http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/productinfo/trial.mspx.
SQL Server Reporting Services is server-based reporting platform that you can use to create and manage tabular, matrix, and graphical free-form reports from multiple data sources. One of the features of Reporting Services is that presentation processing occurs once the data is retrieved, enabling multiple users to review the same report simultaneously in formats designed for different devices.
SQL Server Reporting Services utilizes .NET technology to integrate a variety of heterogeneous data types to deliver information in variety of formats. Using this tool, developers can use Report Designer, with the help of Visual Studio .Net that works as a graphical tool by generating reports using the Report Definition Language (RDL) format which can be customized with any RDL-aware tool.
The Reporting Services layer runs as a middle-tier server, as a part of your existing server architecture. In order to install SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services, you need to have SQL Server 2000 installed for database activities, and Internet Information Services as a web server. The report server engine takes in report definitions, locates the corresponding data, and produces the reports. Using Reporting Services, you can interact with the engine through the web-based Report Manager, which also lets you manage tasks like refreshing schedules, along with notifications. In addition to the paper-format reports, end-users can view the report output from a web browser, and can export it to PDF, XML or Excel (viewed as static images) with a click of a button.
It is more than a year since Microsoft released SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services. After extensive usage of Reporting Services, users have called for the features like end-user ad-hoc reporting. The release of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services includes this highly anticipated functionality.You can consider Reporting Services 2005 as a new product because it’s finally fully integration with SQL Server 2005 – the platform it was originally paired with. Some of other features in this latest release are multi-value support for parameter selection, sorting of data in report, a new XML data provider that permits data access from a URL or Web services, and the addition of 64-bit support.
Overview of OfficeWriter for Reporting Services
It is a standard phenomenon that most companies are accustomed to Microsoft Office tools, such as Excel and Word. As corporate business intranets grow, so does the need for the seamless management of data from Microsoft Office products. Developers are always on the lookout for products that enable them to create new and interesting .NET applications and clients are keenly looking forward for easy ways to access the end result in the form of reports using an integrated product.
The web browser has also become one of the most widely used mediums in commercial applications for the distribution of business reports users. There is no doubt this feature allows for scalability and, therefore, the same is required of web reporting solutions.
How about manipulating enterprise reports in the form of Word and Excel documents, with an enhancement of web-based reports where your employees and customers can access the data reports easily with a few clicks?
One such solution is provided by SoftArtisans’ [http://http://officewriter.softartisans.com/] OfficeWriter for SQL Server Reporting Services, a server-side application integrated with .NET. It has been developed and designed to generate presentation-quality reports in native Excel and Word file formats that users can browse from a web browser.
Report generation has become a part most .NET applications, as the presentation of reports has been changed with the evolution of many third-party products, such as OfficeWriter. OfficeWriter report generation, in native formats, enables users to sort, manipulate, and alter spreadsheets and documents on their machine in the Microsoft Excel and Word environment that they are already comfortable with.
SoftArtisans OfficeWriter, which already sells as a reporting product that generates and delivers the reports in Microsoft Office formats, extends this functionality to support SQL Server Reporting Services. The Reporting Services-integrated product [http://officewriter.softartisans.com/] is a web-based tool that opens, modifies, and delivers native Word and Excel documents as reports, over the web without having the need of Microsoft Office in a SQL Server environment.