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Tutorial: Updating Reports Using Classes Generated from the RDL Schema

This tutorial illustrates how to use the XML Schema Definition Tool (Xsd.exe) to generate classes that allow you to serialize and deserialize report definition files (.rdl and .rdlc) with the Microsoft .NET Framework XmlSerializer class.

What You Will Learn

During the course of this tutorial, you will complete the following activities:

  • Create an application using the Microsoft Visual Studio Console Application project template.

  • Generate classes from the Report Definition Language (RDL) schema using the xsd tool.

  • Connect to a report server and retrieve a report definition.

  • Write code to update the report definition file.

  • Save the updated report definition back to the report server.

Requirements

To complete the tutorial, you must have the following:

  • Microsoft Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services.

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

  • Sufficient permissions to be able to access and publish reports to the Report Server Web service on the computer where your report server is located.

  • The AdventureWorks2008R2 sample database installed to an instance of SQL Server.

  • A report installed on your report server. This tutorial uses the sample report, Company Sales 2008. For more information about sample reports, see SQL Server Reporting Services Product Samples.

Note

The samples are not installed automatically during setup, but you can install them at any time. For information about installing the samples, see Considerations for Installing SQL Server Samples and Sample Databases.

Estimated time to complete the tutorial: 30 minutes