Combining Reports

am currently looking for a way to potentially combine several types of
reports systematically to create a single report pack for a client.
This would need to be done on the fly so the clients can choose which bits /
Reports they wish to have and then click the Download PDF button and hey
presto here it comes?
Is there a way and if so can anyone let me know the best / easiest way for a
simple brain to do it!
Cheers alotHi, Paul
I think we'd need more information about your application/UI and method
of delivery...
but making some simple assumption, if you are dealing with your own
custom web app, you can use the SOAP api to invoke reporting services
and render the reports you need.
A nice way to present this would be to use the fileshare delivery
extension, and have the ReportServer render the selected reports to
this share, then just send an email or notification to the user with a
link to access the file share where the PDFs have been saved.
You can also create one big report, that has multiple datasets and
several dataregions, corresponding to different "reports." Then using
parameters, you can drive which datasets get to be populated with data
or hidden from the user...Note that this approach may be a bit slower,
but it will provide a better way of giving the user one single PDF
which contains multiple "reports."
I hope I've given you some ideas to get started.
Regards,
Thiago Silva
MCAD.NET
Paul Roberts wrote:
> am currently looking for a way to potentially combine several types of
> reports systematically to create a single report pack for a client.
> This would need to be done on the fly so the clients can choose which bits /
> Reports they wish to have and then click the Download PDF button and hey
> presto here it comes?
> Is there a way and if so can anyone let me know the best / easiest way for a
> simple brain to do it!
> Cheers alot|||"tafs7" <tsilva7@.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156518561.205312.262860@.74g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
Thiago,
Firstly, Great Name.
Right here is the setup / Architecture, the company I am currently working
for has been using SSRS2000 to provide reports to clients via a web
interface allowing them a series of criteria to make their bespoke report.
All information is saved to a database and a GUID and Version ID is supplied
back to the interface that will then be passed to a process filter that will
then be sent off to SSRS as parameters to be disseminated to the Stored
procedure that is called from the RDL. Hey presto, SSRS send back the
desired report in the desired format.
Now, my lead developer has said, Paul you are a Genius!!!, we need you to
provide a solution for our clients to say I would like "Report 1", "Report
4" and "Report 12" [Where each of these reports is an individual report RDL
Template] to be be selected so as to be combined into one single but
brilliant report. He has also asked as a request that it has continuous
Page Numbers (I can do this bit.) and a Key / Legend bespoke to the report /
s generated and only containing the description to Icons that are contained.
Now this I know is a massive job to undertake and I have a couple of Ideas
of how it can be done. However if there is a way that I can say, "Right I
have a generated report for each individual report, 'Report 1', 'Report 4'
and 'Report 12' and then say go and get me these GENERATED reports and
output them into a single PDF or Excel.
I am guessing that this would be a bigger issue than your suggestion and it
is not something I would get SSRS to do.
Thank you for you reply and look forward to hearing a response.
Paul
> Hi, Paul
> I think we'd need more information about your application/UI and method
> of delivery...
> but making some simple assumption, if you are dealing with your own
> custom web app, you can use the SOAP api to invoke reporting services
> and render the reports you need.
> A nice way to present this would be to use the fileshare delivery
> extension, and have the ReportServer render the selected reports to
> this share, then just send an email or notification to the user with a
> link to access the file share where the PDFs have been saved.
> You can also create one big report, that has multiple datasets and
> several dataregions, corresponding to different "reports." Then using
> parameters, you can drive which datasets get to be populated with data
> or hidden from the user...Note that this approach may be a bit slower,
> but it will provide a better way of giving the user one single PDF
> which contains multiple "reports."
> I hope I've given you some ideas to get started.
> Regards,
> Thiago Silva
> MCAD.NET
> Paul Roberts wrote:
>> am currently looking for a way to potentially combine several types of
>> reports systematically to create a single report pack for a client.
>> This would need to be done on the fly so the clients can choose which
>> bits /
>> Reports they wish to have and then click the Download PDF button and hey
>> presto here it comes?
>> Is there a way and if so can anyone let me know the best / easiest way
>> for a
>> simple brain to do it!
>> Cheers alot
>|||Paul,
Firstly, thanks for the name compliment...it's Portuguese (BR), if
you're wondering.
I don't think it would be easy or even possible to generate separate
reports (different RDLs), then combine them into PDF via code, etc.
The best approach to this in my opinion, still would be to have one RDL
that contains the different report bodies in their contained rectangles
or tables or lists, and based on parameters for which report number was
selected, only execute the appropriate query and render the appropriate
RDL body/data section.
Unfortunately, RS does not allow for expression in Subreport names,
otherwise, I would recommend an entry point report with a Subreport
that would be defined based on a parameter, contained in a table. Then
you could write a little SQL to parse the entered rpt numbers as
individual rows, so you'd have the Subreport render different report
numbers in each "row" of the parent table/list. Hope this makes sense,
but it won't matter 'cause it ain't supported ;-)
Anyways, that's my 2 cents.
Cheers back at you!
Thiago Silva
MCAD.NET
Paul Roberts wrote:
> "tafs7" <tsilva7@.gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1156518561.205312.262860@.74g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
> Thiago,
> Firstly, Great Name.
> Right here is the setup / Architecture, the company I am currently working
> for has been using SSRS2000 to provide reports to clients via a web
> interface allowing them a series of criteria to make their bespoke report.
> All information is saved to a database and a GUID and Version ID is supplied
> back to the interface that will then be passed to a process filter that will
> then be sent off to SSRS as parameters to be disseminated to the Stored
> procedure that is called from the RDL. Hey presto, SSRS send back the
> desired report in the desired format.
> Now, my lead developer has said, Paul you are a Genius!!!, we need you to
> provide a solution for our clients to say I would like "Report 1", "Report
> 4" and "Report 12" [Where each of these reports is an individual report RDL
> Template] to be be selected so as to be combined into one single but
> brilliant report. He has also asked as a request that it has continuous
> Page Numbers (I can do this bit.) and a Key / Legend bespoke to the report /
> s generated and only containing the description to Icons that are contained.
> Now this I know is a massive job to undertake and I have a couple of Ideas
> of how it can be done. However if there is a way that I can say, "Right I
> have a generated report for each individual report, 'Report 1', 'Report 4'
> and 'Report 12' and then say go and get me these GENERATED reports and
> output them into a single PDF or Excel.
> I am guessing that this would be a bigger issue than your suggestion and it
> is not something I would get SSRS to do.
> Thank you for you reply and look forward to hearing a response.
>
> Paul
>
> > Hi, Paul
> >
> > I think we'd need more information about your application/UI and method
> > of delivery...
> >
> > but making some simple assumption, if you are dealing with your own
> > custom web app, you can use the SOAP api to invoke reporting services
> > and render the reports you need.
> >
> > A nice way to present this would be to use the fileshare delivery
> > extension, and have the ReportServer render the selected reports to
> > this share, then just send an email or notification to the user with a
> > link to access the file share where the PDFs have been saved.
> >
> > You can also create one big report, that has multiple datasets and
> > several dataregions, corresponding to different "reports." Then using
> > parameters, you can drive which datasets get to be populated with data
> > or hidden from the user...Note that this approach may be a bit slower,
> > but it will provide a better way of giving the user one single PDF
> > which contains multiple "reports."
> >
> > I hope I've given you some ideas to get started.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Thiago Silva
> > MCAD.NET
> >
> > Paul Roberts wrote:
> >> am currently looking for a way to potentially combine several types of
> >> reports systematically to create a single report pack for a client.
> >>
> >> This would need to be done on the fly so the clients can choose which
> >> bits /
> >> Reports they wish to have and then click the Download PDF button and hey
> >> presto here it comes?
> >>
> >> Is there a way and if so can anyone let me know the best / easiest way
> >> for a
> >> simple brain to do it!
> >>
> >> Cheers alot
> >