SQL Reporting Services Client ...

Few months ago, I had developed a simple windows application in .NET that can execute an SQL server Reporting Services (SSRS) report and export the output as PDF or Excel. The concept behind executing an SSRS report is pretty straight forward, one can find 'n' number of "How-to" tutorials on the web to consume SSRS webservices.

The key is to make use of the SSRS webservices and here is the list of web services that help us:

1. Add web references to the web services at the urls below:




• http://<machine running SQL Server 2005>/ReportServer/ReportExecution2005.asmx
• http://<machine running SQL Server 2005>/ReportServer/ReportService2005.asmx

After you add web references, follow the API document (I can send you a sample, if you think you are breaking your head ;-) ) and execute the reports.

So far, I haven't done anything new,but now let me list down the interesting elements of my SSRS client:

1. The client lets you define multiple reports, set the param names and values (that the target report expects)
2. Configure the export format (PDF, Excel)
3. Merge the outputs of all the reports (if the output format is PDF, then all the output PDFs are merged as one PDF document and if it is Excel, then all the report outputs are added as difference worksheets in a single spreadsheet)
4. The application supports command-line mode (good especially if you want to schedule the execution)
   

Here is a sample screenshot of the application:



Happy report generation :-)

Feel good factor ...

It's been about one year since I had been posting content on my blog and most of the times, it's my friends and colleagues being the audience. It feels good to know that somebody is taking time to read my posts :-)

The reason why I started blogging was to publish technical articles on the issues that remained unanswered in the forums on the web :-) Well, if I look back and question myself -"Did I do that?", until my latest post on an issue in CRM 4.0, the answer was a big "NO" !!

I had publised an article on Smart Timepicker control and expected that I have developed something that my developer friends out there can use it (without paying a penny ;-)) but I didn't get atleast one comment on that post :-(

Fortunately (I believe that it is due to the post on CRM 4.0) that I keep getting emails requesting for sources :-)

I feel very encouraged now as the whole point, that I started with, in having my own blog, is getting served now.

Thanks to all who read my posts and post comments and many many thanks to those who have requested the source code for the technical stuff that I had published, and most importantly, thanks to blogs that make me get creative [ http://sudeepdsouza.blogspot.com, http://neel-d.blogspot.com,http://mvkinfo.blogspot.com, http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu, http://nikhilk.net, to name a few)

In my opinion, a feedback is very important - be it negative or positive, the consequences are "thought" and "improvement" ;-)