Application type WinForm Web-based in Visual Basic .NET

Painting DataMatrix in Visual Basic .NET Application type WinForm Web-based

To report-enable your applications by URL, you need to learn the URL syntax supported by the Report Server. 10.2.1 Understanding URL syntax The URL access option uses a typical HTTP-GET syntax, where additional arguments can be passed as query parameters, as follows:

http://<ComputerName>/<ReportServerVroot> [/<ResourcePath>] &prefix:param=value[&prefix:param=value]...n]

Table 10.2 Argument ComputerName ReportServerVroot ResourcePath URL arguments for HTTP-GET requests Description Specifies the name of the computer hosting the Report Server. Specifies the Report Server s virtual root name. Specifies the catalog path to the resource relative to the root (Home) folder. Cannot be longer than 260 characters. Specifies the command type. Can be one of the following values: rs For commands targeting the Report Server rc For commands targeting the HTML Viewer dsu and dsp For specifying the username and password when the The Credentials Supplied by the User Running the Report data source option is used. blank A report parameter is assumed. Example localhost ReportServer /AWReporter/Sales By Territory http://localhost/ reportserver / AWReporter/Sales By Territory Interactive&Year= 2006&Territory= 1&rs:Command= Render continued on next page

URL arguments for HTTP-GET requests (continued) Description Specifies the name of the command or parameter. Example See the previous example, where Year and Territory are report parameters,

The URL syntax is not case sensitive. Note the question mark that prefixes the ResourcePath argument. It is easy to miss (we ve done it many times), but if you omit it, the URL request will fail. Notice that when you submit URL requests from the browser, the browser URLescapes the string. For example, / is encoded as %2f. You don t have to do this explicitly when you define static hyperlinks or submit URL requests programmatically, because the browser (or the Web Browser ActiveX control) handles this automatically for you. Now that you re familiar with the URL syntax, let s see how to request RS resources by URL. 10.2.2 Requesting resources by URL With RS you are not limited to requesting just reports. Instead, you can ask the Report Server to return any resource stored in the report catalog, such as folders and data sources. For example, you may have a web page that needs to show the Adventure Works Cycles (AWC) logo, which is stored as an image file in the report catalog. To accomplish this, you can set the image source to the URL address of the image item, as shown here:

We are far from advocating that you use the report catalog as a document repository it should be used only to store report-related items.

The response that the Report Server sends back depends on the type of requested resource. Requesting folders Just as you would use Windows Explorer to see the files a given folder contains, you may want to see the contents of an RS folder. To see the folder contents using the URL access options, use the syntax

where <FolderPath> is the path to the folder in the report catalog. Optionally, for faster performance, you can tell the Report Server that you mean to view the folder contents by using the ListChildren command. If you don t use this command, the Report Server has to determine the type of the resource being requested and uses the default command. URL-BASED REPORT ACCESS 345

For example, to view the contents of the AWReporter folder, use the following syntax:

If a folder is requested, the Report Server renders the folder s contents, as shown in figure 10.2. When you request a folder, the names of the resources contained in that folder appear as hyperlinks. When the link points to another folder, the user can click the hyperlink to drill down further in the folder namespace. Otherwise, the hyperlink will render the resource. As with the Report Manager, the Report Server will show only resources that the user has the rights to view (at minimum, Browser rights are required to view a resource). Requesting data sources Although we do not recommend this for security reasons, you can allow users to view the definition of a shared data source using the following syntax: