Tag Archive for: Reporting Services

In case you missed this little gem, RS 2005 comes with a brand new XML Extension which allows you to report off an XML data returned from an URL-addressable resource, such as an ASP.NET page or a web service. For example, suppose that you have a web method called GetOrders that return the customer orders as a typed dataset (table in my case) and has the following signature:

[WebMethod]

public CustomerOrders.SalesOrderHeaderDataTable GetOrders(int customerID)

You can create a report from the returned dataset by using the RS 2005 XML dataset extension:

1. 
   
   Create a data source that uses the XML extension by selecting XML as the data source type.


2. 
   
   Enter the URL address of the web service in the connection string, e.g. #


3. 
   
   Once the data source is ready, create a dataset with the following query:

 <Query>

   <Method Namespace=”http://tempuri.org/” Name=”GetOrders”/>

   <SoapAction>http://tempuri.org/GetOrders</SoapAction>

   <ElementPath IgnoreNamespaces=”true”>GetOrdersResponse/GetOrdersResult/diffgram/DocumentElement/SalesOrderHeader</ElementPath>

</Query>

Unfortunately, the documentation stays shy about all the parameters supported by the XML extension but it is fairly easy to deduce what’s going on here.

The Method element describes the web method to be called. This is somewhat redundant since the SoapAction element does the same and explained in more details here. The ElementPath describes the full XPATH to the elements to be retrieved and flattened in a two-dimensional resultset. Finally, the IgnoreNamespaces attribute tells the XML extension to ignore any schema namespaces when parsing the XML content.

   4. To pass a parameter(s) to the web method, use the Parameters tab and link the report parameter to the query parameter as usual, e.g:

Name                          Value

customerID              =Parameters!CustomerID.Value

One cautionary note that bit me really bad is that the parameter name is case-sensitive and must much the argument name of the web method verbatim. Thus, if you change the parameter Name to CustomerID, you will find out that the XML extension doesn’t pass the parameter value.

Thanks for to the XML Extension, in my cases, reporting off XML data from URL-addressable sources may not require a custom data extension with RS 2005. Happy reporting!

As you probably know, the custom rendering specification wasn’t documented with RS 2000. The features set was there, only the information was lacking. The SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 documentation now includes the rendering extension specification.

James Yip has written an excellent article about writing custom rendering extensions in the February issue of the MSDN magazine. As you can imagine, custom renderers are not trivial to write. For this reason, I highly recommend you check for availability of third-party rendering extensions that support the rendering format you need before you embark on this journey. For example, as I mention in one of previous posts, SoftArtisians provides flexible Excel and Word rendering extensions.

Happy rendering!

Printing reports was akward with RS 2000 to say the least. This was especially true when the reports were rendered in HTML since in this case the report is generated inside an IFRAME element. Since the frame could scroll right-clicking and engaging the standard browser printing was problematic. As a workaround, the report had to be exported in PDF format (or other non-HTML renderer) and printed as such.

You will be happy to know that SP2 puts this issue to rest by supporting client-side printing in the form of the new print control which allows printing of a report on the client side (inside the browser). This control makes printing a report a breeze. Once you install Service Pack 2 and request a report, you will see a new toolbar button added to the report toolbar (between the Refresh Report and Help buttons).

The print control is implemented as an ActiveX control. When you click on the Printer button, a request is made to download the print control if it is not installed already on the user machine. Once the download process is complete, the familiar Print Dialog is displayed.

As you can see, the print control supports also a preview mode.

Once the preview mode is initiated or the report is printed, the control instructs the Report Server to print the report using the EMF rendering extension. This is the same concept as the Bryan Keller’s article demonstrates.

The print control also supports a client-side object model (RSClientPrint object) to give developers access to the print control functionality should custom toolbars have to implemented.

Client-side printing has been one of most demanded RS features and the new print control solves this issue elegantly. For more information about SP2, please see my previous post.

Happy printing and reporting in the new 2005!

Pinnacle Publications published this article in the November issue of the Visual Basic Developer magazine. The article demonstrates how to leverage Reporting Services to generate reports on the server side of ASP.NET applications. You need a paid subscription to read it and download the code. I hope MSDN will pick it up as well in the next month or so.

Microsoft has just published my article “Microsoft Reporting Services in Action: Extending Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services with Custom Code“ on MSDN. Excerpted from my book Microsoft Reporting Services in Action, this article demonsrates how to implement advanced features in reports by integrating them with .NET assemblies.