How do you create templates for SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services reports?

Question

I want to create templates for base new reports on to have common designs. How do you do it?

Answer 1

The need to produce reports with a common starting design and format is key to any project involving clients and their reports. I have been working on reports for over 10 years now. This has not been the largest portion of my jobs through the years but it has been a very import one. The key to any report project is not to recreate the mundane aspects of the reports for each but to use templates. The use of templates is not a common task or knowledge for Microsoft's SQL Server Reporting Services. Knowing how to save reports templates so that you and your team can create these shortcuts at the creation of a new report in Visual Studio 2005 will help save time and have all reports use the same layout and design.

Create of a set of reports with the following suggestions:

• Page size -- 8.5 by 11 (letter) and 8.5 by 14 (legal)
• Orientation -- portrait and landscape for all paper sizes
• Header -- Text Box for report name, Text Box for report subtitle, client or brand logo
• Footer -- page number/total pages, date and time report printed

Take all the rdl files for the reports created from the suggestions and copy the files to the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject

When creating a new report in your Visual Studio 2005 report project through Add|New Item

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The new report dialog will present the list of items from the directory where the new templates were placed.

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Select the report that fits the requirement needed and proceed to develop your reports without needing to create the basics.

Answer 2

Further more, I would suggest wrapping up your template perhaps with externally linked images into an .msi for easier distribution. It is a lot easier to ask people in a department to run an installer than it is to hope they find the right path to put the reporting template in. Make sure you use the proper program files variables etc to account for "Program Files" vs "Program Files(x86)" and other variations users sometimes do with their environment variable settings.