Custom Report Items in local reports - rdlc

i have read this article about custom report items(CRI)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc188686.aspx
The only problem is that CRI are only usable in reporting service and not in local reports. My question is it possible some how to use CRI in local reports( RDLC ). Also i am interested in which version of reporting service is this possible, if possible
Best Regards,
Iordan

Custom report items are not supported in .rdlc files. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms251712(v=vs.90).aspx) This is likely the approach taken by Microsoft because the ReportViewer used with these files is a free control, while more complex features like third-party controls are supported only on a full SQL Server report server.
One thing in particular I have done in the past to get around this is generate custom charts/controls/images etc. As images and then send them into the report as an image. Not an ideal solution but it works.

Related

Is it possible to embed a report held on crystal server into a separate web application?

We're developing an ASP MVC web application for a company to monitor and correct incoming data from third parties, then preview a report output before being distributed to their own clients. We've made a prototype with the reports being generated as Crystal Reports through the application itself using CR for Visual Studio.
The client already has a Crystal Server for some internal reporting, we're wondering if we can hook into that so that all Crystal Reports are stored in the same place and save on duplication. We would need to expose a preview of the report in our application and then export the reports from the Crystal Server in PDF and Excel formats ready to be distributed.
Is that possible? I've found very little on the subject.
In case anybody comes back for the answer... We've managed to get this working by using the 'opendocument' url path feature and embedding it into the site using an iframe. Documentation is here.

Advantage to using SSRS or Crystal reports when the output is simple and static?

I have an ASP.NET/C# web app in which the user needs to run reports with various criteria that will ALWAYS yield simple, 2-dimensional, tabular data. I'm tempted to use a sophisticated reporting engine like SSRS or Crystal Reports, but these seem like overkill, since there's really nothing to design (all outputs will be to CSV, or JSON for the browser to render in an HTML table).
In this scenario, am I eating too much complexity by trying to use SSRS or Crystal Reports? Should I instead just write custom classes to dynamically assemble SQL statements (based on user selections) that will be fired against the database?
Does SSRS or CR add anything that is of value (within the requirements constraints I've already described)...?
Its depend on your requirement if you want to minimal overhead on your web app then please go ahead and use your custom codes since you are not required any styling or extra functions.
Just get JSON objects and fill in HTML and go Head !!
I am working with ssrs So i will talk just about it:
ssrs is a very useful tool for building a Reports
all You need is sql server Stored Procedure to build your report
then deploy it to report server and use this report from your app
-now all you need in your app just one page for all reports and you path the URL
dynamically with report name
You need to know this :
-ssrs did not work correctly with all browser
for Exp :
-Print Btn just work with IE
so Mozila and Google you need to use java script to print Report
-some issue with criteria section :
there is no way to rename the 'select value' with drop down
so you need to use java scrip to handle it
also you find ( Null and chick box ) any customer did not know what null mean so
you need first to remove null keyword or to rename it to anther Keyword
also you need java script to do this
the most problem i have :
all reports in reports server so
when i go to a new client what i need
just Sql server no need to setup visual studio and ssrs tool
just to deploy all reports on client report server
its very bad ..
i solved this issue with tool i had make to deploy the all the report
and no need to setup VS just to deploy the report
i think that the most important problem i have
and all of it i found a work around to solve .. and it takes more time
finally :
use ssrs or CR its very easy to use and make report very fast no need to create a custom page for report and develop all its control just like print and export
report to PDF,excel or any type
but if you have a few report i think no need to use any reports tool

SSRS 2005 Subscription changes

OK this is my question(s) and its SSRS 2005 and SQL Server 2005/2008
I had been tasked with rebuilding a dozen or so reports that our users use on their data systems. We just build them and since every DB instance is schematically the same for all our clients, we push the reports out to their report servers for use.
So modified a great many reports, but the reports have blown away the clients subscriptions. So every user that uses these reports, that can be a great many seeing as how everyone can have their own set of parameters, has to run the reports manually or redo their subscriptions.
My company would very much like to avoid that, but I can not figure out how to change a report, and even with the same parameter set going in as the last report, keep the subscription there.
Even when I copy the report down to their report server and replace the old with the new using same name. The subscription is still there, but it gets modified.
I am looking either for a way to push down a subscription as part of the report, so that they will have minimal input to their subscriptions in order to tailor it to their needs
--OR ideally--
Upload a new version of the report to their report server and just have the subscription apply to the newest report that I have put on their server
It doesn't really matter which one but the second is best seeing as how individual users use the reports with individual names as a parameter
Many thanks in advance for anyone that can point me to the way to manage out subscriptions on my side, or enable my reports to assume the subscriptions of same named reports on their server.
--edit--
Want to put a clearer picture out there
I have a master copy of a report. The users use the report on their own systems.
I do some heavy modifications to the master copy of the report, and upload it to their systems. using the same name and same parameter set as the original report.
I want the subscriptions on their report server to find this report using the same name.
so XXX.report has a subscription. I change it to XXX.report locally, and upload to their servers. The subscriptions are not synching though.
Thanks
I'm not sure how you're accessing SSRS but you can use the following webservice methods to download and upload report subscriptions
ListSubscriptions
GetSubscriptionProperties
GetDataDrivenSubscriptionProperties
DeleteSubscription
CreateDataDrivenSubscription
CreateSubscription
Using those methods, you use ListSubscriptions to get a report's subcriptions. The Subscription.IsDataDriven property will tell you if it's data driven or not. For data driven subscriptions, use GetDataDrivenSubscriptionProperites to get the subscription properties, otherwise use GetSubscriptionProperties. All of those classes are XML serializable so you can save them to disk out of the box using the XmlSerializer.
To readd the subscriptions, use DeleteSubscription to delete the subcriptions one by one and then CreateSubscription or CreateDataDrivenSubscription to readd the subscriptions.
This is a hack though, because you should be able to modify reports without breaking the subscriptions. You should to the following to help diagnose the issue
Set SSRS logging to verbose for all components
Use the click once report builder to change the title of a report and see if the subscriptions break when you click save
Have the SQL profiler running on the ReportServer database to see what SQL is being generated when the subscriptions break
there's a tool called Reporting Services Scripter from Jasper Smith. I think it should work for you.
What I had to wind up doing was going back and change all the input parameters, including the sql content for the drop downs, back to what they originally were. Then playing with the SQL for the report to accept the new(old) parameters.
Thanks for your input. I accepted the web services answer as that is a path I will have to explore for our next update.

SQL Server Reporting Services VS rdlc and the ReportViewer

We are planning on creating reports to be run on the same computer that the database application is running on.
Can you tell me which of these is the best approach? (SQL Server Reporting Services or creating a rdlc ReportViewer report)
Also I tried to locate detailed rdlc ReportViewer report tutorials both in books and online and found none. It's probably because I'm looking in the wrong places.
We are also using VB.Net as the language.
All help will be appreciated.
In a nutshell, .rdlc is the client version. You cannot host these on the report server. These reports do not know how to fetch the data, you MUST get the data yourself and pass it to the report. For this reason, you cannot even preview the report while designing. ReportViewer.ProccessingMode = Local
The .rdl or server reports know how to fetch the data. You configure the datasource and upload them to the report server. Because of this, you can preview the reports while designing them. You can use the web/desktop ReportViewer control to run the reports from inside your app...like a proxy between your application and the report server.ReportViewer.ProccessingMode = Remote
I prefer rdl for any sql datasource, but rdlc is also good for cases where your datasource is very complex or can only be built through the application code. I think there might be ways to configure an object datasource for rdl but I haven't looked into that yet.

Password protected PDF/Excel reports using SQL Reporting services

I am generating a reports using SQL Reporting services 2005. I need to protect the protect the reports(pdf and excel) with the password while the user is exporting the report to to excel or pdf.
Is there any way to protect the report.
The short answer is that you can't do this from the provided PDF rendering extension from SSRS 2005 (either from the web UI or programmatically from the SSRS web services). You can, however, create your own rendering extension that could provide this functionality. Here are some links that might help get you started:
Introducing Rendering Extensions
Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Reporting Services
You could take a COTS library, some open-source code, or your own custom code that can create password-protected PDF files, then wrap that into a custom rendering extension for SSRS 2005. In my opinion, however, this would be a relatively difficult task. A quick Google search didn't give me any obvious rendering extensions for sale that might provide the functionality you're looking for.