Report Creation

This section describes simple steps to design a report using Web Report Designer.

Report designer initial view

Create Data

To add a data, click on the Data icon in the Data Configuration panel. It opens the Data panel.
Click on New Data button in the data panel.
Choose SQL type to connect data.
In the new data source panel,
- In Name field, specify the data source name without special characters.
- In Server Name field, you need to select existing server in the local network from the drop-down list or specify the specific remote server name like myserver.domain.com.
- In Authentication Type field, choose Windows or SQL Server authentication.
- If you have chosen SQL Server authentication, specify the username and password of the server.
- In Database field, choose or enter a existing valid database e.g. AdventureWorks.
Click the Connect button. Now the following view will be displayed.

Here, an AdventureWorks database is used for demonstration.

Edit dataset name

You can edit the name of the Data in the Name field that is available in toolbar pane.

Dataset name field

Drag and drop table in query designer

The left pane holds the tables, views, and procedures associated with the connected database. Drag your preferred table or view from the left pane and drop into the center pane labeled with Drag and Drop table here like below:

Drag and drop query table to design area

Now, the table will be dropped in the design area like below.

Query designer with query table

Execute query

You can execute and visualize the data by using Run option in tools pane.
Now, the data will be retrieved based on the specified query.

Save Data

Click on the Finish button in the tools pane.
Your dataset should now be listed in the Data panel like below.
Expand the icon to view the data fields.

Add table report item

The left pane in the design view consists of basic items, data region, data visualization, and sub reports to design an interactive report.

Here, the Table report item is used for demonstration.

Select the Table item under Data Regions in the item panel, then drag and drop it to the design area.
The above action will render the Table with two rows and three columns in the design area.

Assign data

This step is applicable only for the report items that belongs to data visualization and data region category.

Assign the dataset to the Dataset property of the table. Assign dataset to the table

Add column header

Select the first cell in the table, then click the Text Editor icon or Add Text option from the Data Assign Menu to open the dialog, and enter ProductID as the column header text.
To set the column header text as ProductID, follow the steps outlined in the Set header text using data assign menu section.
Similarly, you can add required column header text to other cells in the table.

Assign data fields in table cell

Select the table cell and click on the Data assign menu icon to open data assign menu.
Assign the ProductID field in the table cell.
Similarly, you can assign the required data fields to the table cell.
To add the =Fields!OrderQty.Value*Round(Fields!UnitPrice.Value,2) expression into a selected Tablix cell, follow the steps outlined in the Set expression using data assign menu section.
Now, the table will look like below,

Resize the column

To improve the report readability, we can resize the table row height and column width.

Place the mouse pointer in the respective column border.
Drag the column gripper horizontally, to adjust the column width.

Resize the row

Place the mouse pointer in the respective row border.
Drag the row gripper vertically, to adjust the row height.

Customize the appearance

Open the PROPERTIES pane. This pane holds some general settings and some specific to the report item. Configure the desired settings to the table for better report design and to improve report readability.

Customize table cell properties

Add total

Select the second row, first cell and Right click -> Add Total
Now, select the third row, first four columns and Right click -> Merge cells
Modify the cell content to Total using the Multi-Text Run Editor dialog, and align the content to Right side.
Select the last cell in the third row, and to add the expression =Sum(Fields!OrderQty.Value*Round(Fields!UnitPrice.Value,2)), follow the steps outlined in the Set expression using data assign menu section.

Now, the table design will look like below.

Final design view

Save report

Once you are done with the report designing, to save a report refer How to save report section.

Preview report

To see the report preview, click on the Preview button in the report header.
Now, the report preview can be visualized like below.

Download the above report design from link