Microsoft® SQL Server™ Reporting Services provides a single entry point to the full functionality of the report server: the Reporting Services Web service. The Web service uses Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over HTTP and acts as a communications interface between client programs and the report server. The Web service and its methods expose the functionality of the report server and allow you to create custom tools for any part of the report life cycle, from management to execution.

There are three primary ways to develop Reporting Services applications based on the Web service. You can:

• Develop applications using Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework SDK. For more information about using the .NET Framework to build Web service applications, see Building Applications Using the Web Service and the .NET Framework.
• Develop applications using the rs utility (RS.exe) tool, the Reporting Services script environment. With Reporting Services and Visual Basic scripts, you can run any of the Reporting Services Web service operations. For more information about scripting in Reporting Services, see Scripting with the rs Utility and the Web Service.
• Develop applications using any SOAP-enabled set of development tools. For more information, see The Role of SOAP in Reporting Services.

Programming Diagram

See Also

Introducing Reporting Services Programming

Reporting Services Web Service

Reporting Services Web Service Library