Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services: Tips and Tricks, How-to, and Beyond Teo Lachev, MVP, MCSD.NET

Technical ArchitectFiserv.BIN 304

Reporting Requirements Can be challenging

Report AuthorYou are looking for solutions

Unhappy OutcomeUnable to meet user requirements

Happy OutcomeYou can do a lot with Reporting Services with some out-of-box thinking

SolutionReporting Services tips and tricks

Report authoring tipsReport management tipsReport delivery tips

Implement Ad-hoc ReportingThree approaches

TipsChoose an approach that balances requirements and implementation effortAnalysis Services + Report Builder 2.0 = Great ad-hoc reporting solution for information workers

Three ApproachesReportingSolution

ImplementationEffort

Data Sources Feature Set &BI Potential

Report Builder 2.0 with wizards Low SQL Server for

GUI/wizards Low

Report Builder ModelReport Builder 2.0 Medium SQL Server, Oracle,

Analysis Services Medium

OLAPReport Builder 2.0 High Analysis Services High

Learn TablixThe crown jewel of SSRS 2008

What’s Tablix?The best of Table – tabular layoutThe best of Matrix – crosstab layout

Supports flexible report layoutsFixed and dynamic columns and rowsStepped layoutParallel independent column groups

Apply Rich FormattingReduce number of textboxes

SSRS 2008 TextboxHas paragraphs (similar to MS Word document)A paragraph has textruns and placeholdersA placeholder represents an expression

Benefits of rich formattingFewer textboxes to maintainMix static and dynamic text with different formatting without concatenating and expressionsImport HTML – subset of HTML and CSS tags supportedhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645967.aspx

Use XML Data ProviderWorking with XML data

Supports three types of XML data sourcesWeb serviceURL-based resourceEmbedded XML

Provider detailsUses proprietary XML navigation constructsSupports parametersFeatures, syntax, and limitations discussed in Using XML and Web Service Data Sources paper by Jonathan Heide http://tinyurl.com/cfsd7v

Use Custom CodeExtend your reports in versatile ways

Scenarios that may benefit from custom codeImplement custom functions and aggregationsCreate utility library to share across reportsIntegrate your reports with external services

Use Custom CodeContinued

Report variablesIntroduced in SSRS 2008Guarantee one-time evaluation semanticsUse them to cache results from custom code

Generate RDL ProgrammaticallyRDL Object Model

SSRS 2008 introduces RDLOMNot officially supportedUse at your own riskLet’s you access RDL in object-oriented wayDoesn’t validate RDL semanticsImplemented in Microsoft.ReportingServices.RdlObjectModel.dll

Install BIDS HelperOpen source utility that extends BIDS

Reporting Services featuresSee dataset usage reportsDelete dataset cache filesSee “smart” RDL difference

Implementation detailsVisual Studio Add-InDownload from www.codeplex.com/bidshelperAuthored by SQL Server MVPsGreg Galloway, Darren Gosbell, and John Welch

SolutionReporting Services tips and tricks

Report authoring tipsReport management tipsReport delivery tips

Configure Report BuilderSpecify which version to use

ClickOnce DeploymentReport Builder 1.0 is ClickOnce applicationStarting with SQL Server 2008 SP1, Report Builder 2.0supports ClickOnceBy default, Report Manager and SharePoint launch RB 1.0

Switch to Report Builder 2.0Install SQL Server 2008 SP1In Report Manager, go to Site SettingsEnter this URL in Custom Report Builder Launch URL

http://<server>/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application

For SharePoint mode, refer to the SQL Server 2008 SP1 readme file http://tinyurl.com/da2fzb

Analyze Report PerformanceExecution log

Execution Log should be your first stop Logs important performance and usage metricsExecutionLogStorage table in ReportServer databaseUse ExecutionLog2 view select * from ExecutionLog2 order by TimeStart DESC

Interpreting Execution Log dataTimeDataRetrieval, TimeProcessing, TimeRendering columnsFor more information read Robert Bruckner’s blog ExecutionLog2 View - Analyzing and Optimizing Reports http://tinyurl.com/clfggq

Automate Report DeploymentSeveral options

Reporting Services Scripter by Jasper Smith (MVP)Move catalog items to another serverhttp://www.sqldbatips.com/showarticle.asp?ID=62

Custom utilitiesIntegrate with SSRS Web serviceThe UploadReports sample demonstrates deploymentto SharePoint

BIDS deployment Supports deployment to SSRS in native or SharePoint modesLet’s you automate report deployment

devenv "<path>\Reports.sln" /deploy QA

Trace Calls to Report ServerRSTracer

SSRS Web Service Provides full-featured programmatic access to report serverLets you create custom management utilitiesYou may not know which API to call and how to call itYou want to peek under the hood of Report Manager or SharePoint

What’s RSTracer?Intercepts URL and SOAP callsOutputs request and response to trace listener, such as SysInternals DebugViewDownload from http://www.codeplex.com/rstracer

SolutionReporting Services tips and tricks

Report authoring tipsReport management tipsReport delivery tips

Do More with ReportsMore reports, less custom code

When implementing dashboardsAvoid custom web partsConsider reports

AdvantagesFaster implementationEasier maintenance

DisadvantagesLess flexibilityMay require requirement compromises

Original Concept

The Report Version

Report-enable .NET ApplicationsReportViewer Web and Windows Forms controls

Support two processing modesRemote – reports are on the serverLocal – reports are distributed with the application

Consider sub-classing ReportViewerExtend its capabilitiesImplement best practices and rulesPackage and distribute custom report viewer as-is

Customize Report OutputUse device info settings

CSV rendererSupports special characters as field delimitersExample – register a new CSV renderer with tab delimiter in rsreportserver.config

<Extension Name="CSV Tab" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.Rendering.DataRenderer.CsvReport,Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataRendering"> <OverrideNames><Name Language="en-US">CSV (tab delimited)</Name></OverrideNames> <Configuration> <DeviceInfo> <Encoding>ASCII</Encoding> <FieldDelimiter>&#09;</FieldDelimiter> </DeviceInfo> </Configuration></Extension>

Encode field delimiters http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/latin1.html

Customize Report OutputContinued

XML RendererMay help you avoid writing custom renderersSupports custom names for XML elementsSupports XSLT to control the outputIf XSLT produces HTML, configure XML renderer<Extension Name="XML" Type="Microsoft…"> <Configuration> <DeviceInfo> <MIMEType>text/html</MIMEType> <FileExtension>htm</FileExtension> </DeviceInfo> </Configuration> </Extension>

Customize Report DefinitionsNew extensibility option in SSRS 2008

Scenarios Personalize the report content per userLocalize reports based on the user culture

Run-time interactionReport server discovers if the report is set for RDCEPasses original RDL after evaluating parametersRDCE changes RDL as neededReport server publishes new RDL temporarily

question & answer

www.microsoft.com/teched

Sessions On-Demand & Community

http://microsoft.com/technet

Resources for IT Professionals

http://microsoft.com/msdn

Resources for Developers

www.microsoft.com/learningMicrosoft Certification and Training Resources

www.microsoft.com/learning

Microsoft Certification & Training Resources

Resources

Resources

Teo Lachev's bloghttp://prologika.com/cs/blogs/

Blogs by SSRS team membershttp://prologika.com/cs/blogs/blog/default.aspx (see Reporting Services Links section)

Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services bookhttp://prologika.com/Books/0976635313/Book.aspx

Reporting Services 2008 Information Aggregatorhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc511478.aspx

Reporting Services MSDN forumhttp://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqlreportingservices/threads/

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