Report Web Services are deployed on a web server and can be consumed by developers and users within your organization or externally based on where you deploy the service itself and what access users have to the location you have selected.
When deploying Report Web Services, we have two deployment options - the first is the easiest and involves copying your project to the web server for deployment. To use this method, you will need to open the project where your Report Web Service resides and select Project | Copy Project, which will open the dialog shown below:
You will need to specify a folder location for your project, as well as a web access method. If you select the FrontPage method, you must have the Front Page Extensions installed and configured on the server where you want to deploy your Report Web Service. Choose the File Share method if you have direct access to the server and just want to copy the files over.
At the bottom of the dialog, you will also need to select what files you want copied across to the web server. You have three choices:
Copy files needed to run this application - will copy across all of the built output files and any files where the BuildAction property is set to Content.
All project files - will copy across everything, including the output and source files, etc.
All Files in the source project folder - will copy across all files within the folder, regardless of whether they are included in the project or not.
The second method of deploying a Report Web Service involves creating a web setup project that can be used to deploy your service on a local or remote web server. To create a new web setup project, select New | Project and from the folder marked Setup and Deployment Projects, select the icon for Web Setup Project and make sure you click the radio button for Add to Solution (instead of Close Solution).
We will call this project WebServiceSetup.
A new tab called File System will open - right-click on the Web Application Folder and select Add | Project Output. From the dialog that appears below, select Content Files, Primary output, and Debug Symbols all at once using Ctrl-click or Shift-click.
With these components added, save your project and select Build WebServiceSetup to create a Windows Installer Package (MSI) that will install your Report Web Service. If you are deploying this to a server that does not have Visual Studio .NET or the .NET Framework installed, you will need to install that first before you install and deploy your Report Web Service.
