Mutiple rdlc files in one report viewer control -- can it be done with subreports?

Question

Hi,

I have multiple reports that take the same parameters.

Need to create a master report with all the reports merged together. I dont want to copy paste the rdlc files into one large file.

found a control by Telerik called ReportBook but it costs money!! http://www.telerik.com/help/reporting/designing-reports-general-explanation.html

anyone knows something similar? or am i missing something very obvious?

using visual studio 2005...

Cheers

EDIT:- i have tried to generate the rdlc file on the fly. doesnt work very well with multiple datasources. falling back on copy pasting all my reports into one big rdlc file.

will subreports solve my problem? not sure how these work. i have seen drill down reports work. as a matter of fact i have a two stage drill down report that needs to appear flattened on one page.

so say i have a report that lists employers and i create a subreport that lists all employees for a particular empoyer. is it then possible on one rdlc to have the list of employers and a bunch of subreports for each employer's employees?

Answer 1

The functionality doesn't exist in the base Microsoft Report Viewer control. Like you suggested, you can purchase the module from Telerik, or another company - or - you could write something that will handle this for you.

It is a little complicated to do, but you can dynamically generate RDLC files. There is some code on GotReportViewer.com that will give you a good idea of how this works. The links to the examples are at the very bottom right of the page. Basically, the idea is that you generate an XML file (the RDLC file) for your reports to use so the ReportViewer control knows how to to display the data on screen.

So the idea would be that once you have your report parameters, you could feed it into the code you wrote to dynamically create the report definition file, then pass the report definition file to the reportViewer control.

I would guess that this is exactly what the Telerik module is doing.

Answer 2

Thanks for your help Jon.

i tried generating the rdlc file dynamically but it did not seem to work very well for multiple datasets reading from stored procedures..

then looked at telerik reporting which is an amazing reporting tool. but using it meant i had to start designing my reports from scratch.

after a lot of googling i realised that what i wanted to achieve was very much possible with simple vs rdlc reports. dint know that you can group data on certain fields. for example could get a report of all employees divided into groups of employers.

and as far as not having to copy paste the reports.. looking at the tight schedule i was working in, i thought a little manual work would not harm after spending hours trying to look for a solution.

Answer 3

Hi

we are using reportviewer control to display more than 100 different reports. It works perfect you just need to get into it.

Yes you can use as many subreprots as you can. at the moment we have used 4 level subreports.

you would be able to achieve your requirement using subreprot very easily. and yes you can make grouping/sorting etc.

for each subreport you will have to catch the call in the backend code. and then you can use subreport name to differenciate report call.

If you will google you would be able to find How to do it!

Hope this helps.

cheers

Ali Faraz

Answer 4

Hi,

I got same problem can u tell me how u did , if u dont mind if possible send me code..