From The Bench

There are multiple articles on exporting SQL Reporting Services “.RDL” files from SQL for customization and re-import using the K2 workspace interface:

http://kb.k2workflow.com/articles/kb000189.aspx

http://k2underground.com/blogs/pitchblack/archive/2008/05/15/extending-a-k2-report-in-visual-studio.aspx

However, you may desire to update all of the OOTB (out of the box) reports with your own look and feel.  If this is the case, using the import feature within workspace may become tedious as opposed to just deploying a project containing 17+ reports.  These tips should help you in addition to the published articles if you plan on getting off of the beaten path covered by the aforementioned articles.

To accomplish updating the OOTB reports there are a few tips to keep in mind:

1)      All of the reports viewed from K2 Workspace are stored in the “SQL Reporting Services root \ Standard Reports \ Hidden”  location.  The Process Overview report that resides in the root of Standard Reports is a simplistic copy that is only used when viewing the reports from http://server/reports and it is NOT used by K2 Workspace.

2)      When you export an rdl file from within http://server/reports the file’s name will include underscores instead of spaces.  Once you have imported the rdl into your Visual Studio project always rename them with spaces instead of underscores.  If you do not rename the file with spaces, deploying the project will create duplicate names on the server containing the underscores and K2 Workspace will not use your new reports.

3)      Within your visual studio project properties (Solution Explorer > Right-click your project name > properties), you will require the following two settings changes

a.       TargetReportFolder should be set to:             Standard Reports/Hidden

b.      TargetServerURL should be set to:                   http://your servername/reportserver

****Danger Will Robinson, don’t forget, before you set that target report folder to overwrite the OOTB reports, have a backup of the original rdl file on hand.

4)      You may find that the reports complain about their datasource missing.  By default you can add a dummy datasource to your Visual Studio reports project and the datasource will not overwrite the one already on the report server.  Here is the info you’ll need to setup a dummy:

a.       Name:          BLACKPEARL

b.      Type:             SOURCECODE

c.       Connection String:                   Server=yourK2servername;Port=5555;AutoAlias=false

d.      Set Credentials to:                   “Use Windows Authentication (Integrated Security)”

5)      Beware before deleting portions of these reports in order to recreate.  You will find object references buried in the charts for everything from data to colors (no you cannot globally change the green K2 colors used in the 3d charts)  I suggest creating any new charts or entries alongside the existing ones before you blow away the stock design.

6)      Probably a common VS report designer question, but I was surprised that depending on the tables within these reports, sometimes it was easier to set a background image for a row and sometimes it was only possible for the whole table.  This is likely because of what table controls were used in the original reports’ design.