Report Templates Using Stylesheets

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Report Templates Using Stylesheets

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Adam Aspin

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:37 AM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Report Templates Using Stylesheets

Post #673962

noxidjkram

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:54 AM

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Great article/series.

One small point - you state that you cannot use databased images in headers and footers... I'd like to point out that you can. :) You need to store them in the report body first (for example within a hidden textbox, using the functions convertFromBase64 and convertToBase64) then reference them from the header/footer.

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Post #673981

Adam Aspin

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 3:18 AM

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Good tip - thankk you!

Post #674024

BarryK

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 3:20 AM

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A database call for every styled element?.... I like the idea of a stylesheet (come on Microsoft, CSS ??!) but maybe a DS that returns the all the styles for the report and use that instead?

Post #674025

Jeremy Baynham

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 3:50 AM

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Another great article, one point though, as far as I am aware, these self-built templates are only an option if you are using BIDS, not if you use the full Visual Studio. If anyone can prove me wrong here, I will be glad to hear of it! :)

Post #674039

noxidjkram

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 4:06 AM

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When it comes to templates it doesnt really matter too much anyway.

You can just copy and paste your 'template' into your newly created project file and add it from there using the 'right-click' on Reports and 'Add existing Item' method. Placing a template into BIDS as a 'click-on' item is just a nicety.

M

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Post #674041

Jeremy Baynham

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 4:25 AM

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Hmm, I see what you're saying, but then there is no way of going through the wizard using the template, so you will need to add groups etc manually, not the end of the world, but not wildly convenient either...

Post #674049

noxidjkram

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 4:57 AM

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For me, the wizard was great to begin with when I didn't have a good handle on how to set properties etc manually, but after using BIDS for 18 months or so I find the wizard to be restrictive, and that it is quicker for me to do things manually. Perhaps it is a factor of personal preference as well.

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Post #674069

Jeremy Baynham

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 5:12 AM

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No, the wizard isn't great, but it is handy for setting up grouping, as it populates both the group expression and the sort, which I always forget otherwise... Probably 90% of my reports are variants of something that I have already written, so the copy and tweak method isn't so much of a departure from normal workflow. The inconsistencies between BIDS and VS do seem a bit silly though. I have to author some reports in BIDS on the server as I commonly use SSIS as a data source, would be nice to work on everything in the same way.

Post #674077

BarryK

Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 6:22 AM

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An alternative way to style your reports...

http://sqldev.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/dynamic-report-styling/

Post #674151

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