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Lesson 3: Load a Report Definition from the Report Server

After you have created your project and generated the classes from the RDL schema, you are ready to load a report definition from the report server.

To load a report definition

  1. Add a private field at the top of the ReportUpdater class (module if you are using Visual Basic) for the Report class. This field will be used to maintain a reference to report that is loaded from the report server for the life of the application.

    private Report _report;

    Private m_report As Report

  2. Replace the code for the LoadReportDefinition() method in the Program.cs file (Module1.vb for Visual Basic) with the following code:

    private void LoadReportDefinition()
{
    System.Console.WriteLine("Loading Report Definition");

    string reportPath = 
        "/AdventureWorks Sample Reports/Company Sales";

    // Retrieve the report defintion 
    // from the report server
    byte[] bytes = 
        _reportService.GetReportDefinition(reportPath);

    if (bytes != null)
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = 
            new XmlSerializer(typeof(Report));

        // Load the report bytes into a memory stream
        using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(bytes))
        {
            // Deserialize the report stream to an 
            // instance of the Report class
            _report = (Report)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
        }
    }
}

    Private Sub LoadReportDefinition()

    System.Console.WriteLine("Loading Report Definition")

    Dim reportPath As String = _
        "/AdventureWorks Sample Reports/Company Sales"

    'Retrieve the report defintion 
    'from the report server
    Dim bytes As Byte() = _
        m_reportService.GetReportDefinition(reportPath)

    If Not (bytes Is Nothing) Then

        Dim serializer As XmlSerializer = _
            New XmlSerializer(GetType(Report))

        'Load the report bytes into a memory stream
        Using stream As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(bytes)

            'Deserialize the report stream to an 
            'instance of the Report class
            m_report = CType(serializer.Deserialize(stream), _
                             Report)

        End Using

    End If

End Sub

Next Lesson

In the next lesson, you will write code to update the report definition that was loaded from the report server. See Lesson 4: Update the Report Definition Programmatically.