Professional Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2007 Reporting with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

10.2. The Connectable Report Viewer Web Part

A standalone Report Viewer Web Part is useful when page visitors are likely to be interested in a particular report. However, in more interactive situations, a standalone Report Viewer Web Part is less likely to be an option. You often end up making instances of Report Viewer Web Part to communicate and get either their parameters or the report definitions to render from other components on the same page or across pages.

One of the great features the Web Part framework offers in Windows SharePoint Services (also available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) is that you can develop a Web Part to accept connections from other Web Parts on the same page or across pages. The Web Part Connection is a powerful feature that allows users to find new and meaningful views into their underlying data. In a nutshell, a connection is an association between two Web Parts that enables them to share data.

Thankfully, the Report Viewer Web Part acts as a subscriber and implements the interface used for the Web Part connection. The ability to share data allows the Report Viewer Web Part to be used in many ways that exceed the functionality offered by a standalone Report Viewer Web Part.

10.2.1. Passing Report Definitions

Suppose that on a Web Part page one Web Part provides a list of available reports and the Report Viewer Web Part renders each upon selection of a report definition. It's cool, isn't it? You can easily set this up by utilizing ...