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Lesson 2: Generate Classes from the RDL Schema using the xsd Tool

After you have created your Visual Studio project, the next step is to retrieve a local copy of the report definition schema and run the XML Schema Definition Tool (Xsd.exe).

To generate the RDL classes

  1. Open an instance of Microsoft Internet Explorer (or equivalent Web browser) and navigate to the following URL:

    https://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2005/01/reportdefinition/ReportDefinition.xsd

  2. Once the RDL schema has been opened in the browser, browse to the File menu, and select Save As.

  3. Browse to the location where you created your Visual Studio project and save the schema with the file name ReportDefinition.xsd.

  4. After the file has been saved, open an instance of the Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt. To open an instance of the command prompt, point to the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, point to Visual Studio Tools and click Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt.

  5. Change the current path to the location where you saved the ReportDefinition.xsd file:

    CD\<ReportDefinition.xsd Path>

  6. Generate the ReportDefinition.cs file that contains the classes for the RDL schema with the following command:

    xsd /c /n:SampleRDLSchema ReportDefinition.xsd

    To generate a ReportDefinition.vb file use this command:

    xsd /c /l:VB /n:SampleRDLSchema ReportDefinition.xsd

  7. Add the file to your project. From the Project menu, click Add Existing Item. Browse to the location where you generated the ReportDefinition.cs (.vb) file, select the file, and click Add.

    Note

    After you have added the ReportDefinition.cs (.vb) file to the project you will notice in Solution Explorer that the ReportDefinition.xsd file has been added to the project but the ReportDefinition.cs (.vb) file is not there. To display the file, click the Show All Files command from the Project menu and click the expand/collapse button next to the ReportDefinition.xsd file.

Next Lesson

In the next lesson, you will write code to load a report definition from a report server using the classes you generated from the RDL schema. See Lesson 3: Load a Report Definition from the Report Server.