Create a Report Spec

To create a report spec, you add a new item to your Microsoft Visual Studio solution’s Blackbaud AppFx project.

  1. Right-click the project and click Add > New item.

  2. Select Blackbaud AppFx Catalog as the category of the item and Report Spec as the template.

  3. Enter a name for the report spec in the Name field.

  4. Click Add.

After you add a report spec to the project, you will notice the spec contains RDLFileName, Folder, and DataRetrieval elements. Within the DataRetrieval element, a stored procedure is stubbed out in the CreateSQL element. The spec also attempts to name the report and RDL file based on the file name.

<ReportSpec
  xmlns="bb_appfx_report"
  xmlns:common="bb_appfx_commontypes" 
  ID="d0d55376-82cb-4176-8268-35910164175f" 
  Name="FoodBankTransactionTotals Report"
  Description="REPLACE_WITH_DESCRIPTION"
  Author="Blackbaud Product Development"
  >

  <RDLFileName>FoodBankTransactionTotals.rdl</RDLFileName>
  <Folder>System Reports/Misc Reports</Folder>

  <DataRetrieval>
    <CreateSQL ObjectName="dbo.USP_REPORT_xxx" ObjectType="SQLStoredProc">
      <![CDATA[
create procedure dbo.USP_REPORT_xxx
(
<list any report parameters here>
)
as
  <build the report SQL here>
      ]]>
    </CreateSQL>
  </DataRetrieval>
	
</ReportSpec>

When you load the report spec, it creates the stored procedure in the database and loads the RDL file specified into Reporting Services.