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There are more examples on rendering a rdl file to reportviewer and then showing it in .pdf format.I need to built a console application that takes a .rdl as input and executes it to a pdf. How can i do this without using SSRS and reportviewer?

Murali Uppangala
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You can not render an RDL file without SSRS. The RDL file is just an XML definition, which is rendered by SSRS.

To make this clearer:

The RDL file is not the report output, but a mere layout description. It tells SSRS where to place elements. The content that comes from the database is only inserted while SSRS renders the report.

Thorsten Dittmar
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    This console application creates .rdl files http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms167274(v=sql.105).aspx but it just saves it to disc. I want to execute it to yield a pdf. – Murali Uppangala Oct 11 '13 at 12:05
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    I don't think you understand what the tool does: the RDL file is just a definition in XML that tells SSRS how the report should look (like where is the table, how wide is a column, which dataset field to use). SSRS then renders that, along with the data, into the final report, just like web browser renders HTML. The Report Viewer Control can display the rendered output. The tool from your link simply generates an XML that describes a report. It does not contain the *output*. The RDL file can be compared to a XAML file in WPF. It tells you where to put which element, but itself doesn't display. – Thorsten Dittmar Oct 11 '13 at 12:42
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    Your comments are more detailed and helpful .....If i have a fixed template for a report and i have to generate pdf of that report template using a windows service - how can i go ahead? using C# with easily available sql reporting method? any useful links can you provide on windows service +.rdl files? To simplify my requirement - i have a server program which needs to trigger a windows service to generate a report in pdf format automatically(ie with no UI for report generation since it needs to be a back-end process) – Murali Uppangala Oct 11 '13 at 13:48
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    One way would be to convert the server RDL file into a local RDLC file that can be processed by the report viewer control alone. You could then do as many others here and create a hidden control in your service that exports the report to PDF. The same would be possible if you had an SQL Server with SSRS at hand, which is required if you have an RDL file. – Thorsten Dittmar Oct 11 '13 at 15:32