Reporting Services Barcode

Barcodes for SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

This tutorial shows you how to use SmartCodeDeveloper with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services.

Requirements

This tutorial assumes the following are already installed:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Reporting Service 2008 R2
SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio

Steps

1) Install SmartCodeDeveloper on your computer.

2) Configure SmartCodeDeveloper to work with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services. This can be done manually using the steps described in the following links

3) Run Business Intelligence Development Studio and create a new Report Server Wizard project by going to File > New > Project. In the New Project dialog, highlight Business Intelligence Projects in the Project Types box and Report Server Wizard Project in the Templates box.

4) The Report Wizard dialog will be displayed. click Next

5) Select a DataSource. For our tutorial, we will be using the MS Access sample.mdb file that is shipped with the SmartCodeDeveloper package. It can be found in the installation directory (default at C:\Program Files (x86)\TechnoRiver\SmartCodeDeveloper4.x\). In this case, we will use OLE DB for the Type . Click the Edit button.

6) The Connection Properties dialog will be displayed. We will be using the Microsoft JET 4.0 OLE DB Provider. For the Server or File Name , enter the location of the sample.mdb file (for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\TechnoRiver\SmartCodeDeveloper4.5\sample.mdb ) . Click the Test Connection button to ensure the connection succeeded. Click the OK button.

7) We will be back at the Select the Data Source screen. Click Next.

8) If a screen is displayed asking for Credentials, just click OK.

9) The Design the Query screen will be be displayed. Enter SELECT * from PRODUCT for the Query String.

9) Select Tabular for the Report Type and click Next.

10) In the Design the Table screen, add Product and ID to Details. Click Next.

11) Choose Slate for the Table Style. Click Next.

12) For the Deployment Location, we will use the default values. Click Next.

13) Click Finish to complete the Wizard.

14) The report will be in Layout mode should look like the following figure. Adjust the width and height of the cells by modifying the Size property.

15) Right click the last column in the table. Select Insert Column> Right. Label the new column Barcode by clicking the header typing directly into it.

16) The report should now look something like the image below.

Add references to SmartCodeDeveloper.DLL

17) Click on the body of the report. You will notice the Report menu apears in the Business Intelligence Studio IDE main menu. Click the Report Menu > Report Properties. Click the References tab of the Report Properties screen. At this point, we will be adding SmartCodeDeveloper.dll to the report project. Click the "Add" button, and then the "..." button on the right.

18) Click the "Browse" tab on the Add Reference dialog box. Navigate to the location of SmartCodeDeveloper.dll. (The default path is C:\Program Files\TechnoRiver\SmarCodeDeveloper4.x\SmartCodeDeveloper.dll). Select the file and click Open. Click "OK" on the Add Reference Dialog.

19) In order to use SmartCodeDeveloper for reporting services, the System.Drawing and System.Windows.Forms assemblies need to be included in the project as well. To reference these assemblies, click Add Reference again and select System.Drawing and System.Windows.Forms from the list of available assemblies under the .Net tab.

20) You'll need to create an instance of SmartCodeDeveloper to use it in a VB.NET function. The instance name is required so that we can reference the object in our code to create the image. To do this, add a new entry in the Classes grid below. Note that the instance will be called scd and that the full reference to the class is TechnoRiver.SmartCodeDeveloper.SmartCodeDeveloperControl

You should see the following if the above steps are done properly.

Creating a VB.NET function

21) You'll have to create a VB.NET function which will be invoked to get the appropriate barcode image using SmartCodeDeveloper. We can use the instance scd created in the previous step. The following code can be placed in the Code tab of the Report Properties to create a function which returns an array of bytes representing the image (in PNG format):

Public Function GetImage(Code As String) as Byte()
        
'Specify the symbology
          
        scd.Symbology = 
        TechnoRiver.SmartCodeDeveloper.SmartCodeDeveloperControl.BarcodeSymbology.Code128
        
'Choose font

        scd.Font = New System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 24, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Bold)
        
'Choose Background Color

          'scd.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Aqua
         
'Set and verify the data is valid 
        
        scd.BarcodeData = Code
        
        scd.AutoSizing = 
        TechnoRiver.SmartCodeDeveloper.SmartCodeDeveloperControl.BarcodeAutoSizing.No
        
        scd.DisplayText = 
        TechnoRiver.SmartCodeDeveloper.SmartCodeDeveloperControl.BarcodeDisplayText.No
        
'create a large image
          
'units in twips
        
        scd.NarrowBarWidth = 100
        
'space on each side in twips
          
          scd.BoundaryZoneX = 720

          'scd.BoundaryZoneY = 64
            
              'Set the width and height of the image 
            
'in pixels
              
              scd.Height = 240 

                  'scd.Width = 200
            
'scd.RegistrationKey = "XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX"

            Return scd.GetImagePNG()

End Function

This GetImage function requires a parameter (Code). This value will be specified with a field from the Data Source.

22) To use the barcode image generated by the GetImage function, set the Barcode column to display the image. This is done by dragging an "Image" item from the toolbox and setting its properties

23) You will see the Image Properties dialog.

For Select the Image Source , select Database.

For Use this MIME type, select image/png

For Use this Field, enter =code.GetImage(Fields!Product.Value)

23) Click the Size tab, and make sure Display is set to FitProportional.

24) In summary, you if click the image and examine its properties, you will notice

Source - is set to Database. This signifies that are value for the barcode will be pulled from a database field.

MIMEType - is set to image/png. . This property is set according to the image type returned in the VB.NET function. Our example above uses Return scd.GetImagePNG(). So you should set the MIMEType to image/png.

Value - this property is set to

=code. GetImage(Fields!ProductNumber.Value)

This will tell the report to use the GetImage function found in the code module of the report properties and to use the value in the Product field of the database table.

Size - the size of the barcode image (e.g., in inches)

Sizing - Set to FitProportional

25) Click the Preview tab to view the report.

26) If SmartCodeDeveloper has been properly configured, you may also run the report in debug mode by using Debug > Start Without Debugging. You should be able to see the following report.

Troubleshooting

If you get the error message below when compiling the project

Could not load file or assembly ‘SmartCodeDeveloper, Version = 1.0.XXXX.XXXXX, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null’ or one of its dependencies

you may want to make sure System.Drawing and System.Windows.Forms assemblies are already included.

If the error persists, you may want to use the strong name version of the SmartCodeDeveloper.dll for developing your reporting service application The strong name version of SmartCodeDeveloper.dll is located at

C:\Program Files (x86)\TechnoRiver\SmartCodeDeveloper4.X\StrongName\ SmartCodeDeveloper.dll

To use the strong name version, you will first have to install it to the GAC cache.