Stepped Layout report - SSRS 2008

Stepped layout report in SSRS 2008 makes the presentation of the report a lot neater as compared to the cross tab report in SSRS 2005. Image1 below is a stepped layout report and the Image2 is a cross tab report in SSRS 2005, both presenting the same data. Another attractive feature in stepped layout is the visibility of the total at each level.







Stepped layout - Image1






Matrix layout - Image2

Please excuse for the quality of the images. It has been done intentionally.

One feature, which doesn't work as it should on exporting to Excel is indenting. But, my colleague (Manish) suggested to put some space in the value expression and that did the trick. Syntax is - =Space(5) & Fields!FieldName.Value in the second row group, then increase the space in the subsequent row groups. This is in addition to the padding.

One aspect, which I have not been able to figure out is the visibility of the row group while scrolling in a stepped layout report. If somebody knows then please comment about it.

Let us start the report step by step -

1. Create the dataset (see my earlier post if you don't know how to do it)

2. Insert a matrix from toolbox in the report body

3. Insert all the column groups. In the image shown above they are year and finPeriod.

4. When it comes to row groups, start with the group which you want at the lowest level. This just makes it easier.

Example - A, B and C are three row groups in the descending order, then start with the group C.

5. Insert the field to create row group C. Now, at the bottom of the screen there are two panes, which show row and column groups. Right click on the row group > Add group > Parent group > check Add header group > copy and paste from the parent group to the header group > delete the parent group. This group will display field B as group B.

6. Do similarly for row group A.

7. Right click on row group B textbox and click properties. In the value expression type =space(10) & fields!fieldName.value. This will display the value indented by 10 spaces to the right. Similarly, go to the properties of group C textbox and type =space(15) & fields!fieldName.value. This will display the value indented by 15 spaces to the right. As you can see now that we are creating a stepped layout here. The value in the Group A textbox is at it's original position. Value in Group B textbox is moved by 10 spaces to the right and value in Group B textbox is moved by 15 spaces to the right.

8. Last thing is to set the visibility of each group. Group A is always visible, Group B's visibility is dependent on Group A and Group C's visibility is dependent on Group B.

Try this and if you face any issue let me know. If you read this blog :-).