-
What’s the relationship between Microsoft’s Reporting Services and SoftArtisans OfficeWriter?
OfficeWriter is a separate product that is seamlessly integrated with Reporting Services,
allowing users an option to design reports in Excel and Word and then deliver
the reports without ever leaving Microsoft Office. OfficeWriter gives users full
Excel and Word support that is currently not available with Reporting Services alone.
With OfficeWriter, you can still take advantage of all of Reporting Services’ key features
like report security, management and delivery.
-
How and where do I install OfficeWriter for Reporting Services?
The OfficeWriter for Reporting Services installer is run on the server
that also hosts Microsoft’s Reporting Services. This installs the custom
rendering extensions required to output pure Excel and Word reports created
with the OfficeWriter Designer.
-
How do I install the OfficeWriter Designer?
The OfficeWriter Designer is part of the overall OfficeWriter kit.
The installer for the Designer gets unpacked when you install OfficeWriter
on the Report Server. Just run the installer on every client machine where
report designing takes place. The designer toolbar can be freely distributed.
-
Is Microsoft Office necessary with OfficeWriter for Reporting Services?
With any edition of OfficeWriter, Microsoft Office is NOT required on the
server. However, to design reports created by OfficeWriter, Excel AND Word are
required on the client machines. To view reports client-side, Excel, Word or
equivalent software like Open Office, is required.
-
The spreadsheets that I generate with Microsoft’s standard Excel rendering extension,
which is included with Reporting Services (SP1), appear to be a “watered down” version
of Excel. Why is this?
"The “out of the box” Microsoft Excel renderer can only produce output that is
based on the lowest common denominator between a static file (i.e. HTML or PDF)
and an Excel file.
This is due to the fact that the Excel features are interpreted from the XML structure of
the report which has no facility to store advanced Excel features such as charts, pivot tables,
VBA, etc.
-
How do I guarantee the publishing of full-featured Excel and Word reports?
To enjoy dynamic spreadsheets that contain all Excel and Word features when
using Reporting Services, end users must employ the OfficeWriter Designer to
generate an Excel or a Word “template-behind” and associate it with an RDL
published to Reporting Services. The RDL must be exported using the
“Excel designed by OfficeWriter” or “Word designed by OfficeWriter” custom
extensions provided by OfficeWriter Reporting Services version.
-
How does the OfficeWriter Designer differ from the design tool,
Report Builder, which ships with SQL Server Reporting Services 2005?
The obvious difference is that Report Builder will be a brand new tool with a
steep learning curve, whereas the OfficeWriter Designer leverages the user’s existing
knowledge of Excel and Word to design reports. Microsoft’s Report Builder requires
.NET and supports only RDL. Because RDL must render to the lowest common denominator
between all Reporting Services outputs, Report Builder will produce reports with
extremely limited functionality. In addition, developers must create a meta model
before utilizing Report Builder. A developer/designer only needs to know the
structure of his/her Excel/Word report to use the OfficeWriter Designer.
-
How do I connect to my database to design reports?
You can create a parallel connection to a data source and shape queries by using
the OfficeWriter Designer’s client-side query tool. With OfficeWriter V3,
you also have the option to create a “shared data source” that can contain parameters.
This is done by starting the Report Definition in VS.NET and then downloading the RDL
into the OfficeWriter Designer. The OfficeWriter Designer will be able to open the RDL
file and allow users to build reports using the pre-defined queries, which are then
locked for editing.
-
Can I still use VS.NET to design my reports and render them with OfficeWriter to gain
full Excel/Word functionality?
With the advent of OfficeWriter V3, you have the option to retrieve into the
client-side OfficeWriter Designer an existing RDL file that was designed using VS.NET.
All existing static (HTML) representation of the report will be preserved, along with “shared”
data sources. When the RDL is uploaded and overwritten on the Report Server, you have the
option to display the static rendition or a full-formatted Excel or Word version, based
on which rendering extension is selected.
-
I’ve designed a report in VS.NET and it looks fine in PDF and HTML. What happens
when my users try to view it with the OfficeWriter Rendering Extensions?
An error will occur at render-time. The OfficeWriter Rendering Extensions
can only be called to render reports created with the OfficeWriter Designer.
This is due to the fact that the “template-behind” required to publish the report
must be embedded at design-time by means of the OfficeWriter Designer.
-
How can I tell if a report has been generated from SoftArtisans OfficeWriter?
Check for the presence of a <Custom> tag in the <Report> section of the RDL file.
When the “Excel designed by OfficeWriter” or “Word designed by OfficeWriter” custom
extension is called on the Report Server, this <Custom> tag is located and the
report is hydrated with data. If the custom tag contains a base64-encoded template,
you can assume it's a SoftArtisans RDL.
-
Can I create a single RDL file that includes both an Excel and Word template?
With OfficeWriter V3.5 and SQL Server Reporting Services 2005, you can now embed both
an Excel and Word template into a single RDL file. Simply use the OfficeWriter Designer within
Excel and Word to design and publish the different versions of the report to the same RDL file.
