You can create a report definition freeform without using the wizard. There are usually four basic tasks involved in report creation:

• Creating a Data Dynamics Report
• Connecting the report to a data source
• Adding a dataset
• Adding controls to contain data

Creating a Data Dynamics Report

To create a report in Visual Studio

1. Create a new project in Visual Studio.
2. From the Visual Studio Project menu, select Add New Item.
3. In the Categories pane, select Data Dynamics Reports.
4. In the Templates pane, select Report and name the report.
5. Click Add in Visual Studio 2005. 

Connecting the report to a data source

To connect the report to a data source

1. If the Data Explorer is not in view, from the View menu, select Other Windows, then Data Dynamics Reports Data Explorer (at the bottom).
2. Click the Add Data Source icon.
   
3. In the Report DataSource smart panel that appears, select the General page.
4. Change the Name to any text that you want to appear in the Data Explorer as the name of the data source.
5. Select the Type of data you will use. (With SQL, OleDb, and Oracle data types, there is also a Connection Properties page for your convenience.)
6. Enter a Connection String.
7. Click the Validate icon to validate the connection string. (The Validate icon becomes inactive to indicate success. An error message indicates an invalid connection string.)
   
8. On the Credentials page, you can specify password, credentials, or Windows authentication.
   
9. Click the Accept button in the lower right corner to close the smart panel and see your data source appear in the Data Explorer.
   

Adding a dataset

To add a dataset

1. Click the Add DataSet icon.
   
2. In the DataSet smart panel that appears, select the General page.
3. Change the Name to any text that you want to appear in the Data Explorer as the name of the dataset.
4. On the Query page, select a Command Type.
   • If the Command Type is Text enter a SQL command or XML path into the Query text box.
   • If the Command Type is StoredProcedure enter the name of the stored procedure.
   • If the Command Type is TableDirect enter the name of the table.
5. Click the Validate icon to validate the query and to populate the Fields list.
   
6. For XML data, manually enter fields on the Fields page using valid XPath expressions.
    
7. You can optionally set parameters, filters, and data options on the other pages.
8. Click the Accept button in the lower right corner to close the smart panel and see your dataset and selected fields appear in the Data Explorer.
   

Adding controls to contain data

To add controls to the report

Note: To render data from each row in your data source, you must use a Data Region.

1. Drag fields from the Data Explorer onto a data region, or to display only the first record, drop fields directly onto the body of the report. You can also use the Field Selection Adorner to bind fields to Textbox Report Items.

See Also