The Engine Room

Those who know have used Active Reports before; know that it isn't straightforward to make a copy of a report. There are scenarios where you'd it is useful to clone a report to use as a base for a new one, but if you try to "right click, copy and paste" it creates more problems that it solves.

So here's a list of steps that will allow you to create an exact copy of an Active Report:

1. Create a new blank report
2. Right-Click the original report and select "Open With…"
3. Choose "HTML/XML Editor" from the list of options and select "Ok"
4. If there's a warning referring to the document being open, click "Yes"
5. Select and Copy the xml of this report
6. Right-Click the new report and select "Open With…"
7. Choose "HTML/XML Editor" from the list of options and select "Ok"
8. If there's a warning referring to the document being open, click "Yes"
9. Select all the text and paste the previously copied XML.
10. Find the "ActiveReportsLayout" element at the top of the file and change the CodeFile property to the name of your new report.
11. Close all windows
12. Open the new report and you can verify that all the elements were copied.
13. Now the only thing left to do is to copy the C# functions that you need from the original report if required.

If you have any other tips, let me know!