Reporting Services

How to Dynamically Center an Image in MS Reporting Services Reports

If you’ve ever worked with MS Reporting Services, you may have found that centering an image within a report can be a tricky task, especially when the image dimensions are unknown during the design phase. By default, the image element is anchored to the top-left corner of the allocated space, which can lead to less-than-ideal layouts when the image is smaller than the designated area.

In this tutorial, we’ll explore a solution that allows you to dynamically center an image in your reports based on the image dimensions that you retrieve at runtime.

The Challenge

The primary challenge is that the image you want to display may be smaller than the space provided in the report layout. MS Reporting Services does not natively support dynamic centering of images in such cases. However, with a few clever adjustments, you can overcome this limitation:

  • Problem: Images anchored to the top-left corner.
  • Need: Center images with unknown dimensions at design time.

The Solution

With the help of Chris Hays’ approach, you can successfully center images based on their runtime dimensions. Here’s a breakdown of the steps you need to follow:

1. Set Image Sizing

First, make sure that the image element is sized to your desired dimensions, even though the exact image size may vary. In our case, we’ll set the dimensions to 4.625 inches wide by 1.125 inches tall.

  • Sizing Property: Change the “Sizing” property of the image element to “Clip.” This allows the image to be displayed without distortion.

2. Dynamically Set Left Padding

Next, you need to dynamically set the left padding of the image based on its width. Use the following expression to calculate the left padding:

=CStr(Round((4.625 - System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(System.Net.WebRequest.Create(Parameters!LogoURL.Value).GetResponse().GetResponseStream()).Width / 96) / 2, 2)) & "in"

3. Dynamically Set Top Padding

Similarly, you will also need to set the top padding dynamically using this expression:

=CStr(Round((1.125 - System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(System.Net.WebRequest.Create(Parameters!LogoURL.Value).GetResponse().GetResponseStream()).Height / 96) / 2, 2)) & "in"

Modifications and Improvements

While implementing the solution above, there were some key modifications made:

  • The dimensions of the image element were adjusted to fit my specific requirements of 4.625 inches wide by 1.125 inches tall.
  • The code was modified to retrieve the image stream from a URL instead of a database. For this, I utilized WebRequest.Create.GetResponse, which is quite handy for fetching resources online.

Conclusion

By implementing these steps, you can effectively center images in your MS Reporting Services reports, ensuring a professional and clean look for your presentations. The method described highlights the power of dynamic expressions and how they can provide flexibility in reporting design.

So the next time you’re faced with dynamically centering an image, remember this guide and make your reporting significantly more visually appealing!