The ActiveReporter is used for creating user defined reports. You can define the content and layout of reports by use of templates. Templates are plain documents, so it is easy to create new or modify existing ones to fit a particular purpose.
To define a value or a picture (for example image, curve, dialog or screen dump) from SPIP to be entered in a report, a COM object called an ActiveReport Item is inserted in the template. You can work with the ActiveReport Item and define the values or graphical output which SPIP shall provide during reporting. The ActiveReport Item is controlled by the SPIPDocServer, which automatically launches when inserting an ActivReport Item.
The only difference between the template and the report is that all ActiveReport Items in the report are replaced by their corresponding value or image.
The templates are called Active because SPIP automatically calculates requested values or graphs when processing the SPIP ActiveReport Items included in a template. There are only a few parameters for, which it is necessary for the user to perform a measurement first.
Currently Microsoft Word documents (.doc and .docx files) and HTML files are supported as template and report formats.