Reporting Services developer documentation

SQL Server Reporting Services offers several programming interfaces that you can apply in your own applications. You can use the existing features and capabilities of Reporting Services to build custom reporting and management tools into Web sites and Windows applications. Or you can extend the Reporting Services platform.

Extending the Reporting Services platform includes creating new components and resources that can be used for data access, report delivery and more. You can market these components and resources to companies that are using Reporting Services in their organization.

Note

Reporting Services include programming samples and tutorials to help you get started. For more information, see Reporting Services Samples and Developer's guide: Tutorials (Reporting Services).

In this section

Integrate Reporting Services into applications
Provides an overview of how to use Reporting Services to integrate reporting into custom applications. Describes when to use direct URL access and when to use the Web service to access the report server.

Report Server Web service for ASP.NET and traditional applications
The Report Server Web service provides access to the full functionality of the report server. The Web service uses SOAP over HTTP and is designed to act as a communications interface between client programs and the report server. The Web service and its methods expose the functionality of the report server and allow you to create custom tools for any part of the report life cycle, from management to execution.

Develop with REST APIs for modern applications
The Reporting Services REST APIs provide programmatic access to the objects in Reporting Services report server catalog. When using the REST APIs, you can navigate to a folder hierarchy, discover the contents of a folder, or download a report definition. You can also create, update, and delete objects.

URL access (SSRS)
Reporting Services supports a complete set of URL-based requests that you can use as a quick and easy access point for report navigation and viewing. You can use this technology with the Report Server Web service to integrate a complete reporting solution into your custom business applications. URL access is useful when integrating reports as part of a Web portal or when viewing reports from a Web browser.

Reporting Services extensions
The modular architecture of Reporting Services is designed for extensibility. A managed code API is available so that you can easily develop, install, and manage extensions consumed by many Reporting Services components. You can create assemblies using the Microsoft .NET Framework and add new Reporting Services rendering, security, delivery, and data processing functionality to meet your evolving business needs.

Custom report items
Describes how to create Custom Report Items to add functionality to RDL or extend functionality of existing controls.

Use custom assemblies with reports
Describes how to use custom assemblies with Reports by including code references within the report definition.

Access the Reporting Services WMI provider
Describes how to use the Reporting Services WMI Provider to manage report server deployments.