Lesson 3: Load a Report Definition from the Report Server

After you have created your project and generated the classes from the RDL schema, you are ready to load a report definition from the report server.

To load a report definition

1. Add a private field at the top of the ReportUpdater class (module if you are using Visual Basic) for the Report class. This field will be used to maintain a reference to report that is loaded from the report server for the life of the application.

   private Report _report;
   

   Private m_report As Report
   

2. Replace the code for the LoadReportDefinition() method in the Program.cs file (Module1.vb for Visual Basic) with the following code:

   private void LoadReportDefinition()
   {
       System.Console.WriteLine("Loading Report Definition");
   
       string reportPath = 
           "/AdventureWorks 2012 Sample Reports/Company Sales 2012";
   
       // Retrieve the report defintion 
       // from the report server
       byte[] bytes = 
           _reportService.GetItemDefinition(reportPath);
   
       if (bytes != null)
       {
           XmlSerializer serializer = 
               new XmlSerializer(typeof(Report));
   
           // Load the report bytes into a memory stream
           using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(bytes))
           {
               // Deserialize the report stream to an 
               // instance of the Report class
               _report = (Report)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
           }
       }
   }
   

   Private Sub LoadReportDefinition()
   
       System.Console.WriteLine("Loading Report Definition")
   
       Dim reportPath As String = _
           "/AdventureWorks 2012 Sample Reports/Company Sales 2012"
   
       'Retrieve the report defintion 
       'from the report server
       Dim bytes As Byte() = _
           m_reportService.GetItemDefinition(reportPath)
   
       If Not (bytes Is Nothing) Then
   
           Dim serializer As XmlSerializer = _
               New XmlSerializer(GetType(Report))
   
           'Load the report bytes into a memory stream
           Using stream As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(bytes)
   
               'Deserialize the report stream to an 
               'instance of the Report class
               m_report = CType(serializer.Deserialize(stream), _
                                Report)
   
           End Using
   
       End If
   
   End Sub
   

Next Lesson

In the next lesson, you will write code to update the report definition that was loaded from the report server. See Lesson 4: Update the Report Definition Programmatically.

See Also

Tasks

Updating Reports Using Classes Generated from the RDL Schema (SSRS Tutorial)

Concepts

Report Definition Language (SSRS)