Appropriate template for a report project and then quick whirlwind tour of the Visual Studio screen including how to wear with the various windows once we've done that we'll talked about how.
To create basic reports these won't be based on data to begin with these will just be the absolute basic techniques so we'll talk about how to add a report or a project how you then add report items.
Into a report we'll teach you how to move and position report items so you get a neat layout and finally show you 3 ways to format report items so let's get started to get started with a report.
Project you first of all need to open up the relevant application and that's entirely dependent on which version of the software you have installed head down with the style menu first of all.
Option you're looking for is sequel server business intelligence development studio it's bit of a mouthful you can use bits for short if you have a later version of sequel Server 2012 is the.
Latest one I have installed then you can choose the sequel server data tools which is exactly the same options bits the 2008 r2 what these two options actually do is open up the relevant copy.
Of Visual Studio so you could just jump straight to the visual studio folder and open up visual studio 2008 if you're in 2008 r2 or Visual Studio 2010 if you're working in sequel Server 2012.
Well somewhat confusing but the end result I'm just going to go back to sequel Server 2012 and choose sequel server data tools then result of choosing any of those options is it.
Should open up visual studio into whichever environment the screen has been setup for once you've opened up Visual Studio the next job is to create a.
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Apple project and to do that you need to
Choose the relevant template so hats at the file menu first of all and choose new and then choose project you could also use a keyboard shortcut ctrl +.Shift + n whichever of those options you choose you ought to end up with a list of all of your available templates now if you've opened up Visual Studio via the bits link or the sequel server.
Data tools link you should already be looking at the business intelligence category if not just click onto the business intelligence category on the left hand side then enlist you're.
Looking for something called a report server project so select that option and then you can use the options down at the bottom of the dialog box to give it a sensible name so first of all I'm going.
To rename my project as movies project because this all the reports here will be based on a database containing information about films you can then choose the location for your project.
Using the Browse person if you need to I'm going to leave mine as is then all you need to do is to click OK and you should eventually the end of where they might take a little bit longer the first.
Time but you should find out the solution Explorer now contains a project called movie project with a basic structure and basic empty folders to hold all of your reports.
Now if you haven't used Visual Studio before it might be worth a quick whirlwind tour of the screen to explain how the various windows work so you should have seen when we created our new.
Project our movies project that the top right hand corner window the solution Explorer now contains a list of what's called a solution a solution is simply a container for multiple projects and.
Inside that solution is our one single
Project called movies project now if you couldn't already see the solution Explorer on your screen then you can always head to the View menu and choose.The solution Explorer window in fact that's true for any of the multitude of windows available in visual studio if you can't find it head to the View menu first and then see if you can see is.
Named in this list here another reason you might not be able to see the Edit the detail of the solution Explorer window is it may well have been minimized and you can see there's this.
Little drawing pin icon in the top right hand corner of all the little individual windows that allows you to hide them if I click on the drawing pin symbol then you can see that the solution Explorer.
Attaches itself as a little tab to the right hand side I can do that with the properties window too to display the information in one of those windows it's a simple case of.
Hovering your mouse over it and when it will automatically pop out you can then select options in that window when you move the mouse cursor away but window will snap back into the side of the.
Screen to pin the window back in place again you simply need to hover over the tab to break the window up here and then click on the drawing pin symbol again and that will tack the window into its.
Previous position you may find as well that you either deliberately or accidentally undock windows drag them into other parts of the screen so if you hover over the title block of one of the.
Windows you can click and drag to detach it you can then if you prefer simply float it anywhere over the screen you like you can change its width and height by.
Clicking and dragging on its borders and you can also dock the window back into various positions on the screen which you can see with little icons that appear as you drag around if you click.
And drag a window onto these different arrowed icons you can get an idea of where your window will be docked if you drop it onto that icon so if I wanted to appear back in.
Its original position first of all I need to drag the properties window over the solution Explorer and then over the bottom arrow of the four that appear in the middle I will pop the window back in.
Place and that's basically how to work with windows in Visual Studio now that you know how to navigate the visual studio screen we're ready to start creating reports and the first report.
We'll create together won't be based on any underlying data will allow we'll simply use this to show you how to create a report how to add items to it and then how to manipulate them format.
Those items so to start with finding the solution Explorer the reports folder right click on that folder and choose the option called add there is an option at the top called that new report but.
That launches a wizard which I prefer not to use wizard so I always find it more useful to have full control over the items you're creating so choose add and then choose new item there is a.
Keyboard choke up that as well ctrl + shift down to a and then eventually when you've chosen that option you'll see a dialog box containing a list of items you can create in a report project the.
Most useful item I think you'll use or the most common one at least we our report so select that option from the list at the bottom of the dialog box you can change the name of the item the.
Report you're going to create and click number one the basics and then click the Add button and eventually you will end up with a brand new blank report sitting in the middle of your screen.
Can take a little while the first time this is done and there we go I drag this window over across the right little bit so as well as the report itself sitting in the middle of the screen the white.
Area here is where you add all the objects you'll also find hopefully a new toolbox window on the left hand side and a report data window at the bottom left hand corner the toolbox contains all of.
The reports items now you might be used to to these as as controls if you've dealt with other Microsoft design tools but in report server they're called report.
Items so to add an item to the report there are three ways to do it the quickest and easiest if you don't care about the size of the object or where it goes on the screen you can simply double.
Click so I'm going to find my text box tool and double-click the text box that will make a default size text box appear in the top left-hand corner of your report you can also click and drag an.
Object from the report items from the tool box so I click and drag a text box and I can position that wherever I like when I release the mouse button I get a same sized text box so it's exactly the.
Same sizes when I double clicked and finally the third way to draw a text box if you click once on the text box tool and then move the mouse cursor somewhere over the screen you can then click and.
Drag to draw a text box of whatever size you wish when you've drawn text boxes on the report is fairly easy to add individual bits of text to them as well if I click once on the text box it will.
Be selected and I can simply type into one of those text boxes directly I can do the same with the next one and finally the next one as well and there we go that's adding text to text boxes.
Straightforward as you like positioning objects on a report is reasonably straightforward as well there's a lovely way to line things up in report server reports if you click onto the border of.
