name is very familiar to a number of US and international Component and Developer Tool vendors.
Read the full article.
As it turns out, GrapeCity's name is very familiar to a number of US and international Component and Developer Tool vendors.
Read the full article.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Microsoft Case Study on ActiveReports
Microsoft today released a new Case study highlighting Precision.BI's use of ActiveReports and other .NET reporting and Analysis tools from GrapeCity-Data Dynamics to speed the delivery of a new Healthcare Business Intelligence product to its customers.
Precision.BI needed powerful analysis and reporting components for its healthcare business intelligence solution. The company found what it needed in third-party components from GrapeCity, including functionality that enables users to explore huge quantities of data and to generate rich reports on an ad hoc basis. Precision.BI plans to continue taking advantage of GrapeCity’s rich components and excellent support as both companies migrate their software to Microsoft® Silverlight™ 3.
Read the full Case Study (PDF).
Thursday, July 2, 2009
ActiveReports rapid XML processing options
Chillisoft describe in their latest blog on how they leverage the flexible code model of ActiveReports to roll an optimized XML+XSLT solution.
----Extract---
ActiveReports provides the XMLDataSource option for sourcing your data from xml. My knowledge of all its ins and outs is not substantial, but I ran into two significant problems in a recent project which led me towards an alternative, innovative approach.
The first problem is that an xml document does not guarantee a structure like a database does. Xml’s flexibility in the layout of elements is beautiful on one hand but hard to fit into a report that expects a fixed structure.
The second problem in my case was the use of sub-reports to cover for different structures in the xml document. I won’t get fully into the detail, but where an element holds recurring sub-items, you can use sub-reports to list all the items. The trouble is that a significant number of sub-reports kill your report generation performance. I had a particular problem where my first report would take 15 seconds to generate on the server, and then degrade by another 5 seconds every time I ran it again. This is of course totally unacceptable for a frequently used report.
Here then was my innovation … combine ActiveReports and XSLT. ActiveReports provides the RichTextBox, which has an Html property to which you can assign the Html you generate from your XSLT.
----Extract---
ActiveReports provides the XMLDataSource option for sourcing your data from xml. My knowledge of all its ins and outs is not substantial, but I ran into two significant problems in a recent project which led me towards an alternative, innovative approach.
The first problem is that an xml document does not guarantee a structure like a database does. Xml’s flexibility in the layout of elements is beautiful on one hand but hard to fit into a report that expects a fixed structure.
The second problem in my case was the use of sub-reports to cover for different structures in the xml document. I won’t get fully into the detail, but where an element holds recurring sub-items, you can use sub-reports to list all the items. The trouble is that a significant number of sub-reports kill your report generation performance. I had a particular problem where my first report would take 15 seconds to generate on the server, and then degrade by another 5 seconds every time I ran it again. This is of course totally unacceptable for a frequently used report.
Here then was my innovation … combine ActiveReports and XSLT. ActiveReports provides the RichTextBox, which has an Html property to which you can assign the Html you generate from your XSLT.
Read the full blog posting.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Microsoft Solution Brief on ActiveReports
Microsoft today published a Visual Studio Partner Solution Brief on the ActiveReports Reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) Suite by GrapeCity that will be available on Microsoft and GrapeCity-Data Dynamics web sites.
It features customer quotes, a historical perspective on .NET reporting and business intelligence (BI) challenges, and how ActiveReports and related tools from GrapeCity have helped customers solve the problems by tightly integrating with Microsoft Visual Studio for the .NET development plaftform.
Download the PDF version of the Solution Brief.
It features customer quotes, a historical perspective on .NET reporting and business intelligence (BI) challenges, and how ActiveReports and related tools from GrapeCity have helped customers solve the problems by tightly integrating with Microsoft Visual Studio for the .NET development plaftform.
Download the PDF version of the Solution Brief.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Win a Trip to Microsoft PDC!
INETA is sponsoring the INETA Component Code Challenge, with the winner receiving a scholarship to Microsoft PDC 2009 in Los Angeles, CA. All you need to do is build the best application using one of ActiveReports, Data Dynamics Reports or Analysis product and another component.
The Details:
Build a .NET Application (WinForms, ASP.NET, WPF, Silverlight, Compact Framework, etc.) using at least 2 components from at least 2 different approved vendors (yes, GrapeCity is an approved vendor) then make a 3-5 minute Camtasia video showing your entry and describing what components you used and why your application is cool. The INETA judges will review the submissions and the best two will win a scholarship to Microsoft PDC 2009 in Los Angeles, CA, including air fare, hotel, and conference pass.
The submission deadline is 08/25/2009 at Midnight Eastern and the winners will be announced on 09/14/2009.
Entries will be judged on four criteria:
- Effective use of a component to solve a problem/display data
- Innovative use of components
- Impact using components (i.e. reduction in lines of code written, increased productivity, etc.)
- Most creative use of a component
See the contest page
on the INETA web site for more details and full rules.That’s it. So what are you waiting for? Show them how you are using ActiveReports or other GrapeCity-Data Dynamics products today and possibly win a free trip to PDC. Good luck!
Friday, June 5, 2009
ActiveReports 6 Customer Spotlight- Jeremy Yoder, Software Unlimited, Inc.
Jeremy Yoder is a ActiveReports 3.0 .NET reporting tool customer and a passionate .NET software developer with Software Unlimited, Inc. He provided some great feedback during the private beta phase to help make ActiveReports 6 an even better .NET reporting tool.
He was an easy winner for his contributions to the ActiveReports 6 beta Forum during the private beta.
He writes:
“Why do we use ActiveReports? In a word: Flexibility. There is simply no other reporting product on the market that allows so many elements to be altered programmatically. This enables us to make an end-user product that relies almost entirely on GUI interfaces, which we programmatically translate into fast running reports, whether it’s via customized control properties, our own report wizards, or dynamically created subreports, all of which are done by our users with a few mouse clicks.”
He further describes the "slick" development features in their reporting module built using ActiveReports that he is especially proud of:
1. Report Wizards
2. Dynamically created underlying queries (via a stored proc)
3. Control wrappers for use in the property grid (which uses the Tag field for customized properties)
4. Ability to create formulas that can be reused in different reports
5. Generate other labels and summary fields when user places fields on the designer
6. GUI interface for almost everything, including subreports with multiple links
7. Ability to filter each report “on the fly” before it’s run via pre-created filters and/or individual field selection
8. Generate crosstab reports after the user specifies the X, Y, and D fields, and possibly other fields on the designer
9. Customized toolbars: For placing report controls, editing control properties, and a treeview list of views/fields with multiple tabs based on field type
10. The user never writes scripts, but he does it programmatically for various features, such as tying to subreport, make numeric fields red if less than zero, etc.
11. User defined font defaults to apply by section as fields are placed on the designer or generated
12. Export/Import reports in their entirety with all relevant subtables into a single XML file
13. Ability to run reports in a “Void” format to show the report layout without exposing potentially sensitive data
Check out the School Accounting product that Jeremy develops for his company that uses the old COM/ActiveX version of ActiveReports for its current Reporting Module. The brand New Reporting subsystem using ActiveReports 6 is currently under development and Jeremy and his team are excited about the new functionality they will be rolling out to their customers soon.
He was an easy winner for his contributions to the ActiveReports 6 beta Forum during the private beta.
He writes:
“Why do we use ActiveReports? In a word: Flexibility. There is simply no other reporting product on the market that allows so many elements to be altered programmatically. This enables us to make an end-user product that relies almost entirely on GUI interfaces, which we programmatically translate into fast running reports, whether it’s via customized control properties, our own report wizards, or dynamically created subreports, all of which are done by our users with a few mouse clicks.”
He further describes the "slick" development features in their reporting module built using ActiveReports that he is especially proud of:
1. Report Wizards
2. Dynamically created underlying queries (via a stored proc)
3. Control wrappers for use in the property grid (which uses the Tag field for customized properties)
4. Ability to create formulas that can be reused in different reports
5. Generate other labels and summary fields when user places fields on the designer
6. GUI interface for almost everything, including subreports with multiple links
7. Ability to filter each report “on the fly” before it’s run via pre-created filters and/or individual field selection
8. Generate crosstab reports after the user specifies the X, Y, and D fields, and possibly other fields on the designer
9. Customized toolbars: For placing report controls, editing control properties, and a treeview list of views/fields with multiple tabs based on field type
10. The user never writes scripts, but he does it programmatically for various features, such as tying to subreport, make numeric fields red if less than zero, etc.
11. User defined font defaults to apply by section as fields are placed on the designer or generated
12. Export/Import reports in their entirety with all relevant subtables into a single XML file
13. Ability to run reports in a “Void” format to show the report layout without exposing potentially sensitive data
Check out the School Accounting product that Jeremy develops for his company that uses the old COM/ActiveX version of ActiveReports for its current Reporting Module. The brand New Reporting subsystem using ActiveReports 6 is currently under development and Jeremy and his team are excited about the new functionality they will be rolling out to their customers soon.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
ActiveReports 6 Beta Launch!
We are happy to announce that ActiveReports 6 beta is now available for download on the GrapeCity-Data Dynamics web site.
The Standard Edition of this premier .NET reporting tool features new Report Designer enhancements that make it even easier to design reports. New Designer features include Cross-section Controls, Snap Lines, In-line Text Editing, support for repetition patterns, image annotations, and a number of Text and Label enhancements.
It also features new Bar Code Control support for Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) Bar Codes and External Stylesheets for sharing look and feel between reports.
The Professional Edition gets even more powerful and easy to use for end users with:
1. A First-time Flash based Report Viewer
(Click on the image to see full screenshot)
2. Advanced PDF reporting features such as support for Adobe's Digital Signatures and version timestamps
(Click on the image to see full screenshot)
3. Redistributable End User Report Designer help for End Users
4. Nifty toolstrip controls for the End User Report Designer.
Learn more on the Download Page.
The Standard Edition of this premier .NET reporting tool features new Report Designer enhancements that make it even easier to design reports. New Designer features include Cross-section Controls, Snap Lines, In-line Text Editing, support for repetition patterns, image annotations, and a number of Text and Label enhancements.
It also features new Bar Code Control support for Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) Bar Codes and External Stylesheets for sharing look and feel between reports.
The Professional Edition gets even more powerful and easy to use for end users with:
1. A First-time Flash based Report Viewer
(Click on the image to see full screenshot)
2. Advanced PDF reporting features such as support for Adobe's Digital Signatures and version timestamps
(Click on the image to see full screenshot)
3. Redistributable End User Report Designer help for End Users
4. Nifty toolstrip controls for the End User Report Designer.
Learn more on the Download Page.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
GrapeCity-Data Dynamics in Europe
New UK Office to Allow Easier Access to Data Dynamics Products and Solutions
KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BusinessWire)--Data Dynamics, now part of GrapeCity, the world’s largest component developer, today announced the opening of West Sussex, England offices to best serve developers and IT professionals in Europe. While Data Dynamics has been selling globally for years, adding offices and staff in England reflect GrapeCity’s commitment to excellence in customer service and support and delivering the highest quality developer tools and components across Europe.
Commenting on the new announcements, Naoyuki Baba, GrapeCity President, said, “This is an important step forward as we try to get closer to our international customers and providing them with even greater value. We are confident that Neil Slater and his team of Europe based professionals will continue GrapeCity’s 25 year old tradition of excellent customer service and commitment.”
About the Products
ActiveReports is the award-winning .NET reporting tool used by Microsoft Visual Studio.NET developers for over a decade. It has over 50,000 registered users worldwide, and its user base is steadily growing.
Data Dynamics Reports is a new business reporting tool for .NET that allows developers to embed dashboards, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Microsoft Excel transformations, and new user tools for business reporting in their .NET applications. The product supports and enhances the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting format, helping customers to get more from their investments in Microsoft technologies.
Data Dynamics Analysis was the first free-form data visualization component for Microsoft Visual Studio.NET. It enables .NET developers to embed free-form visual analysis and business intelligence for both structured and unstructured data into their .NET applications.
About GrapeCity
GrapeCity is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, an international award-winning software firm, and the world’s largest component vendor, employing more than 850 worldwide. The company’s corporate headquarters are in Japan, with US headquarters in Kirkland, WA. For over 25 years, the company has provided enterprises around the world with state-of-the-art software tools, solutions, and services to help them turn ideas into marketable products. For more information, visit www.grapecity.com and www.datadynamics.com
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Billy McCafferty on MVC with ActiveReports
Billy McCafferty (twitter.com/devlicious) has written a great post on integrating ASP.NET MVC with ActiveReports for .NET.
He writes:
"A long time favorite PDF reporting tool of mine is ActiveReports for .NET. It's relatively painless to integrate into your project, has a great designer tool, and has plenty of power for more advanced reporting needs. When I started becoming an ASP.NET MVC zealot, I was afraid of losing the ability to use this great tool. With a little tinkering, I got it to play nicely within an MVC project and have included the steps below for future reference:"....
Read his full posting.
He writes:
"A long time favorite PDF reporting tool of mine is ActiveReports for .NET. It's relatively painless to integrate into your project, has a great designer tool, and has plenty of power for more advanced reporting needs. When I started becoming an ASP.NET MVC zealot, I was afraid of losing the ability to use this great tool. With a little tinkering, I got it to play nicely within an MVC project and have included the steps below for future reference:"....
Read his full posting.
ActiveReports .NET Reporting and BI Tools Get High Ratings from Customers
Survey Results Highlight Flexibility, Ease of Use, Time Savings
KIRKLAND, Wash. GrapeCity, an international software development firm that recently purchased Data Dynamics, a developer of .NET reporting and business intelligence (BI) tools, today announced the results of a survey it just completed of Data Dynamics customers. The company reports that more than three quarters of survey respondents had highly positive reactions. For example:
KIRKLAND, Wash. GrapeCity, an international software development firm that recently purchased Data Dynamics, a developer of .NET reporting and business intelligence (BI) tools, today announced the results of a survey it just completed of Data Dynamics customers. The company reports that more than three quarters of survey respondents had highly positive reactions. For example:
- 75% said the .NET reporting features are above average or well above average in their helpfulness to developers.
- 77% said the overall quality of the .NET reporting components is above average or well above average.
- 80% said they are satisfied or highly satisfied with the company and its .NET developer tools.
For more information, read the press release.
ActiveReports, Data Dynamics and GrapeCity win ComponentSource Awards
Earlier this year, ActiveReports, Data Dynamics and GrapeCity won a number of awards from ComponentSource, the world's largest component marketplace for being a best-selling product, and best-selling component developers. Other products such as Data Dynamics Reports also featured among the Top 100 downloads.
The awards won by GrapeCity and Data Dynamics are:
2008 Bestselling Products Awards
ActiveReports for .NET—Ranked #2 in Top 5 Products
ActiveReports COM/ActiveX—Ranked #26 in Top 50 Products
Data Dynamics Reports—Ranked #100 in Top 100 Products
2008 Bestselling Publisher Awards
GrapeCity-Data Dynamics—Ranked #4 in Top 5 Publishers
GrapeCity (Japan)—Ranked #5 in Top 5 Publishers
Read the press release for more information.
The awards won by GrapeCity and Data Dynamics are:
2008 Bestselling Products Awards
ActiveReports for .NET—Ranked #2 in Top 5 Products
ActiveReports COM/ActiveX—Ranked #26 in Top 50 Products
Data Dynamics Reports—Ranked #100 in Top 100 Products
2008 Bestselling Publisher Awards
GrapeCity-Data Dynamics—Ranked #4 in Top 5 Publishers
GrapeCity (Japan)—Ranked #5 in Top 5 Publishers
Read the press release for more information.
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