RDLC Basics

So less than 6 hrs of time invested and I have basic RDLC reporting working for data displayed in a table / grid.  Also created several multi-column reports.

So here is my basic approach:

My data source is a MS Access MDB file but this would work for SQL server just as easy. Simply a different connection string.

Step #1 - Create a visual dataset with table adapters that can be bound to a report.

Step #2 Create basic RDLC report without using the wizard.

1.  Add new item, select reporting template, select Report.
2. In report data panel, select new dataset
3. Select data source 
4. Select table adapter
5. Add table / grid to body of the report.
6. Assign columns in the table / grid to fields from the tableAdapter field list
7. Right-click in the report designer below the report body and add page header or page footer as needed.
8. Add Report name, execution time, and page number from built-in fields

Step #3 Fetch data for report and return it as a data table

Here is  my design approach.  I only use table adapters to bind fields in the designer.  At runtime, I like to manually fetch the data and add it to report data source.  I do this so I can re-use report design and pass slightly different data sets to the same report.  This is similar to the approach I used 10 year ago with MS Access reports.  Not for everyone but it works for me.

I create a function where I can return the data I want by passing in the report name.

public static DataTable GetReportData(string reportName, string MDBfile)

{

try

{

EnterProc(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod());

string sql = null;

DataTable table = null;

switch (reportName)

{

case "":

break;

case "CollectionSummaryByYear":

sql = "SELECT [Year], COUNT([Year]) AS SpecimenCount FROM tblMineral_Collection WHERE (Len([Year]) > 0) GROUP BY [Year]";

break;

case "FossilLabel_SmallCabinet":

case "FossilLabel_Thumbnail":

sql = "SELECT tblFossils.ID_Text, tblFossils.CommonName, tblFossils.ProperName, tblFossils.RockFormation, tblFossils.RockAge, tblFossils.Location, tblFossils.County, tblFossils.City, lstStates.State, lstCountries.Country, Str([tblFossils].[Year]) AS strYear FROM (tblFossils LEFT JOIN lstCountries ON tblFossils.CountryID = lstCountries.ID) LEFT JOIN lstStates ON (tblFossils.StateID = lstStates.ID) AND (tblFossils.CountryID = lstStates.CountryID);";                        

break;

case "MineralLabel_Cabinet":

case "MineralLabel_SmallCabinet":

case "MineralLabel_Micromount":

case "MineralLabel_Thumbnail":

sql = "SELECT tblMineral_Collection.ID_Text, tblMineral_Collection.Variety, tblMineral_Collection.Mineral_Name, tblMineral_Collection.Mine, tblMineral_Collection.City, tblMineral_Collection.County, lstStates.State, lstCountries.Country, Str([tblMineral_Collection].[Year]) AS StrYear, tblMinerals.Formula_1, tblMinerals.Formula_2 FROM (((LabelQueue INNER JOIN tblMineral_Collection ON LabelQueue.Specimen_ID = tblMineral_Collection.Specimen_ID) LEFT JOIN lstCountries ON tblMineral_Collection.CountryID = lstCountries.ID) LEFT JOIN lstStates ON (tblMineral_Collection.CountryID = lstStates.CountryID) AND (tblMineral_Collection.StateID = lstStates.ID)) LEFT JOIN tblMinerals ON tblMineral_Collection.Mineral_Name = tblMinerals.Mineral";

break;

case "SpeciesList":

sql = "SELECT tblMineral_Collection.Mineral_Name, Count(tblMineral_Collection.Mineral_Name) AS SpecimenCount FROM  tblMineral_Collection WHERE LEN(Mineral_Name)>0 GROUP BY tblMineral_Collection.Mineral_Name";

break;

}

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sql))

{

table = TableFromMdb(MDBfile, sql);

}

ExitProc(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod());

return table;

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

ErrorLog(ex);

return null;

}

The only trick to this approach is to pass in the data using name of dataset originally used to setup report.

var rds = new ReportDataSource("DataSet1", args.ReportData);

var report = new LocalReport

{

ReportEmbeddedResource = string.Format("DRC.RDLC.{0}.rdlc", args.ReportName)

};

report.DataSources.Add(rds);