Specifications

178 CHAPTER 9 Reporting Services Enhancements
Although you can manually congure the properties for the map and each map layer, the
easiest way to get started is to drag a map from the Toolbox window to the report body (if
you are using Business Intelligence Development Studio) or click the map in the ribbon (if
you are using Report Builder 3.0). This starts the Map Wizard, which walks you through the
conguration process by prompting you for the source of the spatial data dening the map
itself and the source of the analytical data to display on the map. You then decide how the
report should display this analytical data—by color-coding elements on the map or by using
a bubble to represent data values on the map at specied points. Next, you dene the rela-
tionship between the map’s spatial data and the analytical data by matching elds from each
dataset. For example, the datasets for the map shown in Figure 9-14 have matching elds for
the two-letter state codes. In the next step, you specify the eld in your analytical data to
display on the map, and you congure the visualization rules to apply, such as color ranges.
In the gure, for example, the rule is to use darker colors to indicate a higher population.
FIGURE 9-14 A map using colors to show population distribution
Reusability
SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services has several new features to support reusability of
components. Report developers with advanced skills can build shared datasets and report
parts that can be used by others. Then, for example, a business user can quickly and easily
pull together these preconstructed components into a personalized report without know-
ing how to build a query or design a matrix. To help the shared datasets run faster, you can
congure a cache refresh schedule to keep a copy of the shared dataset in cache. Last, the
ability to share report data as an Atom data feed extends the usefulness of data beyond a
single source report.