SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
Recently I have been working with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a WinForms project. Now SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services is a really nice and impressive product and I like it a lot but some things I just don't get. The problem I am having at the moment is with exporting the data. If I use the web service ReportExecutionService classto render the report I get a list of 10 possible render formats when I use the ListRenderingExtensions() function. These are:
- XML
- NULL
- CSV
- IMAGE
- PDF
- RGDI
- HTML4.0
- HTML3.2
- MHTML
- EXCEL
Great, lots of options. The one I wanted most of all was XML so I can export the data with the same grouping as in the report.
Now we also have the WinForm local reporting using an RDLC report instead of an RDL one. Even though the extension is different this is pretty much the same thing with only a few differences. Now using the Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.LocalReport type ListRenderingExtensions() function I try the same. Now I only get 3 possible render formats:
- Excel
- IMAGE
- PDF
So what gives, why only 3 different options?
In fact taking a quick look, using Reflector, inside Microsoft.ReportViewer.Common.dll shows a few more options that don't show in the list like HTML. No idea why they don’t show up. But the one I want, namely XML, isn't there :-(
So why the difference in rendering options between client side and server side reporting? I don't have a clue so if you know please let me know.