Excel reports to RS

We have several extensive reports in Excel that I
would like to port over to Reporting Services (am in process of testing
SQL/RS 2005), if at all possible. From what I understand, the only way to do
this is via a third party piece of software, such as OfficeWriterSE for
ASP by softartisans.com...
A couple questions:
1. Is there an open source alternative to the commercial third party
software (the cost of OfficeWriterSE is way beyond our budget)?
2. Does Microsoft plan on ever offering the capability of importing Excel
reports into RS? (I do like the ability of importing Access report
objects, so why not expand to Excel and Word too)?
3. Should I just forget the whole thing?
TIA!
Greg--My guess is that you should give it up. My guess is the 3rd party tool
allows you to create reports in Excel that are RS reports, not that it
importants existing Excel sheets into RS. Excel has an ability to be
unstructured that RS does not have which make it in my mind highly unlikely
you will ever see a tool from MS to do what you want. Access is very
structured (it is a database product after all) which is why they could
import Access reports.
Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
"gms" <gms@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5C29B68B-A8CB-458B-BC1F-C061ABC70F49@.microsoft.com...
> We have several extensive reports in Excel that I
> would like to port over to Reporting Services (am in process of testing
> SQL/RS 2005), if at all possible. From what I understand, the only way to
> do
> this is via a third party piece of software, such as OfficeWriterSE for
> ASP by softartisans.com...
> A couple questions:
> 1. Is there an open source alternative to the commercial third party
> software (the cost of OfficeWriterSE is way beyond our budget)?
> 2. Does Microsoft plan on ever offering the capability of importing Excel
> reports into RS? (I do like the ability of importing Access report
> objects, so why not expand to Excel and Word too)?
> 3. Should I just forget the whole thing?
> TIA!
> Greg--|||I guess I knew the answer all along! At lest this confirms it.
Thanks!
Greg--
"Bruce L-C [MVP]" wrote:
> My guess is that you should give it up. My guess is the 3rd party tool
> allows you to create reports in Excel that are RS reports, not that it
> importants existing Excel sheets into RS. Excel has an ability to be
> unstructured that RS does not have which make it in my mind highly unlikely
> you will ever see a tool from MS to do what you want. Access is very
> structured (it is a database product after all) which is why they could
> import Access reports.
>
> --
> Bruce Loehle-Conger
> MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
> "gms" <gms@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5C29B68B-A8CB-458B-BC1F-C061ABC70F49@.microsoft.com...
> > We have several extensive reports in Excel that I
> > would like to port over to Reporting Services (am in process of testing
> > SQL/RS 2005), if at all possible. From what I understand, the only way to
> > do
> > this is via a third party piece of software, such as OfficeWriterSE for
> > ASP by softartisans.com...
> >
> > A couple questions:
> >
> > 1. Is there an open source alternative to the commercial third party
> > software (the cost of OfficeWriterSE is way beyond our budget)?
> >
> > 2. Does Microsoft plan on ever offering the capability of importing Excel
> > reports into RS? (I do like the ability of importing Access report
> > objects, so why not expand to Excel and Word too)?
> >
> > 3. Should I just forget the whole thing?
> >
> > TIA!
> >
> > Greg--
>
>|||You can click on the 'Upload File' button in ReportServer and proceed
to upload to your heart's content all the Excel files you want to.
They'll open as Excel files within the Report Server's browser with full
Excel functionality. No need to shell out money for a 3rd party solution.
GeoSynch
"gms" <gms@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5C29B68B-A8CB-458B-BC1F-C061ABC70F49@.microsoft.com...
> We have several extensive reports in Excel that I
> would like to port over to Reporting Services (am in process of testing
> SQL/RS 2005), if at all possible. From what I understand, the only way to do
> this is via a third party piece of software, such as OfficeWriterSE for
> ASP by softartisans.com...
> A couple questions:
> 1. Is there an open source alternative to the commercial third party
> software (the cost of OfficeWriterSE is way beyond our budget)?
> 2. Does Microsoft plan on ever offering the capability of importing Excel
> reports into RS? (I do like the ability of importing Access report
> objects, so why not expand to Excel and Word too)?
> 3. Should I just forget the whole thing?
> TIA!
> Greg--