Reporting Services WebParts - Walkthrough
In this article I'm going to walk you through how to setup the RsWebParts with SharePoint. The first thing you will need to do is download the CAB file from the RsWebParts workspace. The current version is 1.0.0.0. Next you will need to install the CAB file on your SharePoint server. NOTE: please test these on a development box first. Below are the step-by-step instructions to install the WebParts.
1) Save the CAB file to your SharePoint server in a place that is easy to find (I use c:\temp).
2) On the server, open a command prompt. If you haven't added the STSADM tool to your path environment variable, then you will need to navigate to [c]:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\BIN in the command window (by using >cd program files, >cd common files, etc).
3) At the command prompt type stsadm -o addwppack -filename c:\temp\bml.rswebparts.setup.cab (changing c:\temp\ to the directory where you saved the cab file).
4) You should get a message telling you the wppack was successfully installed.
The next step is to start adding the parts to a page and then connecting them together. To do this you will need a WebPartPage in SharePoint. In the site menu click the create button and scroll down to the WebPartPage option. Create a new WebPartPage. I would suggest the layout that has three zones: header, left column, body. Now you can start adding the parts to your page.
You have a few options for how to put the parts on the page (they are under the Virtual Server Gallery). I would suggest starting with the RsExplorer WebPart since it allows you to explore all the folders and reports on your report server. But you can also start with the RsFolder view, which allows you to browse all the reports in a single folder, or the RsStaticReportView, which connects to a single report. You should use one of these three webparts on your page (note: you can use the other webparts without these, but it makes it more difficult to change the report).
Once you have one of these on the page you will need to set some properties to allow it to work. On the RsExplorer you will need to set the Server URL and the Folder Path. To do this click the down arrow on the RsExplorer WebPart and select Modify Shared Web Part (see image below).
In the Server Url box put the URL to your report server. For example, if your server was named ReportServerA then you would set this URL to http://reportservera/reportserver. The Folder Path is just the root path where the explorer will start at. The RsFolderView and RsStaticReportView have similar properties (FolderPath and ReportPath) which do the same thing. Once you click OK the WebPart should load up the list of reports and you should be able to browse around your report server.
The next step is to add some of the other RsWebParts. You can add the RsReportView (for viewing reports), RsReportExport (for exporting reports), RsReportInfo (for getting report details), and RsParameters (for setting report parameters). After you added these items to the page you will need to setup their connections before you can start using them. The steps to make these connections are outlined below.
1) Put the page into design mode by clicking the dropdown at the top and selecting design this page (see image below).
2) Click the down arrow on the Rs Report View web part and under connections select Connections, Consumes a row from, Rs Explorer (see image below). This connetion is what sets the report that the viewer will display.
3) Click the same down arrow on Rs Report View but this time choose Consumes a row from Rs Report Parameters. This connection determines what parameters the report will use to render the report.
4) Click the same down arrow once more, but this choose Provides a cell to and select Rs Report Export. This provides the Url that the viewer is currently using so that the export webpart can export it.
5) Click the down arrow on the Rs Report Parameters and select Connections, Consumes a row from, and select Rs Explorer. This allows the parameters to get the right parameters based on the report you've selected.
6) Finally click the down arrow on the Rs Report Info and select Connections, Consumes a row from, and select Rs Explorer. This allows the web part to display the report information.
You should now be able to select a report and have all the other parts display the correct information. Changing the parameter should change the report. You should also be able to export the report using the export webpart.
I hope you like the web parts! If you find bugs please report them on the workspace and if you would like to add features to the project please apply to join the workspace.
Cheers!