is there a control to, create/edit/view reports?

Hi,

i was wondering is there a .net control or an external control i could buy that would allow me to view create and edit sql reporting services reports from a windows form

I want to allow users to view create or edit reports without having to leave my application or use another program.

Thanks.

You can view SQL reports using the ReportViewer control in WinForms or ASP.NET. It is part of the v2 framework. There are no controls available to create and edit these reports in .NET. SSRS comes with a stripped down version of VS to create and edit reports. It also integrates with an existing version of VS. There are several third-party commercial tools available for this as well such as http://www.rdleditor.com/.

Michael Taylor - 4/4/07

http://p3net.mvps.org

hi,

can crystal reports read and edit RDL files

thanks

VS 2005 Standard edition or Express does not come with Crystal Reports (as far as I know). VS 2003 did come with Crystal Reports .Net.

We are now switching from CR to Reporting Services. I am not sure if CR can read RDL. That is a good question.

RDL is a Microsoft specification. Crystal Reports (at least up to v10 I believe) uses an encrypted, proprietary format that is incompatible with anything other than CR's own stuff. It can not and does not understand RDL.

I did some consulting for a company a while back that had over a thousand CR reports and they wanted to convert them to SSRS. There is no automated way to do this. There are some companies that will charge you money to hand convert them. At the lowest end ($50 per report) they got the general layout but the data was mangled because CR has some options that SSRS does not.

And yes CR has been supported and shipped with VS since post-VS6. However the v1.x versions had problems. v2 supposedly works correctly. SSRS report viewing is built into .NET v2 but SQL 2000 RS requires a separate download. Creating and editing RDL files requires SSRS or a third-party tool.

Michael Taylor - 4/4/07

http://p3net.mvps.org

Thanks for the information.

I want to purchase a third party tool to add to my application, where would i look to get one of these

Or can anyone recomend a control i could buy.

im fairly new to this so id appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

Ali.

http://www.fyireporting.com/products.html is a free project that provides RDL editing support to applications. I've never used it so I can't confirm how good it is or what it takes to use it. For viewing reports use ReportViewer from the .NET framework.

Michael Taylor - 4/6/07

http://p3net.mvps.org