Chapter 8. Integrating Reports into Applications

You can integrate Reporting Services reports into web and Windows applications in three ways:

• Issue URL-based requests to navigate, access, and view reports. This is the most efficient way to render reports because URL-based requests directly access the server. URL-based reports are also easy and efficient to implement.

• Use the freely distributable report viewer control for Visual Studio 2005 to embed Reporting Services functionality.

• Access the report server through Report Server web service using SOAP over HTTP as the communication interface between the client and the report server. In addition to providing the capabilities of URL-based requests, the web service exposes report management functionality that is not available through URL access or through the Report Viewer control including content, subscription, and data-source management.

An enterprise application often uses more than one of these methods.

The three methods are discussed in more detail in the following subsections. The example in all three sections uses the AdventureWorks samples discussed in the Setting Up section at the beginning of this book.