Where are rendering format extensions stored in Reporting Services 2005?

 

I have had several individuals who inquired where exactly are the rendering format extensions stored, in the database or the file system.

They are actually stored on the file system located in the following directory path: \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin

 

The listed rendering formats that come with Reporting Services installation are: CSV, Excel, HTML (the default), XML, TIFF (Image), PDF, Web archive.

They are listed and configured in the configuration file for the Report Server, rsreportserver.config within the Render block section.

In order to add custom rendering formats, you will need to create a .NET Managed code. To learn more about the rendering model and to your own custom render format go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms154606.aspx. This article indicates that it is very difficult to write or create your own custom format to be included in Reporting Services.

In my research I found someone who has develop DOC render format add-in. Such as There are very useful third-party rendering extensions available on the market that allow export of reports to Microsoft Word formats (DOC, RTF, OOXML), for example Aspose.Words for Reporting Services. Anton Ponomarev wrote an article "Adding DOC, RTF and OOXML Export Formats to the Microsoft Report Viewer Control" that goes into a lot of details describing how to add this to be utilized in Reporting Services.

Adding Report Explorer and Report Viewer Web Parts to WSS 2.0 Team site

I received a request from a client and a few RS students to demonstrate how to expose Reporting Services 2005 reports in a WSS 2.0 team site.

The client scenario is to expose a list of existing or newly created reports that are deployed to Report Server and be accessible through a WSS 2.0 site instead of accessing the reports through Report Manager or a custom application.

You can either create a Web Part Page to expose the reports or modify an existing site to add a new Web Part. I will go with the latter for this posting.

I am basically creating a "report dashboard" to reveal the reports that have been deployed to the Report Server. I created a SharePoint site called AdventureWorks Reports.

I chose a blank template to build my SharePoint site. Then I select Modify Shared Page to modify the blank site to add Web Parts.

 

Then select Browse and click on Virtual Server Gallery. You will see two Reporting Services web parts; Report Explorer and Report Viewer.

Report Explorer allows you to view all reports deployed to Report Manager or you can view a directory hierarchy listing through the Report Server URL.

Let's select the Report Explorer web part to add to the Left Zone of the web page. Then click the drop-down arrow at the upper-right corner of the Report Explorer web part. Select the Modify Shared Web Part. You will launch the Web Part editor to configure the Report Manager URL and the start path to the list of reports you want to exposed. For instance, http://localhost/reports will be listed for the Report Manager URL textbox and for the Start Path will be Samples/AdventureWorks Sample Reports.

Adjust the height of the Web Part to visibly see all reports within the folder and choose OK to close the editor.

You can click on any report in this list while within your SharePoint site. You also have the ability to launch Report Builder from this site to create a Ad-hoc reports to be stored on the Report Manager site.

Keep in mind, the administrator or power user will still need to create a Report Model to use Report Builder to design Ad-hoc reports and they will be stored in the Report Server not site content database. To learn about creating Report Models go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms167048.aspx.

The users also can create a standard subscription from this web part. This will allow you to email the reports if desired via schedule or at once. However, there is still a need to modify the shared or report specific data source to store the credentials in the report server. To learn about creating subscriptions go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159271.aspx.

You further can expose a single report on a SharePoint site by adding the Report Viewer web part such as a Product Catalog. You can in essence create a dashboard or portal to expose your Reporting Services reports via WSS 2.0.

As you noticed you have the same report tool bar that is present when you execute a report from Report Manager browser. WSS 2.0 users can experience similar functionality in interacting with reports.

Enabling Excel Calculation Services

In order to use Excel Services in your farm, you will need to enable to Excel Calculation Services (ECS) at the farm-level. This service is not started by default. In central administration, click the Operations tab and click the Services on the server link. Start the ECS service to begin configuring using Excel Services.

To learn more about the setup and configuration of Excel Services, there are a lot of good blog postings, such as Configuring Trusted File Locations for Excel Services by Bill Baer