Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 3

Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 3: We continue
building our report in this three part series.
Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 1
Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2 Adding the
ReportViewer control and filter drop downs.Open the source
code for index.aspx and add a ScriptManager control. This control is required for
the ReportViewer control. Add a DropDownList for the categories and suppliers. Add
the ReportViewer control. The markup after these steps is shown below.

<div>

<asp:ScriptManager ID="smScriptManager" runat="server">

</asp:ScriptManager>

<div id="searchFilter">

Filter by: Category :

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCategories" runat="server" />

and Supplier :

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlSuppliers" runat="server" />

</div>

<rsweb:ReportViewer ID="rvProducts" runat="server">

</rsweb:ReportViewer>

</div>

The design view for index.aspx is shown below. The dropdowns will display the categories
and suppliers in the database. Changing the selection in the drop downs will cause
the report to be filtered by the selections in the dropdowns. You will see how to
do this in the next steps.

Attaching the RDLC to the ReportViewer control by clicking on the top right of the
control, going to Report Viewer tasks and selecting Products.rdlc.

Resize the ReportViewer control by dragging at the bottom right corner. I set mine
to 800px x 500px. You can also set this value in source view.

Defining the data sources. We will now define the Data Source used
to populate the report. Go back to the “ReportViewer Tasks” and select “Choose Data
Sources”

Select a “New data source..”

Select “Object” and name your Data Source ID “odsProducts”

In the next screen, choose “ProductRepository” as your business object.

Choose “GetProductsProjected” in the next screen.

The method requires a SupplierID and CategoryID. We will set these so that our data
source gets the values from the drop down lists we defined earlier. Set the parameter
source to be of type “Control” and set the ControlIDs to be ddlSuppliers and ddlCategories
respectively. Your screen will look like this:

We are now going to define the data source for our drop downs. Select the ddlCategory
drop down and pick “Choose Data Source”.

Pick “Object” and give it an id “odsCategories”

In the next screen, choose “ProductRepository”

Select the GetCategories() method in the next screen.

Select “CategoryName” and “CategoryID” in the next screen. We are done defining
the data source for the Category drop down.

Perform the same steps for the Suppliers drop down.



Select eachdropdown and set the AppendDataBoundItems to true and AutoPostback
to true.

The AppendDataBoundItems is needed because we are going to insert an “All“ list
item with a value of empty. Go to each drop down and add this list item markup
as shown below>

Finally, double click on each drop down in the designer and add the following code
in the code behind. This along with the “Autopostback= true” attribute refreshes
the report anytime a drop down is changed.

protected void ddlCategories_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

rvProducts.LocalReport.Refresh();

}

protected void ddlSuppliers_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

rvProducts.LocalReport.Refresh();

}

Compile your report and run the page. You should see the report rendered. Note that
the tool bar in the ReportViewer control gives you a couple of options including
the ability to export the data to Excel, PDF or word.

Conclusion Through this three part series, we did the following:

• Created a data layer for use by our RDLC.
• Created an RDLC using the report wizard and define a dataset for the report.
• Used the report design surface to design our report including adding a chart.
• Used the ReportViewer control to attach the RDLC.
• Connected our ReportWiewer to a data source and take parameter values from the drop
  downlists.
• Used AutoPostBack to refresh the reports when the dropdown selection was changed.

RDLCs allow you to create interactive reports including drill downs and grouping.
For even more advanced reports you can use
Microsoft® SQL Server™ Reporting Services with RDLs. With RDLs, the report
is rendered on the report server instead of the web server. Another nice thing about
RDLs is that you can define a parameter list for the report and it gets rendered
automatically for you. RDLCs and RDLs both have their advantages and its best to
compare them and choose the right one for your requirements. Download VS2010
RTM Sample project

NorthwindReports.zip

Alfred Borden: Are you watching closely?