Report Solution Patterns and Recipes - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 336

Depending on the application type and the programming tools available, there are a few different ways
to incorporate reporting into applications. Reporting Services now includes a ReportViewer control for
.NET Windows forms and ASP.NET web forms projects. You can also use a Frame or an IFrame HTML
tag to encapsulate a report in an ASP.NET project or in practically any other type of web application.
Chapter 12 will explore a number of different scenarios and show you examples of custom program
code used to implement them.
Using the ReportViewer control, the de facto parameter bar can be hidden and then standard or third-
party controls may be used to prompt the user for parameter values. There are many advanced controls
available for Windows and Web application development. Figure 7-83 shows a Windows form applica-
tion that uses controls from the Infragistics NetAdvantage suite. Two MonthView controls are used for
the date range selection. A pair of UltraTree controls allows countries to be selected by dragging and
dropping flag icons from one list to another.
Figure 7-83
The nice thing about using ready-made, custom controls is that you can get a lot of bang for the buck
and save yourself programming time. There are several good third-party control offerings from different
companies. I've been using the Infragistics suite (available at www.infragistics.com ) for several
years. It's one of the most evolved and comprehensive, containing several dozen very capable and
attractive controls that require little programming effort to implement impressive functionality.
The ReportViewer control rounds out the Reporting Services features by allowing reports to be tightly
integrated into business applications with ease and tremendous flexibility. I encourage you to be creative
and use your imagination to develop interesting report wrappers and parameter selection interfaces. Use
advanced controls like these to enhance the user's experience and take reporting beyond out-of-the-box
features.