I have allowed my user's to do this for years - but found it helpful to include "default sample" reports they can modify instead of allowing them to start from scratch. I never allow the sample report to be modified, but create a copy of it on the fly and force them to name it with their own name. The sample report already has the tables selected, etc., etc. etc. I stuff their reports into their own folder just for reports so they are not mixed up with my working ones.

The most important thing is to have them "preview" the report before they save it - as if it creates an error it means they have done something wrong, and they can then dump the work they just did and not save the error. As preview works sucessfully, have them save it so they can revert back to their working copy when the break something.

You will need to include a manual with this for them I suspect - or be ready for the tech calls to come in.




>Hi everybody,
>
>We'd like to allow to create reports in run-time.
>
>1. What do we need to distribute with our applications to make it possible?
>
>2. We want to only allow standard features in the report (no Dynamics, for example). What should we do to only let the people designing the reports to use only 80 features of the Report Designer?
>
>Thanks in advance.