I'm pretty familiar with ASP.NET, and am currently writing an MVC app in ASP.NET.
I'm at the point where I need to integrate reports into my application.
The option I chose to go with (and I'm flexible on this) is SSRS.
I have zero experience in SSRS and it seems that there are a LOT of steps involved in getting that set up, from installing the Report Server, configuring the Report Server, creating a report project in Business Intelligence Development Studio, and publishing the report to the Report Server. I might have done something wrong in the process since I wasn't sure about half of the configuration settings with Report Server. Can anyone guide me to a "tutorial" on how to:
1.) Set up and install SSRS properly. I'm using SQL Server 2008. (Not R2).
2.) Creating and publishing a report to the Report Server.
3.) Being able to access this report from my ASP.NET web application.
I appreciate any responses!! Thanks!!
Mike
Best Answer
There are 3 parts to this.
a) Creating a report:
You can install the Reporting Services components into VS.net (or BIDS as VS.net is called by Microsoft in this instance), from here you can connect to a datasource, design, create and preview reports - all from the comfort of your machine. There are even wizards to help you get up and started. You will see these under a new section in the "create new project" dialog called "business intelligence"
What this essentially does is to create a report file (an XML file with an .RDL extension) and a datasource file (.RDS extension)
b) Using the report:
You will need to install the RS components on a server. RS is accessed via http(s) and needs a SQL Server db to store information about the reports. They can both reside on the same box.
The tool for managing the RS site is called 'report manager' and is a web based tool. http://localhost/reports
Once you have this set up (including security), simply deploy your report from step 1 and you're good to go - you can do this by simply 'right clicking/ deploy' on your new report in VS.net
c) At this point you'll have a good understanding of how it all works so adding the report viewer control to your app will be simple.