Viewing Generated PDF File of SSRS .rdl file in MVC 5 (Visual Studio 2015)

Question

I have a .rdl file of SSRS report and it is working fine when I open it in preview mode. I know that I can host this report file (*.rdl file) on SQL Server Report Server and can use it easily.

But my requirement is that I need to display only the PDF file (SSRS report saved in PDF format) on UI of MVC 5 without using SQL Server Report Server and Report Viewer Control.

I have gone through a lot of blogs and articles and I found 1 good article:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/607382/Running-a-RDL-RDLC-SQL-Report-in-ASP-NET-without-S

But it is using a lot of classes for serialization and also other complex logic. I am looking for simple logic with few lines of codes.

Some developer also suggested to “Configuring ReportViewer for Local Processing” but in Visual Studio 2015 I am unable to find Report template inside C# language.

I have already installed SSDT tool for Visual Studio 2015 and Business Intelligence Template is available in Visual Studio 2015 but I need Report template to configure RDLC.

Please suggest the easy way of displaying only the PDF file (SSRS report saved in PDF format) on UI of MVC 5 without using SQL Server Report Server and Report Viewer Control.

Answer 1

You can't render report to PDF without SSRS report processing engine unless you'll write your own:) However, you can do this without Report Viewer. The way is to use ReportExecution2005 endpoint and programmatically render report on SSRS server to PDF. See this service.

You can write proxy API in your backend, which will request SSRS for report and return PDF. Or you can request SSRS server from client code if this is applicable.

Let me know if this helped you.