CODEWITHSUNDEEP
reporting-servicesheaderreportingfooter
Kris Nobels
Kris Nobels

Reputation: 1987

Create dynamic or referential header and footer with SSRS

I would like to create reports with referencial header / footers.

The problem with SSRS is that headers and footers does not support subreports. :-(

My goal is to manage my header and footer in 1 place. (in this way if the company name or logo changes i do it 1 time instead of changing all the reports.) And all the reports have a uniform look and feel.

solution i found:

  1. Templates

Create a template and start from there. The downside is that if i change the template all the previous reports are not changed. But still you don't have to do the work all over again for new reports.

  1. Referencial Image

Create 1 image for header and footer where the image in one place. If the logo changes, just change or replace the image.

I am all ears to discover new ways or solutions to resolve this report generation problem.

Have a look at the mockup to make it more clear

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1415

Answers (1)

Oro
Oro

Reputation: 1867

It seems to me as if, in a way, you're already onto the solution.

I would suggest creating a Shared Dataset, which is actually just a static query with all the styles and/or settings that you'll use for your reports. For example:

SELECT 
   '#000000' as Data_FontColor, 
   'Arial' as Data_FontFamily,
   'Red' as Header_FontColor,
   'http://contoso.com/reports/logo.png' as Header_LogoUri,
   'Contoso' as CompanyName
...

Then creating a template report that you'll use as a starting point for your reports.
It will reference the shared dataset, and will have a fixed header with a data-bound image, a textbox with the company name and so on.

If in any case you'd like to make changes to the logo/style/information, you'll only have to change the query and deploy the dataset. All the reports will be affected accordingly.

The level of flexibility depends on you and your template. I would imagine that you could even, for example, set the 'visibility' of the logo as an expression, then you'll be able to decide if it should appear at all.

I'm not sure if this will solve your problem, but perhaps it may give you further ideas. Good luck!

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions