A report VIEWER control ! How about the report DESIGNER control ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sven Devriese
  • Start date Start date
S

Sven Devriese

Hi all, our team is really excited about the new ReportViewer control.
Heck, it even supports custom data sources, which fits in nicely with our
overall application design.

The only thing that seems to be missing then is a control that allows our
users to design (or at least modify) reports themselves. In our mind,
the biggest advantage to working with a report engine and report files
is the ability to provide your users with customizable reports.
Moreover, we know this functionality exists since we (programmers)
use the report designer in VS2005. So it would be up to Microsoft to
package it into a control and ship it.

I'm sure somebody else has already asked about this by now but repeated
google queries have turned up nothing relevant.

Thanks for any light anyone can shed on this.

Sven

PS: I hope my cross-posting does not
 
Take a look at the information about Report Builder in Reporting
Services 2005. That is intended to give end users the ability to
design their own reports.

But it's not a control though. Of course, until recently the Report
Viewer control didn't exist either. :)

Andrew Watt
MVP - InfoPath
 
It is not as simple as that. The report designer is built to work with
Visual Studio and takes advantage of common functionality (for instance, all
the query design windows). As a matter of fact, the designer in 2005 now
ships with a special version of VS 2005. Plus you also have vb.net etc etc.
For that reason I don't expect to ever see this as a redistributable.
However, as Andrew mentioned, there is now Report Builder as well for end
users.
 
Keep in mind that Report Builder generated RDL files cannot be used directly
with the report viewer controls in Local Mode. They can however be easily
used with the controls in Server Mode.

RDL is a documented and open standard, e.g. for the 2003/10 RDL of RS 2000
please check http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/techinfo/rdlspec.mspx,
the 2005/01 RDL is very similar. You could write your own designer component
that generates RDL. In fact, there are ISVs who have implemented e.g.
web-based report authoring tools. Please check:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/partners/default.mspx

-- Robert
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
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