Viewing .rdl files online

Question

I am creating a report viewer which outputs the report definitions as .rdl files. These rdl files will be stored server-side.

I don't have much experience in programming in .NET and was wondering how it would be possible for people to view these reports through their browser (i.e. via a web application).

My ultimate goal is to provide some front end that allows users to select from a list of .rdl's and render them (along with some corresponding xml or JSON data)....

So, exactly what tools are required to be able to allow users to view reports (rdl's) through their browser? I would like to make it as easy as possible for the end-user, i.e. SaaS -> no installation of software required client-side...

Answer 1

Depending upon what expertise you want to use, and how much cost to be spared, you can either use the SQL Server Reporting Services or ASP.Net ReportViewer

While Reporting services is more reporting capability tool, it restricts you to only display report. Where as with ASP.Net you can get advantage of available programming model to display any other data (as you have mentioned in your question). You can take a look at each of these and assess which way you want to go.

Reporting Services details can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159106.aspx

ASP.Net Report Server Control details can be found at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms251671(v=VS.100).aspx

Answer 2

rdl files by themselves have no meaning to end users.
They simply contain all the information needed to get data from somewhere and render it.

They are processed by a ReportViewer control or a full Reporting Services (SSRS) install. The format of the rendered report is decided by inputs/parameters to the control or SSRS.

You can add a ReportViewer control to your web site for example.