Programming Reports against using Report Builder

I am trying to find some reasons why it would be beneficial to program a report through .NET 2.0 by Generating Report Definition Language to enable users to create dynamic reports, which then can be published to the report server using reporting services web service INSTEAD of just simply using report builder for external users.

There must be situations when report builder is restricted to provide certain functionality which could be accomplished instead programming the report with RDL.

I would appreciate a quick response. Thank you

I a very astract view, the report builder does nothing else than composing the RDL which is created by the graphical modifications of the user in the GUI.

HTH, Jens Suessmeyer.

http://www.sqlserver2005.de|||

Thanks,

But what can I do with programming RDL using Visual Studio 2005 which I cannot do with Report Builder, i.e. what functionality does report builder not support which can be acheived by programming RDL to create dynamic reports?

Programatically query database and save report in an excel table

Hello All,

I am working on constructing a software layer around some features of the RDL language that would allow me to programatically generate reports.

I am reading the RDL specification language, and I do not understand three things:

1) How the DataSet element is populated by the query or more precisely how do the <Field> elements capture all the rows inside the table that is being queries?

To my understanding I wilkl have to define several fields that correspond to all columns of interest in the query.

But that is only for one row (?!) How do the rest of the rows get populated? Does the server recursively create new rows based on my definitions until it matches row for row all the data in the table?

2) Once the elements are inside a DataSet how do make use of that data to render it in a table.

I understand how the DataSource, DataSet, and Table work individually, yet I do not understand how to establish a flow of data between DataSet and Table.

3) Do I even need to use a <Table> as an RDL element in order to organize the data in an excel table?

I would appreciate any help. Thank you!

Anyone?