Creating a template report in SQL Reporting Services 2005

In SSRS 2000, there was a specific location on the filesystem where you could drop RDL documents so that they'd show up as possbile new report choices when a developer chose to create new report. The same holds true for SSRS 2005:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject

If you browse to this location, you'll notice (among other things) a report.rdl document. This file represents the "Report" item you see in the SRRS Project Items dialog that you choose from when you create a new report. You can do two things with the folder above:

  • Backup, and then modify report.rdl: All new reports "spring" from the essentially blank/empty report.rdl document. If you open report.rdl document up in Report Designer, you can dress it up, adding images, layout, etc. Then, when any user chooses to create a new report, they'll get your fixed-up version.

 

  • Add a new rdl document to the folder: A less intrusive approach is to add a second rdl document to this folder: For example, you could create a pre-formatted report with a background image and layout only, name it "Adventureworks Template Report.rdl" and then drop it in the folder. Now, users will be able to pick a company-specific report template if they want to, or just use the "blank" report.rdl