Update: One of my readers was able to find a link to Visual Studio 2008 Express Web Edition. After that, install the Reporting add-on, and you should be good for RDLC editing. Thanks Alex.
So, you want to make custom Vault reports. Good for you. All you need is a Vault and Visual Studio 2008 record scratch
Wait, you do have Visual Studio 2008, don’t you? If not, then you can just download it from Microsoft.com record scratch
Oh, it’s not up there anymore. Well, lets go over our options then. Before my record gets scratched up too much, I’m going to rule out time travel and breaking into ancient history museums. Here are some helpful ways to edit your RDLC file.
RDL Designer from fyiReporting
http://www.fyireporting.com/
This is a free editor from a set of RDL / RDLC tools from fyiReporting. It’s almost as good as Visual Studio 2008 was. Unlike VS 2008, the RDL Designer is still available for download, which makes it the best RDLC editor by default.
I’ve used this tool myself, and I like it a lot. My only complaint is that there is no snap feature or ability to easily line up your UI controls. So you end up with a bunch of text boxes that are off by a few pixels. If you are obsessive compulsive, this will drive you nuts.
You can line things up by modifying directly editing the properties, which is also extra painful. Because RDLC is built around printing, all the dimensions are in units like inch, centimeter and point. You can't define things in pixels, like I am used to in UI design.
Aside from the alignment issues, everything else is done well. For example, you can easily create tables by selecting the fields you want, and it will build the data for you.
An XML Editor
RDLC files are just XML files. So you can use any text or XML editor to make changes. It’s obviously harder to do it this way because you are designing a UI in a non-UI environment. But it’s a good option for people who like to challenge themselves for no reason at all.
I should also note that the fyi RDL Designer has an XML mode. So you can easily switch between the UI view and the XML view. Very useful. If you happen to run into any of those fyi guys, tell them I said thanks.
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