Ok, what turned out to be the right answer for me was to use the ReportViewer control, but not in any manner documented in MSDN. The problem is that I have dynamic data, so I need a dynamic report, and all of the tutorials, etc. seem to assume you have the luxury of knowing everything at design time so you can point and click your way through a Wizard.
The solution ended up requiring a couple pieces. First, I had to create code to dynamically generate the RDLC that the ReportViewer uses to describe the report layout and what data fields map to what. This is what I came up with:
public static Stream BuildRDLCStream(
DataSet data, string name, string reportXslPath)
{
using (MemoryStream schemaStream = new MemoryStream())
{
// save the schema to a stream
data.WriteXmlSchema(schemaStream);
schemaStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
// load it into a Document and set the Name variable
XmlDocument xmlDomSchema = new XmlDocument();
xmlDomSchema.Load(schemaStream);
xmlDomSchema.DocumentElement.SetAttribute("Name", data.DataSetName);
// load the report's XSL file (that's the magic)
XslCompiledTransform xform = new XslCompiledTransform();
xform.Load(reportXslPath);
// do the transform
MemoryStream rdlcStream = new MemoryStream();
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(rdlcStream);
xform.Transform(xmlDomSchema, writer);
writer.Close();
rdlcStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
// send back the RDLC
return rdlcStream;
}
}
The second piece is an XSL file that I took right off of Dan Shipe's blog. The RDLC code there was pretty worthless as it was all intended for Web use, but the XSL is pure gold. I've put it at the bottom of this post for completeness in case that blog ever goes offline.
Once I has those two pieces, it was simply a matter of creating a Form with a ReportViewer control on it, then using this bit of code to set it up:
ds.DataSetName = name;
Stream rdlc = RdlcEngine.BuildRDLCStream(
ds, name, "c:\\temp\\rdlc\\report.xsl");
reportView.LocalReport.LoadReportDefinition(rdlc);
reportView.LocalReport.DataSources.Clear();
reportView.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(
new ReportDataSource(ds.DataSetName, ds.Tables[0]));
reportView.RefreshReport();
The key here is that 'ds' is a DataSet object with a single DataTable in it with the data to be displayed.
Again, for completeness, here's the XSL - sorry about the size:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- Stylesheet for creating ReportViewer RDLC documents -->
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata"
xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2005/01/reportdefinition"
>
<xsl:variable name="mvarName" select="/xs:schema/@Name"/>
<xsl:variable name="mvarFontSize">8pt</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="mvarFontWeight">500</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="mvarFontWeightBold">700</xsl:variable>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:apply-templates select="/xs:schema/xs:element/xs:complexType/xs:choice/xs:element/xs:complexType/xs:sequence">
</xsl:apply-templates>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="xs:sequence">
<Report xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2005/01/reportdefinition">
<BottomMargin>1in</BottomMargin>
<RightMargin>1in</RightMargin>
<LeftMargin>1in</LeftMargin>
<TopMargin>1in</TopMargin>
<InteractiveHeight>11in</InteractiveHeight>
<InteractiveWidth>8.5in</InteractiveWidth>
<Width>6.5in</Width>
<Language>en-US</Language>
<rd:DrawGrid>true</rd:DrawGrid>
<rd:SnapToGrid>true</rd:SnapToGrid>
<rd:ReportID>7358b654-3ca3-44a0-8677-efe0a55c7c45</rd:ReportID>
<xsl:call-template name="BuildDataSource">
</xsl:call-template>
<xsl:call-template name="BuildDataSet">
</xsl:call-template>
<Body>
<Height>0.50in</Height>
<ReportItems>
<Table Name="table1">
<DataSetName><xsl:value-of select="$mvarName" /></DataSetName>
<Top>0.5in</Top>
<Height>0.50in</Height>
<Header>
<TableRows>
<TableRow>
<Height>0.25in</Height>
<TableCells>
<xsl:apply-templates select="xs:element" mode="HeaderTableCell">
</xsl:apply-templates>
</TableCells>
</TableRow>
</TableRows>
</Header>
<Details>
<TableRows>
<TableRow>
<Height>0.25in</Height>
<TableCells>
<xsl:apply-templates select="xs:element" mode="DetailTableCell">
</xsl:apply-templates>
</TableCells>
</TableRow>
</TableRows>
</Details>
<TableColumns>
<xsl:apply-templates select="xs:element" mode="TableColumn">
</xsl:apply-templates>
</TableColumns>
</Table>
</ReportItems>
</Body>
</Report>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="BuildDataSource">
<DataSources>
<DataSource Name="DummyDataSource">
<ConnectionProperties>
<ConnectString/>
<DataProvider>SQL</DataProvider>
</ConnectionProperties>
<rd:DataSourceID>84635ff8-d177-4a25-9aa5-5a921652c79c</rd:DataSourceID>
</DataSource>
</DataSources>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="BuildDataSet">
<DataSets>
<DataSet Name="{$mvarName}">
<Query>
<rd:UseGenericDesigner>true</rd:UseGenericDesigner>
<CommandText/>
<DataSourceName>DummyDataSource</DataSourceName>
</Query>
<Fields>
<xsl:apply-templates select="xs:element" mode="Field">
</xsl:apply-templates>
</Fields>
</DataSet>
</DataSets>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="xs:element" mode="Field">
<xsl:variable name="varFieldName">
<xsl:value-of select="@name" />
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="varDataType">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="@type='xs:int'">System.Int32</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="@type='xs:string'">System.String</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="@type='xs:dateTime'">System.DateTime</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="@type='xs:boolean'">System.Boolean</xsl:when>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<Field Name="{$varFieldName}">
<rd:TypeName><xsl:value-of select="$varDataType"/></rd:TypeName>
<DataField><xsl:value-of select="$varFieldName"/></DataField>
</Field>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="xs:element" mode="HeaderTableCell">
<xsl:variable name="varFieldName">
<xsl:value-of select="@name" />
</xsl:variable>
<TableCell>
<ReportItems>
<Textbox Name="textbox{position()}">
<rd:DefaultName>textbox<xsl:value-of select="position()"/>
</rd:DefaultName>
<Value><xsl:value-of select="$varFieldName"/></Value>
<CanGrow>true</CanGrow>
<ZIndex>7</ZIndex>
<Style>
<TextAlign>Center</TextAlign>
<PaddingLeft>2pt</PaddingLeft>
<PaddingBottom>2pt</PaddingBottom>
<PaddingRight>2pt</PaddingRight>
<PaddingTop>2pt</PaddingTop>
<FontSize><xsl:value-of select="$mvarFontSize"/></FontSize>
<FontWeight><xsl:value-of select="$mvarFontWeightBold"/></FontWeight>
<BackgroundColor>#000000</BackgroundColor>
<Color>#ffffff</Color>
<BorderColor>
<Default>#ffffff</Default>
</BorderColor>
<BorderStyle>
<Default>Solid</Default>
</BorderStyle>
</Style>
</Textbox>
</ReportItems>
</TableCell>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="xs:element" mode="DetailTableCell">
<xsl:variable name="varFieldName">
<xsl:value-of select="@name" />
</xsl:variable>
<TableCell>
<ReportItems>
<Textbox Name="{$varFieldName}">
<rd:DefaultName><xsl:value-of select="$varFieldName"/></rd:DefaultName>
<Value>=Fields!<xsl:value-of select="$varFieldName"/>.Value</Value>
<CanGrow>true</CanGrow>
<ZIndex>7</ZIndex>
<Style>
<TextAlign>Left</TextAlign>
<PaddingLeft>2pt</PaddingLeft>
<PaddingBottom>2pt</PaddingBottom>
<PaddingRight>2pt</PaddingRight>
<PaddingTop>2pt</PaddingTop>
<FontSize><xsl:value-of select="$mvarFontSize"/></FontSize>
<FontWeight><xsl:value-of select="$mvarFontWeight"/></FontWeight>
<BackgroundColor>#e0e0e0</BackgroundColor>
<Color>#000000</Color>
<BorderColor>
<Default>#ffffff</Default>
</BorderColor>
<BorderStyle>
<Default>Solid</Default>
</BorderStyle>
</Style>
</Textbox>
</ReportItems>
</TableCell>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="xs:element" mode="TableColumn">
<TableColumn>
<Width>0.75in</Width>
</TableColumn>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="replace-string">
<xsl:param name="text"/>
<xsl:param name="from"/>
<xsl:param name="to"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="contains($text, $from)">
<xsl:variable name="before" select="substring-before($text, $from)"/>
<xsl:variable name="after" select="substring-after($text, $from)"/>
<xsl:variable name="prefix" select="concat($before, $to)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="$before"/>
<xsl:value-of select="$to"/>
<xsl:call-template name="replace-string">
<xsl:with-param name="text" select="$after"/>
<xsl:with-param name="from" select="$from"/>
<xsl:with-param name="to" select="$to"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="$text"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>