Documentation

1 Quick Start

Get up and running with SSRS2 in under 5 minutes.

using SSRS2.Reporting.NETCore;

// Load your RDLC report
using var report = new LocalReport();
report.LoadReportDefinition(File.OpenRead("Report.rdlc"));

// Add your data
report.DataSources.Add(
    new ReportDataSource("DataSetName", yourData));

// Render to PDF
var pdfBytes = report.Render("PDF");

// Save or return the PDF
File.WriteAllBytes("output.pdf", pdfBytes);

2 Installation

<PackageReference Include="SSRS2.NETCore" Version="1.0.4" />

3 Basic Usage

// From file path
report.LoadReportDefinition(File.OpenRead("path/to/report.rdlc"));

// From embedded resource
var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("MyApp.Reports.Report.rdlc");
report.LoadReportDefinition(stream);

// From byte array
var bytes = File.ReadAllBytes("report.rdlc");
report.LoadReportDefinition(new MemoryStream(bytes));

// Single data source
var items = new List<Product> { ... };
report.DataSources.Add(
    new ReportDataSource("Products", items));

// Multiple data sources
report.DataSources.Add(new ReportDataSource("Orders", orders));
report.DataSources.Add(new ReportDataSource("Customers", customers));

report.SetParameters(new[] {
    new ReportParameter("ReportTitle", "Sales Report 2025"),
    new ReportParameter("ShowDetails", "true"),
    new ReportParameter("StartDate", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"))
});

// Enable hyperlinks in PDF output
report.EnableHyperlinks = true;

var pdf = report.Render("PDF");

Identical output on every platform

Report engines usually ask the operating system for the fonts a report requests. When the machine does not have one, each platform quietly substitutes something different — and the substitutes are not the same width. Segoe UI becomes Helvetica on macOS and DejaVu Sans on Linux, which is about 10% wider. Text then wraps differently, rows grow, and a table row that fits on your laptop falls off the page in your container.

SSRS2 ships metric-compatible fonts inside the package and renders from those, so the same RDLC lays out the same way on Windows, macOS, Linux and in Docker. Nothing to install on the host, and no libgdiplus.

using SSRS2.Reporting.NETCore;

// false means the font files did not reach your output directory
if (!ReportFonts.BundledFontsAvailable)
    throw new InvalidOperationException("SSRS2 fonts missing — output will vary by platform");

// Opt out and use the host's fonts instead (output becomes platform-dependent)
ReportFonts.UseSystemFonts = true;

4 Export Formats

var pdf = report.Render("PDF");
File.WriteAllBytes("report.pdf", pdf);

var deviceInfo = "<DeviceInfo><DPI>300</DPI></DeviceInfo>";

// Multi-page reports return multiple streams
var streams = new Dictionary<string, MemoryStream>();
report.Render("PNG", deviceInfo,
    (name, ext, enc, mime, seek) => {
        var stream = new MemoryStream();
        streams[name] = stream;
        return stream;
    }, out _);

foreach (var kvp in streams)
    File.WriteAllBytes($"{kvp.Key}.png", kvp.Value.ToArray());

var deviceInfo = "<DeviceInfo><DPI>150</DPI><Quality>85</Quality></DeviceInfo>";

var jpeg = report.Render("JPEG", deviceInfo);

// Word document
var docx = report.Render("WORDOPENXML");
File.WriteAllBytes("report.docx", docx);

// Excel spreadsheet
var xlsx = report.Render("EXCELOPENXML");
File.WriteAllBytes("report.xlsx", xlsx);

5 Docker Deployment

SSRS2 works seamlessly in Docker containers. Here's a minimal Dockerfile:

# Build stage
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o /app

# Runtime stage
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app .

# Install fonts (optional, for better text rendering)
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    fonts-liberation \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "YourApp.dll"]

6 Migration from Microsoft.ReportViewer

Migrating from Microsoft.ReportViewer is straightforward. Here are the key changes. For a complete comparison of migration options (including Power BI and cost analysis), see the SSRS to .NET Core migration guide.

using Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms;
// or
using Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms;

using SSRS2.Reporting.NETCore;