Data Dynamics Reports with SQL Server Reporting Services

Both Data Dynamics Reports and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services use Microsoft Report Definition Language (RDL) as their reporting format. Data Dynamics Reports supports the SQL Server 2005 version of the RDL specification and adds a number of enhancements of its own.

This is significant because Data Dynamics Reports and its rich Reporting designers and End-user reporting tools can be used as a front-end to SQL Server Reporting Services platform in much more native way.

For example, other than the richer reporting tools for report authors and end users and the excellent programming SDK, you would also want to use Data Dynamics Reports as a front-end for its excellent Microsoft Excel integration for your data published via Microsoft SQL Reporting services.

As long as your SQL Reporting files are using the 2005 version RDL, they can be directly consumed, edited and presented using Data Dynamics Reports tools.

The reverse is also true as long as you are NOT using the Data Dynamics Reports extensions to the RDL in your Data Dynamic Report designer. if you stick to the default RDL design elements while still benefiting from the design experience, you can design, edit and save the reports and be confident that they will be compatible with SQL Server Reporting Services out-of-the-box.

Beyond the default 2005 RDL implementation, Data Dynamics Reports extends the RDL in the following ways:

1. Master Reports are similar in design to Master Pages in ASP.NET. Reports can specify a live-template that provides a common set of report items, data sources, data sets, report theme, and report parameters.
2. Report Themes allow report authors to easily follow a consistent look for their reports by providing a set of colors, fonts, and images.
3. Data Visualizer functions allow the user to display a graphic based on some set of data instead of forcing the user to read individual values. A color scale selects a color from a range based on a value from that range. A data bar or range bar displays a rectangle with the length dependant on the value. An optional progress indicator can be used as well. The icon set allows the report to display one of the pre-defined images to represent the state of some data.
4. FormattedText Report Item: Renders XHTML and CSS into your reports
5. Barcode Report Item: Supports over 20 of the most popular barcode types
6. Banded List data region: Gives report authors the free form placement of the List data region with enhanced grouping support
7. Enhanced chart control with additional chart types not found in SSRS
8. Enhanced PDF support with built in security options, font embedding, and font subsetting
9. Report API allows developers to create and render reports programmatically without using the viewer or designer controls.
10. The Designer control allows your end-users to create their own reports with the same design capabilities as found in the Visual Studio 2005 IDE.
11. The Viewer controls allow the full functionality of Data Dynamics Reports; connect to any supported data source, use any of the custom report items, or custom rendering extensions.

The key features page is a great source to quickly get an overall view of Data Dynamics Reports.