BI Tips and Tricks with SQL Server Reporting Services

Adam Aspin

SQL Bits XII, 19th July 2014

What we are here to see…

• Solutions to:– Impress the boss– Stun your colleagues– Save time and money

• By:– More fully exploiting the potential of existing technology– Leveraging current skills– Avoiding costly and time-consuming alternatives

What we are discussing

• Corporate BI – using SQL Server Reporting Services• “Canned Reports”:

– Regular delivery / Agreed, predefined metrics– Limited interactivity

• Add a “BI” flavour to SSRS:– Scorecards– KPIS– Dashboards

• SSRS as a Corporate BI delivery platform– Basic parameter-driven interactivity– No attempt at interactive development

KPI and Scorecard basics

• Key Performance Indicators– Value– Goal– Status– Trend

• See what a result is, how it maps to target and where it is going (Context, Threshold, Evolution)

• Anything that can be measured of strategic or tactical importance

Dashboard Basics

• Many possible overviews of multiple aspects of a business

• Can include targets and objectives• Composed of multiple elements “Widgets”

– Scorecards– Tables– Charts– Gauges– Sparklines– Maps– Etc…

How do we Apply SSRS?

• Design element– Appreciation of the diverse elements which can make up a dashboard

and/or a scorecard– Understand which type of presentation element gets the information

across best

• Technology aspect – essentially applied to the Interface– Parameters– Expressions– Datasets

Design Elements

• Presentation Choices– Tabular, text-based, graphical – or hybrid. – Effective – and different - Charts and Gauges

• Design Choices– Backgrounds, borders, images and text– Colours to alert and display thresholds

• Figures or chart/gauge?– Tooltips to display data

Presentation – Classic Scorecard

• Indicators (Status and Trend)• Standard tabular format• Background Image

Presentation - “Graphic” Scorecard

• Pointers for Actuals and Target

• Colour for Threshold

• Trend as Indicator

Presentation – Text-based Scorecard

• Allows for multiple KPIs• Sparkline for Trend analysis

Design Tricks: Gauges• Vary Pointer Types

– Needle for single elements– Bar for one or two elements– Marker for multiple elements– Mix pointer types to hierarchize

• Mix Pointer Types• Group Gauges• Rarer Gauge Types

– Thermometer– Multi-Scale / Multi-Gauge

• Gauge Enhancements– Overlay Data as text– Multiple Ranges – colour sensitive to

thresholds– Add Legends

Design Tricks: Charts• Appropriate Chart Types – Read the classics (Few, Tufte)• Add Markers• Less Traditional Charts

– Radar– Pyramid– Bubble– Waterfall

• Remember less used, but “Out of the Box” techniques:– Order chart elements– Striplines– Vary Category Colours– Add markers– Order charts in a table

Design Tricks - Images

• Images as backgrounds– Tablix– Textbox– Chart– Gauge

• Images as borders– 8 images to make an extensible border (BackgroundRepeat)

• Text as Image– Vertical or Diagonal

• Swap images for effect:– Selection (Slicer and Highlight)– Visual Alert

Design Tricks: Maps

• First find your (geographical) data!– .Shp (Shape) files (Ex: BoundaryLine – Ordnance Survey)– Shape2SQL – convert shape file data to SQL Server

geographical data types • Store in database not Report for speed of rendering• Cache reports containing Maps

Layout Tricks

• Force vertical alignment of charts and gauges using tables

• Nested tables• “Dummy” tables for images• Invisible lines and rectangles to force vertical

alignment across a page

Putting It All Together – One Example

Putting It All Together – Another Example

Interface Tweaks• Revamping the user interface– Replace the tired UI for parameter selection– Define limited recordsets for efficient paging

• Enhance Interactivity (well – to some extent) through more modern interface techniques:– Slicers– Tiles– Highlighting– Recordset Paging

Technology I - Hidden Parameters

• “Passback” – an attempt at viewstate• Have to be applied everywhere there is

interactivity!• Uses:– Replace the parameter ribbon– Replace the toolbar– Example:• Slicers• Selection• Menus

Technology II - Expressions

• Clunky - but the key method of enhancing BI reports• Possible with nearly every object and Property• A few simple elements do all the work:

– IIF– Lookup– Choose– Lookup/Lookupset/Multilookup

• Can test on data and parameters!• Some uses:

– Apply Colours– Add Images– Show/Hide elements– Example – printer-friendly output

Mobile BI using SSRS

• Only from 2012SP1 onwards• Report Server not Report Manager URL• Manage reduced screen space:

– Consider revamping the report access interface– Fewer elements - drillthrough-based

Technology II - Data Tricks

• Use a single dataset to calculate and return maximum values for gauges

• Link datasets (Lookup function)• Share Datasets• Cache datasets• Linked SSAS server to return data to T-SQL complex

queries (target data for instance)• Paged data sets (2012)

To Finish

• Much, much more that could be shown, for instance:– Optimisation techniques– Standardisation approaches (templates, styles etc)

• Any questions?• Happy BI Development with SSRS.

Adam Aspin

• IT consultant and Contractor• Over 30 years experience• 25 years in databases and reporting

(now “Business Intelligence”)• Author:

– SQL Server 2012 Data Integration Recipes– High Impact Data Visualization with

Power View, Power Map and Power BI– Many articles for SQLServerCentral.Com

• Adam@Calidra.co.uk