Walkthrough: Integrating your SQL Server Reporting Services report into Windows 7 Sidebar Gadget

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By default, after installing Window7 operation, there are many powerful and handy little tools in SidebarGadget, you can also download some customized Sidebar Gadget, such as: MSDN forum helper. Currently, we have some stock reports to show the real-time status of stock market, we also want to integrate SQL Reporting Services - stock report into window7’s Sidebar Gadget rather than open the IE all the time.

This article will walk you through the processes of integrating SQL Server Reporting Services into Windows 7 Sidebar Gadget.

Create a stock mark report and deploy it to Report Server

  1. Open SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio to create a Report Server Project named StockMark.
  2. Create a stock report named StockMarkStatus, you can also refer to the sample report I gave.
  3. Deploy the stock report to your Report Server
  4. Open the report on Report Server to make sure it can be open correctly.
    Note: Please write down this report’s URL, you will make use of this URL in the following steps. Your URL just like this https://ServerName/ReportServer?/Reportpath/ StockMarkStatus

Create Gadget’s XML Definition File and Main HTML File

  1. Design a PNG image named icon, which is used in the Sidebar Gadget’s menu
  2. Open the folder C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
  3. Create a New folder named StockMarkStatus.gadget
  4. Copy the image to StockMarkStatus.gadget folder
  5. Create a HTML file named StockMarkStatus.html into the same folder

<html>

<head>

 

    <script language="javascript">

      //----------------- resizes the gadget display surface

      function DoInit(timeoutPeriod) {

        document.body.style.width = 410;

        document.body.style.height =240;

        document.body.style.margin = 0;

        document.body.style.background = "gold";

        setTimeout("location.reload(true);", timeoutPeriod);

      

      }

     

</script>

        </head>

 

<body onload="JavaScript:DoInit(10000)">

<div>

<iframe id="rpt" src="https://ServerName/ReportServer?/Reportpath/ StockMarkStatus&rs:Command=Render&rc:Toolbar=False"

  style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:transparent" name="doc" frameBorder="no" width="100%" height="100%" scrolling="No" />

</div>

</body>

</html>

 

Note: Please change your report server URL at iframe src attribute. Change the JavaScript DoInit method parameter value based on your refreshment frequency.

  1. Create a gadget.xml file using below content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<gadget>

        <name>StockMarkStatus</name>

        <namespace>microsoft.windows</namespace>

        <version>1.0.0.0</version>

        <icons>

                <icon height="28" width="28" src="icon.png"/>

        </icons>

        <hosts>

                <host name="sidebar">

                        <autoscaleDPI>true</autoscaleDPI>

                        <base type="HTML" apiVersion="1.0.0" src="StockMarkStatus.html"/>

                        <permissions>Full</permissions>

                        <platform minPlatformVersion="1.0"/>

                </host>

        </hosts>

</gadget>

Test this tool in Windows 7 Sidebar Gadget

  1. Right-click the windows7 desktop, then select Gadgets, you will see StockMarkStatus menu in Gadget like below:

 

  1. Right-click the Icon of StockMarkStatus, then select Add button, just like other Gadget tools, you will see the stock report showing on the desktop with ten second refreshment frequency.

 

Reference:

Build Your Own Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget

 

[Download Sample]