How to use custom assemblies or embedded code in Reporting Services

Create a custom assembly

1. Create a Visual Studio class library. On the File menu, point to New, point to Project, and then click Class Library.
2. Specify the name and the location. For example, I used SimpleClassLibrary and C:\Documents and Settings\user1\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\projects.
3. Open the Class file (in my case, Class1.vb), and then create the functions that you want to use in Reporting Services. In my case, I just create one simple shared function.
   
   Note Because this is a shared function (static in C#), we do not have to access it by using an instantiated object. Keep this in mind as this has an effect on how we reference our assembly later in the article.

   Public Class Class1
   
       Public Shared Function DoSomething() As String
           Return "string data returned from custom assembly"
       End Function
   
   End Class
   

4. Once you have finished adding all the code, click Build SimpleClassLibrary on the Build menu. This step creates the assembly or managed .dll in the respective bin folder. In my example, this step created my assembly, SimpleClassLibrary.dll, in the My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\ SimpleClassLibrary\bin\Debug folder.

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Copy the custom assembly to the SQL Reporting Services folders

• For Reporting Services 2005, copy the .dll to the following folders:
  • Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies
  • Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin
• For Reporting Services 2000, copy the .dll to the following folders:
  • Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Report Designer
  • Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin

@ECHO OFF
REM   Name: SRSDeploy.bat
REM
REM   This batch files copies my custom assembly to my Reporting Services folders.
REM   Run this from the directory where the customer assembly was compiled.
REM   Be sure to close any applications that have your custom assembly open. 
REM
REM   This is the SQL Server 2005 version:
copy SimpleClassLibrary.dll "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies"  
copy SimpleClassLibrary.dll "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin" 

REM This is the SQL Server 2000 version:
REM copy SimpleClassLibrary.dll "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Report Designer"
REM copy SimpleClassLibrary.dll "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin"

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Adding a reference to the custom assembly in Reporting Services

1. Open the report that will reference the custom assembly.
2. On the Report menu, click Report Properties.
3. In the Report Properties dialog box, click the References tab.
4. Under References, click the ellipsis (...) button that is next to the Assembly name column header.
   
   Note The Classes section is only for instance-based members. It is not for static members. Static (also referred to as "shared" in some of our Reporting Services documentation) means that the member is available to every instance of the class and every instance uses the same storage location. Static members are declared by using the shared keyword in Microsoft Visual Basic and the static keyword in C#. This can be a bit confusing. What this means is, if your custom assembly contains instance members that you need to access, you will have to specify the class name and instance name in the Classes section. Because the method I will be calling from Reporting Services was defined as static by using the shared keyword in Visual Basic, I'll use the References section instead of the Classes section.
5. In the Add References dialog box, click Browse. (In SQL Server 2005, click the Browse tab.)
6. Locate and then click the custom assembly. Click Open. (In SQL Server 2005, click Add instead of Open.)
7. In the Add References dialog box, click OK.
8. In the Report Properties dialog box, click OK.

1. Open the report (an .rdl file) in Report Designer.
2. To demonstrate how to use the custom assembly in Reporting Services, add a text box. To do this, drag a blank text box from the toolbox to the report.
3. In the text box properties, click the Value property, and then call a function by using the following syntax.

   =ClassLibraryName.ClassName.MethodName or Namespace.ClassName.MethodName

   In my example, I specified the following.

   =SimpleClassLibrary.Class1.DoSomething()

   Other formats are used to reference code in Reporting Services. For example, use the following format if you call embedded code.

   =Code.MethodName()

   If you call a non-static, or instance-based, method from within a custom assembly by using an instance, use the following format.

   =Code.InstanceName.Method

   Note You would have set up your reference differently if you wanted to use an instance-based method. To do this, you would need to go to Report Properties, click the References tab, and then specify the class name and the instance name in the Classes section.

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Code access security if the custom assembly requires additional permissions

<CodeGroup class="UnionCodeGroup"
   version="1"
   PermissionSetName="FullTrust"
   Name="MyCodeGroup"
   Description="Code group for my data processing extension">
      <IMembershipCondition class="UrlMembershipCondition"
         version="1"
         Url="C:\pathtocustomassembly\customassembly.dll"
       />
</CodeGroup>

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Embedded code

1. On the Report menu, click Report Properties.
2. In the Report Properties dialog box, click the Code tab
3. Add the following function, and then click OK.

   Public Function EmbeddedFunction() as String
    	Return "this is from embedded code function"
   End Function
   

4. In the report, add a new text box.
5. Add the following to the Value property.

   =code.EmbeddedFunction

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