Datasheet

❑ Out-of-the-box, server-based reporting features, using reports created by report designers and
deployed to a central web server.
❑ Client-side ad hoc reports created by users, on demand with the Report Builder tool using pre-
defined data models.
❑ Reports integrated into web applications using URL links to open in a web browser window.
❑ Reports integrated into SharePoint Portal server applications using SharePoint Web Parts.
❑ Custom-built application features that render reports using programming code. Reports may be
displayed within a desktop or web application interface or saved to a file.
Out-of-the-Box Reports
What does Reporting Services provide if you just want to use its simplest features right out of the box?
Quite a lot, actually. Reporting Services uses the Microsoft Development Environment to design and
deploy reports to a central web server. Prior to the release of SQL Server 2005, the development environ-
ment was exclusively part of Microsoft Visual Studio, a tool for serious application developers to create
custom software. It still is, but now the development environment has been tailored to manage SQL
Server databases, write queries, and design reports. Using this powerful tool is likely the most signifi-
cant challenge for the new report designer.
Once you learn the basics of the development environment, designing reports and managing projects
is actually quite easy. The report designer includes a simple Report Wizard that can lead you through
designing common reports. Tabular, grouped, cross-tab, and chart reports are relatively easy to build just
by following the wizard prompts and perhaps setting a few properties.
After a new report has been designed and tested, it can be deployed to a central report server where it
will be available to all users through a simple web browser application called the Report Manager.
Beyond wizard-built reports, many aspects of more complex reports may be managed by creating simple
programming expressions. An expression builder guides the designer through the simple use of func-
tions and logical expressions that may be used to modify colors, visibility, and formatting aspects and to
perform calculations. Because the expressions in Reporting Services are based on Visual Basic .NET, the
power of conditional expressions is virtually limitless.
Server-Based Reports
It’s important to understand the difference between SQL Server Reporting Services and a desktop
reporting tool like Microsoft Access. Reporting Services isn’t an application that you would typically
install on any desktop computer. It requires Microsoft SQL Server, a serious business-class relational
database management tool. For this and other reasons, Reporting Services is designed to run on a file
server instead of a desktop computer. It also requires Microsoft Internet Information Services, a compo-
nent of Microsoft Windows Server products.
Reporting Services is designed for business use. Therefore, it is a powerful tool that can literally scale to
be used by thousands of users and can report on very large sets of data stored in a variety of database
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