Reporting Services Client-Side Printing and
Silent Deployment of RSClientPrint.cab ActiveX file.
RSClientPrint.cab is a Microsoft ActiveX control that provides client side printing for
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reports. The ActiveX control displays a
custom print dialog box that supports common features with other print dialog
boxes. The client-side print dialog box includes a printer list for selection,
print preview option, page margin settings, orientation, etc.
Downloading and installing the ActiveX control
RSClientPrint.cab requires administrator permissions on the client machine.
If a user runs a SQL Server Reporting Services report and if the toolbar is
displayed, the user can click on the print buttons seen on the right side of the
toolbar.
If the print command is being run for the report server by that user's client
machine then the client request the RSClientPrint.cab file from the related
Report Server. While downloading the ActiveX software the browser will promt the
user whether the software will be installed or not considering the security
issues. Again, it is necessary to note that administration permissions are
required for downloading and installing the rsclientprint ActiveX.
After the installation of the RSClientPrint is successfully done, the Print
dialog box is displayed as shown below. You will realize that the Print options
is very similar to standart Print dialog boxes that run on Windows systems
including preview, number of copies, print range, printer selecting from
available printers, etc.
Print Preview option for the Reporting Services report.
In most companies the Information Technology policies do not grant the admin
privileges to the end users. So the end users running on the client computers
can not download and install the ActiveX print client file
RSClientPrint.cab. So it is a need for the IT departments to distribute this
client side printing ActiveX control in order to support their clients to work
with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) without a problem.
You can find the file on the Report Server bin folder. The Reporting Services
Report Server folder can be on
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin
folder for SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services and
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.4\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin
folder for SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.
Actually for SQL Server 2005, the installation folder may vary due to the
installed components of the SQL Server 2005. You can also find the ReportServer
bin folder by openning the IIS Manager and then exploring the ReportServer (if
installed with default settings) virtual directory.
If you extract the contents of the
RSClientPrint.cab file you will see that the .cab file consists of the following
files.
gdiplus.dll
RSClientPrint.dll
RSClientPrint.inf
RSClientPrint_1028.rll
RSClientPrint_1031.rll
RSClientPrint_1033.rll
RSClientPrint_1036.rll
RSClientPrint_1040.rll
RSClientPrint_1041.rll
RSClientPrint_1042.rll
RSClientPrint_1043.rll
RSClientPrint_1046.rll
RSClientPrint_1053.rll
RSClientPrint_2052.rll
RSClientPrint_3082.rll
For a silent deployment of
RSClientPrint.cab, you only need to distribute RSClientPrint.dll file and the .rll
files.
If you copy the files listed below under the folder
C:\WINNT\system32 for client computers.
RSClientPrint.dll
RSClientPrint_1028.rll
RSClientPrint_1031.rll
RSClientPrint_1033.rll
RSClientPrint_1036.rll
RSClientPrint_1040.rll
RSClientPrint_1041.rll
RSClientPrint_1042.rll
RSClientPrint_1043.rll
RSClientPrint_1046.rll
RSClientPrint_1053.rll
RSClientPrint_2052.rll
RSClientPrint_3082.rll
Register the
RSClientPrint.dll dll file by running the regsvr32.exe command on the command
prompt shown as below.
c:\regsvr32.exe /s
c:\winnt\system32\rsclientprint.dll
So, if a script or an MSI file that copies the listed files above and registers
the rsclientprint.dll will be enough to deploy the Reporting Services Client
Side Printing functionality.
 BlinkList
 Del.icio.us
 Digg
 Furl
 Simpy
 Spurl
 DZone
 ma.gnolia
 Shadows
|