How to generate SSRS Report output by programming using SSIS or .NET

A new SSIS Task is available on codeplex, named SSIS ReportGenerator Task. As described on it's homepage, the description about this task is : "SSIS Task for SQL Server 2008 to create Reports from a recordset data source."

This task wraps a nice functionality of generating report output behind the scenes, without requiring any programming knowledge for the same. It has a nice User Interface available, with option to view the report during task execution. All the options are self-relevant and the author has provided a nice example of how to use the task on the home page.

The technique employed by this task to generate report output is quite common in the .NET programming arena. Report Server Web Service endpoints are used for managing objects on the report server and execution of reports using reporting service. ReportService2005 / ReportService2006 Endpoint is used for managing objects on the report server, and ReportExecution2005 Endpoint is used for execution of reports.

This component collects all the data from the options selected by the user, and sets it's properties. Value of these properties are in turn passed on to the object of ReportService2005 Endpoint. Finally this object is passed as a parameter to ReportExecution2005 Endpoint and the report is generated programatically using the WebService.

Those who are novice to the concept of webservice and end-points in the context of reporting services, start from this link to learn about the same. After the same, the next step can be to learn more about Report Server Web Service end-points and how to create a client for the same. Finally once you master the same, the source code of this task is the final lesson to learn the best way to implement it. The source code of this task is available for download on codeplex.