IDAutomation® Reporting Services Barcode Custom Report Item
User Manual and Tutorial

INDEX:

• Reporting Services Custom Report Item Tutorial
  • Installation, Deployment and Compatibility
  • Adding the Reporting Services Barcode to an existing report
• Sizing the Barcode
• Adjusting Properties
• Symbology Specific Notes
  • Code 128
  • USPS Barcodes
  • UPC and EAN
• Known Issues and Support
• Related Products
• It is important to have the ability to test printed barcodes with a barcode scanner.
  If a scanner is not available for testing purposes, IDAutomation sells high quality complete barcode scanner kits.

Application Compatibility

IDAutomation's Reporting Services Barcode CRI components are compatible with the .NET Framework 2.0 and Microsoft Reporting Services 2005 and later versions. They are used to create barcode images on reports as an integrated control that may be bound to SQL Server database fields.

Barcode Compatibility

The controls support several linear and two-dimensional barcode symbologies including Code 39, Extended Code 39, Code 128, Telepen, Interleaved 2 of 5, LOGMARS, Codabar, EAN-128, GS1-128, USS Code 128, UPC-A, UPC-E, MSI, EAN-8, EAN-13, Code 11, Code 93, Industrial 2 of 5, Postnet, Planet, Intelligent Mail (formerly OneCode) USPS4CB, PDF417, MacroPDF417, Data Matrix ECC200 and MaxiCode barcode symbologies.

Installation

1. Download and unzip the package into a directory on the development computer.
2. Copy the IDAutomation_ReportingServices_BarcodeCRI.dll file (or in the 2D package, the appropriate file ending in *CRI.dll) from the extracted file to the Visual Studio private assemblies directory (by default, \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies) and to the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services bin directory (by default, \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin). The second directory is machine specific. The MSSQL.3 folder may be different, for example MSSQL.1, MSSQL.2, or MSSQL.4.

3. Copy the IDAutomation_ReportingServices_Barcode.dll file (or in the 2D package, the appropriate file not ending in *CRI.dll) to the Visual Studio private assemblies directory (by default, \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies).

Deployment

1. Edit the rsreportserver.config and the rssrvpolicy.config files in the "\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer" directory:
   1. In the rsreportserver.config file insert the following code before </Extensions>
      <ReportItems>
      <ReportItem Name="LinearBarcode" Type="IDAutomation.ReportingServices.LinearBarcodeCRI,IDAutomation_ReportingServices_BarcodeCRI"/>
      </ReportItems>
   2. Place a <CodeGroup reference in the rssrvpolicy.config file for the IDAutomation_ReportingServices_BarcodeCRI.dll after the first <CodeGroup element. Failure to place this in the correct section will cause the Barcode CRI to disappear from a deployed report.
      <CodeGroup class="FirstMatchCodeGroup" version="1" PermissionSetName="Nothing">
      <IMembershipCondition class="AllMembershipCondition" version="1" />

      <CodeGroup
        class="UnionCodeGroup"
        version="1"
        PermissionSetName="FullTrust"
        Description="This code group grants IDAutomation_ReportingServices_BarcodeCRI.dll Full Trust permission. ">
        <IMembershipCondition class="UrlMembershipCondition"version="1"
        Url="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin\IDAutomation_ReportingServices_BarcodeCRI.dll" />
      </CodeGroup>

      ect.......................

      </CodeGroup>
      </CodeGroup>

2. To register the design component, edit the rsreportdesigner.config file in the "\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies" and add the following code:
    <ReportItems>
    <ReportItem Name="LinearBarcode" Type="IDAutomation.ReportingServices.LinearBarcodeCRI,IDAutomation_ReportingServices_BarcodeCRI"/>
    </ReportItems>
    <ReportItemDesigner>
    <ReportItem Name="LinearBarcode" Type="IDAutomation.ReportingServices.LinearBarcode, IDAutomation_ReportingServices_Barcode" />
    </ReportItemDesigner>

1. Follow the steps for installation and deployment.
2. If adding the custom assembly to an existing report, skip to Step 12.
   Create a report: Select File | New | Project from the Visual Studio .NET 2005 (VS.NET) IDE menu.
   In the New Project dialog, highlight Business Intelligence Projects in the Project Types box and Report Project Wizard in the Templates box.
   Name the sample report appropriately in the Name box. Click OK.
   
3. Select the data source. For this example, the AdventureWorks database is used.
   Ensure that the user Edits the connection string to properly connect to the database. Click Next.
   
4. Create the query string for generating the report by using the Query Builder.
   Add the Customer table to the query by right-clicking the upper pane in the query builder and selecting Add Table.
   Highlight Customers and click Add and Close.
   Click the CustomerID, TerritoryID, and AccountNumber fields. Click OK.
   
5. Click Next on the Design Query Wizard.
6. Choose the type of report (tabular or Matrix) to create and click Next.
7. Leave the default values for the grouping of the report and click Next.
8. Select the style of the table and click Next.
9. Select the Report Server (The user will want to leave the default value. This was setup during Report Services installation) and the folder for the deployment of the compiled report. Click Next.
10. Name the report Barcode Company ID and click Finish. The report will now be in Layout mode. The user may run the report to get an idea of how the output will be displayed. The following steps will add the barcode image to the report.
11. Right click the last column in the table.
    Select Insert Column to the right.
    Label the column Barcode ID by typing directly into the column header.
    
12. To add the IDAutomation Reporting Services Barcode CRI component, right click the Report Items Toolbox and select Choose Items...
    In the next window select the .Net Framework Components tab and click browse.
     
13. Browse to the IDAutomation_ReportingServices_Barcode.dll in the "\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies" directory. Click OK.
14. The Linear Barcode component should be visible in the Report Items Toolbox.
15. Select the LinearBarcode CRI component and drag it into the Barcode field. The properties of the barcode may be edited in the Properties window.
16. Click the Preview tab to ensure that a barcode is returned. To verify that the data is being encoded properly, print the report and scan it with a barcode scanner. If a scanner is needed to verify barcodes, IDAutomation suggests the easy-to-use USB scanners.
    
17. To deploy the solution to the Report Server, choose Build | Deploy Solution.

Sizing the Barcode CRI Component:

The custom report item component cannot be sized by dragging the object because barcodes must meet specific requirements, such as a precise X dimension (narrow bar width) and barcode height, which is specified in the properties of the control. To increase the barcode width, increase the XDimensionMils property. To increase the height, increase the BarHeight property.