I`m working in a program that supports English and Arabic languages and in current days we are developing the program reports.
We choosed to use SSRS with ReportViewer control in WindowsFormsApplication(C#)
I searched for a way to change the DirectionLayout property of the tablix according to language(LTR english, RTL arabic) and I tried a lot of solutions but with no success.
I do not want to create two reports or create one report with two tablixes one for each language.
Now I`m trying to do the following:
Use SSRS web services to get report definition
Edit the report definition (convert Tablex DirectionLayout to RTL)
Use SSRS Execution Service to load the definition and render the report
assign the renderd report to ReportViewr control
I would like to know is that possible? And where can I search to achieve this task?
1) Depending on the version of SSRS you are using, you can use GetReportDefinition method (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/reportservice2005.reportingservice2005.getreportdefinition(v=sql.100).aspx) or GetItemDefinition (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/reportservice2010.reportingservice2010.getitemdefinition.aspx)
2) You can use the RDL Object Model to edit the RDL, although it's not trivial and the classes of the Microsoft.ReportingServices.RdlObjectModel namespace are marked internal (SSRS 2008 R2 and higher). You can find sample code by Teo Lachev at http://prologika.com/CS/blogs/blog/archive/2010/03/08/where-is-rdlom-in-r2.aspx and by Lionel Ringenbach at https://github.com/Ucodia/Blog-CustomReportingServices.
For reference information about the classes and methods of the RDL Object Model, start at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff493708.
3-4) I think it would be easier to deploy your edited report back to the server and then call it with the ReportViewer control. Then you can just leverage available methods in a straightforward manner. The ReportViewer control can handle the rendering directly. Here's information on deployment via the Web service: http://tomyrhymond.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/sql-server-reporting-services-deploying-rdl-files/
Is there a way to do a dynamic ole insert of a pdf file into a crystal
report based on a value coming from a SQL database?
For example, I have an application in .net, back-ended by a SQL 2008 database.
The app. has a reporting subsystem which uses Crystal Reports to allow
users to run pre-written reports (from stored procedures) by entering
various inputs such as date ranges, etc.
What I want to do is allow the user to enter, say, an account number
which will then be passed to a stored procedure. The procedure will
get the path to the correct PDF file and pass that to a Crystal
Report. How do I get the PDF path to the OLE Object insert??
Is this making any sense??
Thanks for any help in advance.
do you have to use pdf? the idea of adding a pdf to a crystal report makes me feel dirty all over... If possible I would use rpt files as subreports. (note the reason it makes me pale quite so much is that I come from a *nix background and still think pdf should only be used for printing)
I have MS Access reports that needs to be displayed in a crystal report in .net windows application. Is there any way to do it or some alternatives?
I am not sure about the right approach to complete this, can anybody help here?
Hum, I don’t think this is possible. I not aware that access reports can be converted or transferred to crystal reports anyway.
Remember, access reports have event code, and even can have code run in the report for EACH line of detail that displays. In other works, not only are access reports amazing, but they are fully programmable with VBA code embedded INSIDE of the report.
Because of this issue, you need ms-access running and loaded for those reports to work correctly (the VBA is required, and functions, and also that of sql queries..of which a report can be based on SEVERAL data sources and several tables all at the SAME TIME).
Even more worry is that there is not any kind of code or report converter here from ms-access to crystal reports. So, you never could in any way easy way transfer reports from ms-access to crystal reports.
You could attempt to embed ms-access as a com object, but all kinds of problems like page numbering etc. can’t really be controlled here if the report is to appear inside of the crystal report.
I STRONLY recommend that if you need some reports in crystal reports, then have the appropriate reports built in crystal and you avoid this whole mess. And, you avoid having ms-access in the mix. Or, dump crystal, and only use ms-access here.
Attempting to embed word, excel, pdf, or other com objects such as ms-access inside of some crystal report is formula for VERY unreliable applications. This is likely not possible, but even if it was, I would not let loose an application of this type. Heck, embedding pdf’s in a access report can’t even reliable work (they break after some stupid pdf update gets issued automatic). This type of mixed up systems near guarantee break when one or the other system has some automatic update occurring!
You start mixing up several applications and it will cost you buckets support trying to keep that mess running.
If you MUST take different reports from several different systems, then send out all the reports to pdf, and then use some pdf tools to combine them into one final pdf document.
Don’t try t mix reporting systems at the application level. It not reliable even if this was possible..
I have an ASP.Net Web site that displays various SSRS reports using the Microsoft Report Viewer Control. I need to be able to specify a data source at runtime. It seems like I should be able to just specify the name of a "shared" data source when I render the report, but I sure can't find a way to do that. The only thing I've found so far that works is to use an "embedded" data source. I'm not real crazy about that, but if that's my only option it will have to do.
Anybody know how to specify a shared data source at runtime?
This question is a little old, but if there is already a custom app accessing SSRS reports this Code Project might be a good solution.
I have been studying SSRS 2005 / 2008 in the past weeks and have created some server side reports. For some application, a colleague suggested that I look into RDLC for that particular situation. I am now trying to get my head around the main difference between RDL and RDLC.
Searching for this information yields fragmented information at best. I have learned that:
RDLC reports do not store information about how to get data.
RDLC reports can be executed directly by the ReportViewer control.
But I still don't fully understand the relation between the RDLC file and the other related systems (the Reporting Server, the source database, the client).
In order to get a good grasp on RDLC files, I would like to know how their use differs from RDL files and in what situation one would choose RDLC over RDL. Links to resources are also welcome.
Update:
A thread on the ASP.NET forums discusses this same issue. From it, I have gained some better understanding on the issue.
A feature of RDLC is that it can be run completely client-side in the ReportViewer control.
This removes the need for a Reporting Services instance, and even removes the need for any database connection whatsoever, but:
It adds the requirement that the data that is needed in the report has to be provided manually.
Whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage depends on the particular application.
In my application, an instance of Reporting Services is available anyway and the required data for the reports can easily be pulled from a database. Is there any reason left for me to consider RDLC, or should I simply stick with RDL?
From my experience there are few things to think about both things:
I. RDL reports are HOSTED reports generally. This means you need to implement SSRS Server. They are a built in extension of Visual Studio from SQL Server for the reporting language. When you install SSRS you should have an add on called 'Business Intelligence Development Studio' which is much easier to work with the reports than without it.
R eport
D efinition
L angauge
Benefits of RDL reports:
You can host the reports in an environment that has services running for you on them.
You can configure security on an item or inheriting level to handle security as a standalone concept
You can configure the service to send out emails(provided you have an SMTP server you have access to) and save files on schedules
You have a database generally called 'ReportServer' you can query for info on the reports once published.
You can access these reports still through 'ReportViewer' in a client application written in ASP.NET, WPF (with a winform control bleh!), or Winforms in .NET using 'ProcessingMode.Remote'.
You can set parameters a user can see and use to gain more flexibility.
You can configure parts of a report to be used for connection strings as 'Data Sources' as well as a sql query, xml, or other datasets as a 'Dataset'. These parts and others can be stored and configured to cache data on a regular basis.
You can write .NET proxy classes of the services http:// /ReportServer/ReportingService2010 or /ReportExecution2005. You can then make up your OWN methods in .NET for emailing, saving, or manipulating SSRS data from the service directly of a Server hosting SSRS reports in code.
Programmatically Export SSRS report from sharepoint using ReportService2010.asmx
Downsides:
SSRS is kind of wonkey compared to other things on getting it up fast. Most people get confused by the security policy and designing reports as an 'add on' to VS. SQL 2005 = VS BIDS 2005 , SQL 2008 = VS BIDS 2008, SQL 2012 = VS BIDS 2010(LOL).
Continuing on 1 the policy for security settings IMHO are idiotically overcomplex. There is server security, database security and roles, two security settings on the page hosted for the service. Most people only set up an admin than can't get in and wonder why other users cannot. Most common complaint or question on SSRS is related to getting in generally from my experience.
You can use 'expressions' that will supposeduly 'enhance' your report. Often times you do more than a few and your report goes to a crawl in performance.
You have a set amount of things you can do and export to. SSRS has no hover over reporting I know of without a javascript hack.
Speed and performance can take a hit as the stupid SSRS config recycles the system and a first report can take a while at times just loading the site. You can get around this by altering it but I have found making a keep alive service for it works better.
II. RDLC reports are CLIENT CONTAINED reports that are NOT HOSTED ANYWHERE. The extra c in the name means 'Client'. Generally this is an extension of the RDL language meant for use only in Visual Studio Client Applications. It exists in Visual Studio when you add a 'reporting' item.
Benefits of RDLC reports:
You can hookup a wcf service much much much more easier to the dataset.
You have more control over the dataset and can use POCO classes filled with Entity framework objects or ADO.NET directly as well as tables themselves. You can monkey with the data for optimization it before binding it to the report.
You can customize the look more with add on's directly in code behind.
Downsides:
You need to handle parameters on your own and while you can implement wrapper methods to help the legwork is a little more than expected and unfortunate.
The user cannot SEE the parameters in a 'ReportViewer' control unless it is in remote mode and accessing an RLD report. Thus you need to make textboxes, dropdowns, radio buttons on your own outside the control to pass to it. Some people like this added control, I do not personally.
Anything you want to do with servicing the reports for distribution you need to build yourself. Emailing, subscriptions, saving. Sorry you need to build that in .NET or else implement a proxy that already does that from above you could just be getting using hosted reports.
Honestly I like both for different purposes. If I want something to go out to analysts that they use all the time and tweak for graphs, charts, drill downs and exports to Excel I use RDL and just have SSRS's site do all the legwork of handling the email distributions. If I want an application that has a report section and I know that application is its own module with rules and governance I use an RDLC and having the parameters be smaller and be driven by the decisions the user made before getting to the report part of what client they are on and site and then they usually just choose a time frame or type and nothing more. So generally a complex report I would use RDL and for something simple I would use RDLC IMHO.
Q: What is the difference between RDL and RDLC formats?
A: RDL files are created by the SQL
Server 2005 version of Report
Designer. RDLC files are created by
the Visual Studio 2008 version of
Report Designer.
RDL and RDLC formats have the same XML
schema. However, in RDLC files, some
values (such as query text) are
allowed to be empty, which means that
they are not immediately ready to be
published to a Report Server. The
missing values can be entered by
opening the RDLC file using the SQL
Server 2005 version of Report
Designer. (You have to rename .rdlc to
.rdl first.)
RDL files are fully compatible with
the ReportViewer control runtime.
However, RDL files do not contain some
information that the design-time of
the ReportViewer control depends on
for automatically generating
data-binding code. By manually binding
data, RDL files can be used in the
ReportViewer control. New! See also
the RDL Viewer sample program.
Note that the ReportViewer control
does not contain any logic for
connecting to databases or executing
queries. By separating out such logic,
the ReportViewer has been made
compatible with all data sources,
including non-database data sources.
However this means that when an RDL
file is used by the ReportViewer
control, the SQL related information
in the RDL file is simply ignored by
the control. It is the host
application's responsibility to
connect to databases, execute queries
and supply data to the ReportViewer
control in the form of ADO.NET
DataTables.
http://www.gotreportviewer.com/
I have always thought the different between RDL and RDLC is that RDL are used for SQL Server Reporting Services and RDLC are used in Visual Studio for client side reporting. The implemenation and editor are almost identical. RDL stands for Report Defintion Language and RDLC Report Definition Language Client-side.
I hope that helps.
From my experience, if you need high performance (this does depend slightly on your client specs) on large reports, go with rdlc. Additionally, rdlc reports give you a very full range of control over your data, you may be able to save yourself wasted database trips, etc. by using client side reports. On the project I'm currently working on, a critical report requires about 2 minutes to render on the server side, and pretty much takes out whichever reporting server it hits for that time. Switching it to client side rendering, we see performance much closer to 20-40 seconds with no load on the report server and less bandwidth used because only the datasets are being downloaded.
Your mileage may vary, and I find rdlc's add development and maintenance complexity, especially when your report has been designed as a server side report.
Some of these points have been addressed above, but here's my 2-cents for VS2008 environment.
RDL (Remote reports): Much better development experience, more flexibility if you need to use some advanced features like scheduling, ad-hoc reporting, etc...
RDLC (Local reports): Better control over the data before sending it to the report (easier to validate or manipulate the data prior to sending it to the report). Much easier deployment, no need for an instance of Reporting Services.
One HUGE caveat with local reports is a known memory leak that can severely affect performance if your clients will be running numerous large reports. This is supposed to be addressed with the new VS2010 version of the report viewer.
In my case, since we have an instance of Reporting Services available, I develop new reports as RDLs and then convert them to local reports (which is easy) and deploy them as local reports.
If you have a reporting services infrastructure available to you, use it. You will find RDL development to be a bit more pleasant. You can preview the report, easily setup parameters, etc.
While I currently lean toward RDL because it seems more flexible and easier to manage, RDLC has an advantage in that it seems to simplify your licensing. Because RDLC doesn’t need a Reporting Services instance, you won't need a Reporting Services License to use it.
I’m not sure if this still applies with the newer versions of SQL Server, but at one time if you chose to put the SQL Server Database and Reporting Services instances on two separate machines, you were required to have two separate SQL Server licenses:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqlgetstarted/thread/82dd5acd-9427-4f64-aea6-511f09aac406/
You can Bing for other similar blogs and posts regarding Reporting Services licensing.
For VS2008, I believe RDL gives you better editing features than RDLC. For example, I can change the Bold on a selected amount of text in a textbox with RDL, while in RDLC it's is not possible.
RDL: abcd efgh ijklmnop
RDLC: abcd efgh ijklmnop -or- abcd efgh ijklmnop (are your only options)
This is because RDLC is using a earlier namespace/formatting from 2005, while RDL is using 2008. This however will change with VS2010
If we have fewer number of reports which are less complex and consumed by asp.net web pages.
It's better to go with rdlc,reason is we can avoid maintaing reports on RS instance.
but we have to fetch the data from DB manually and bind it to rdlc.
Cons:designing rdlc in visual studio is little difficult compared to SSrs designer.
Pro:Maintenance is easy.
while exporting the report from we page,observed that performance gain compared to server side reports.
if you want to use report in asp.net then use .rdl
if you want to use /view in report builder / report server then use .rdlc
just by converting format manually it works