Microsoft® SQL Server® Reporting Services Recipes: for Designing Expert Reports

Part IV. Interactive Reporting

• Conditional Linking

• Drill-Through for a Multi-Level Matrix Report

• Drill-Through Report Link Breadcrumbs

• Dynamic Pivoting as a Matrix Replacement

• Using a Document Map Table for Navigation

CONDITIONAL LINKING

Real estate on a report is very valuable and it seems that today reports are expected to hold more information than ever before. Innovative ways of using space on a report have emerged but one really useful technique, conditional linking, will be explored in this recipe. The conditional link aids in the effort to reclaim valuable space on report designs by only appearing when a certain condition is met, and even then only displaying a visual indicator such as a link or icon that can be used to navigate to details.

This recipe shows how to add conditional linking that is displayed when sales exceed a certain amount. The conditional link will display a "Map It!" link alongside a globe graphic. The "Map It!" link will permit viewing a Bing map of the city that is having the sales success.

Product Versions

• Reporting Services 2000

• Reporting Services 2005

• Reporting Services 2008

What You'll Need

• Report Builder 2.0

• A connection to the AdventureWorks sample database

• A rectangle added within the City column

• Use of a visibility expression for the rectangle within the City column

• Use of a Go to URL action on a textbox within the rectangle, with URL set to an expression that creates the properly formed Bing Maps URL using report address fields

Designing the Report

This example ...