Most of the companies use some sort of unique format for their reports and this layout is kept same for all of their reports to create some sort of identity or brand. And for that developers usually use some kind of template to create default layout of report, and most of all reporting systems supports creating these kind of templates including SSRS. Actually it is very easy to create a report template which can be used for all other reports.
In this “How To”, I am creating a basic report template for report which once finalized can be used for any future use.
First step is to fire up VS2008 and create new report server project. Then add an empty report in it. Next step is to modify report the way want in our template. For sake of simplicity, I am just adding some basic fields. But in reality, we can add number of things including company logo as images.
Once it is done, all you have to do is to browse to
D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject
Since I am using x64 bit OS and I like to install stuff into D: drive rather than default system drive, my location for VS 2008 is different (but you get the idea about what to look for, right ??). And simply copy .RDL file (only report definition file) from project folder to this new location and that it.
Next time when you open up VS 2008 and go to create new project for report server then you will see your template among all pre-defined project templates !! And you can start using it by adding it as a new item in report project.
That’s it for now.
It’s Just A Thought … 
