Integrating Reporting Services into Custom Applications - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 492

This URL contains the following items:

❑ Path to the data source:

%2fProfessional+SQL+Reporting+Services%2fAdventureWorks2000&

❑ Command to view the data source content: rs:Command=GetDataSourceContents

Viewing the data source enables you to quickly see how your data source is configured. Notice that this
information is returned in XML format. This allows you to easily work with the data source information.
If you have your own reporting application that shares a single connection, you could use this URL to
dynamically load this data source information. This information could then be used to make other
database connections in your application.

Resources
Resources are items that you use in your reports, such as images or additional resources that have been
added to your Report Server folder, such as Word and Excel documents. You can use URLs to access
resources stored in the Report Server. Depending on the type of resources you reference, either you will
be prompted to open or save a file, such as a Word or Excel document, or the resource will be rendered
directly in the browser. In the Professional SQL Reporting Services folder, a resource for the Adventure
Works logo is added. This image can be directly rendered in your browser. Let's take a look at the fol-
lowing URL:

http://localhost/reportserver?%2fProfessional+SQL+Reporting+Services%2fAdventure+
Works+Logo&rs:Command=GetResourceContents

The URL contains the following contents:

❑ Path to the resource:

%2fProfessional+SQL+Reporting+Services%2fAdventure+Works+Logo

❑ Command to retrieve the resource content : rs:Command=GetResourceContents

You can use this information in other applications. If you want to reference the Adventure Works logo from
a web page, you could simply set the src attribute of an image tag ( <img> ) to reference the earlier URL.

Resources can also be incredibly handy for storing documents. In your reporting solution, you might
want to store readme files to accompany your reports. You can store these documents as resources on the
Report Server and then apply different properties to them, such as security. Your application could then
point to the resource URL to allow downloading of the document.

Reports
The most important objects you can access through the URL are your reports. This section provides a
quick look at the syntax for accessing reports. Later we'll discuss the various parameters you can pass to
change things such as report parameters, output formats, and other items.

The basic syntax for accessing a report is very similar to accessing all of your other resources. You should
first specify a path to the report and then provide the commands for its output. Let's look at the basic
URL for accessing your Customer Product Sales Pivot report:

http://localhost/ReportServer/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?%2fProfessional+
SQL+Reporting+Services%2fProduct+List+Categories&rs:Command=Render