Native Excel Format

Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services is a rendering extension for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and Microsoft Report Viewer.

After installing Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services, you will get access to the following additional export formats: 

• XLS - Excel Workbook via Aspose.Cells
• Excel2007Xlsx - Excel 2007 via Aspose.Cells
• Excel2007Xlsm - Excel 2007 via Aspose.Cells
• SpreadsheetML - SpreadsheetML via Aspose.Cells
• CSV - CSV via Aspose.Cells
• Txt - TabDelimited text via Aspose.Cells
• Html - Html via Aspose.Cells

Designer

Users can design and deliver reports into MS Excel directly using Aspose.Cells.Report.Designer, which is a very simple and easy to use tool. They don’t necessarily need to use Visual Studio IDE to create reports. As a result, a user can save costs for buying additional Visual Studio licenses and does not have to spend more time in learning how to use complex development environments in Visual Studio. Since Aspose.Cells.Report.Designer uses MS Excel as a report template, therefore users can take advantage of all the powerful functionalities / features available in MS Excel including Pivot Tables, Interactive Charts, VBA, Macros and Formulas. All these attributes are not supported by the standard MS Excel format delivered by Reporting Services. Moreover, Aspose.Cells.Report.Designer can create reports in two kinds of report define format to support Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005 or 2008 Reporting Services.

Advanced Formulas

There are two types of formulas that we can make use of: one is Reporting Services formulas and the other is MS Excel dynamic formula provided by Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services. Using Reporting Services formulas in Aspose.Cells.Report.Designer is same as applying formulas in Visual Studio. Users can set Reporting Services formulas based on the values of Cells in report template, the formulas will be calculated and the calculation results will be filled back to Cells at rendering time. Comparing it with Reporting Services formulas, MS Excel dynamic formula is not calculated but converted to a real MS Excel formula according to certain rules / regulations and then filled back to Cells at rendering time.

Data Handling

Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services supports tables with grouped rows and footers. The grouping of rows and footers can be setup at design time like other report items. Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services also supports parameters and global variables as report data sources. Users can also make use of MS Query for creating data sources and queries, which is a widely used tool and familiar to most users. In addition to this, Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services supports both report specific data sources and shared data sources created on Report Server in advance. Moreover, users can utilize report specific data sources at design time and specify shared data sources as report data sources while publishing reports. Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services is integrated with Microsoft Reporting Services seamlessly and therefore users can take full advantage of Reporting Services' report management, security and delivery options.