Introduction to Microsoft’s SQL Reporting Services in a Data Repository Environment

By Acmeware, Inc.

Introduction

Acmeware Participants Course Objectives Course Format

Course Summary

Overview of SQL Server Reporting Services (RS)

RS Licensing & Implementation RS Development Environment RS Management & Deployment Two Examples of RS Reports from

Authoring to Deployment

What is SQL Server Reporting Services?

A comprehensive, server-based reporting application

Enables the creation, management, and delivery of reports

Both traditional paper-based reports and web-based reports

Pushed or pulled reports, real-time or scheduled reports

In Microsoft's Words

“Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services improves the productivity of organizations by providing a high-performance, managed reporting environment for the entire enterprise and makes it easier to get the right information to the right people, in virtually any business environment.”

Comparable Applications

Crystal Reports / Crystal Enterprise Microsoft Access Visual Basic / C# and .ASP Cognos / Actuate / Business Objects Medisolv RAPID, FCG CyberView

RS Required Software

SQL Server 2000 SP3 (which includes RS add-on) - Database

Windows 2000 SP4, XP, 2003 (Prof., Standard or Enterprise) – O.S.

Internet Information Server (5.0) - Web Report Server with O.S.

Visual Studio .NET 2003 – Report Development Environment (IDE)

Web Browser (Internet Explorer and others)

Typical MEDITECH DR with RS

Internet Information Server

Visual Studio .NET 2003

Data Repository

IIS & DR may or may not be on the same server

RS Licensing & Implementation

RS is included as a free add-on as long as you have a valid SQL Server 2000 License

Report Server (IIS) is licensed as part of the O.S. (RS Report Manager component runs on the Report Server)

Visual Studio .NET 2003 (Report Designer) must be licensed for each report developer

Only a single instance of RS can run on a Server (even if the server had multiple instances of SQL Server – the same as Analysis Services)

The same pricing model is expected for Yukon (SQL 2005)

How to get RS

RS was released from beta earlier this spring

A RS Implementation disc can be ordered from Microsoft as long as you have a valid SQL Server 2000 License (and pay $5.75 shipping)

Microsoft Subscription clients may download RS from web

A 180 Day trial version of RS may be downloaded from web for free (you must have the supporting software)

RS Process Components

Report Authoring - Visual Studio .NET 2003

Report Storage - SQL Server 2000 Databases

Report Management - IIS Report Server

Report Viewing – Browser, E-mail, File share

Visual Studio .NET 2003 Implementation Visual Studio is installed on client(s)

where RS authoring is going to occur Installation requires significant

prerequisites (e.g., Front Page Server Extensions, IIS, MDAC, .NET Framework)

Installation can take hours to completed Installation can require over 1 GB of disc The full VS.NET product is not required, a

single component will do (i.e., VBasic)

Visual Studio .NET IDE

IDE is significantly more complex than Access or Crystal

Programmers will be familiar with this environment, report developers may not be

RS Implementation – IIS Report Manager RS Report Manager is an ASP .NET

Application Virtual Directories are set up on IIS

Report Server is at http://<server>/ReportServer Report Manager is at http://<server>/Reports Actual reports can be accessed directly at:

http://<server>/<folder name>/<report name>

RS has role-based security for Management and Items (works with NT authentication)

Configure resources (time-out defaults, caching, size of MRL, etc.)

Starting RS Report Manager

By default, RS Manager can be accessed in Start Menu

RS Manager can be accessed directly from Address Bar of Browser

RS – Report Manager Settings

What a user can do to/with his her reports in Report Manager

Report time-out (This is NOT NPR RS!)

Security

Scheduling Reports

RS – Implementation Report Server (database components) RS databases are created when installing RS disc

(or download and installing) from Microsoft Web The database components of RS must run on an

instance of SQL Server 2000 (MSDE database is not sufficient)

This likely will also be the DR Server, but need not be (though another SQL license would be required)

Two SQL database are installed (‘Report Server’ and ‘ReportServerTempDB’)

An Additional demo database may also be included

SQL Server – Database Components

ReportServer – Static Configuration Data (meta data) Data sources Users, policies, roles Subscriptions Report snapshots

ReportServerTempDB Session data Cached reports

RS Databases on SQL Server

New RS Databases (Typically located on DR Server System

RS Metadata

RS Temporary Data

Adventure Works is demonstration database for RS (books on-line can be downloaded too)

RS Implementation Walk Through

RS Install – Setup Files

Check for prerequisites – Make sure you have your OS disc(s) available. Will likely have to download updates as well.

RS Install - Prerequisites

You will see this when all prerequisites are loaded

RS Install – Start Setup

Make sure to order the correct edition. I did not and it will not load (but doesn’t tell you so until install is complete!

RS Install - Registration

GOLF

RS Install - Features

By default, you get everything but Adventure Works demonstration database. I recommended installing everything

Don’t be fooled, you cannot design reports with RS alone

RS Install – Service Account

Account used to initiated NT Service. These are the default values

GOLF

RS Install – IIS Directory

I did not choose to install SSL. You should if this is planned for anything but development testing

RS Install – SQL Databases

GOLF

Likely this will be the DR Server

I selected default configuration

RS Install – Email Delivery Info

Acme_server.com

These values are stored in a file called “RSReportServer.config” that can be opened form the Report Designer (i.e., Visual Studio .NET)

This would be your Exchange Server

When USING Office As Mail-server Modify RSReportServer.config in <Configuration>

AS<RSEmailDPConfiguration>

<SMTPServer>smtp.rcn.com</SMTPServer><SMTPServerPort></SMTPServerPort><SMTPAccountName>RCN</SMTPAccountName><SMTPConnectionTimeout></SMTPConnectionTimeout>

<SMTPServerPickupDirectory></SMTPServerPickupDirectory><SMTPUseSSL></SMTPUseSSL><SendUsing></SendUsing><SMTPAuthenticate></SMTPAuthenticate><From>COMPUTER@acmeware.com</From><EmbeddedRenderFormats>

<RenderingExtension>MHTML</RenderingExtension></EmbeddedRenderFormats><PrivilegedUserRenderFormats></PrivilegedUserRenderFormats><ExcludedRenderFormats>

<RenderingExtension>HTMLOWC</RenderingExtension><RenderingExtension>NULL</RenderingExtension>

</ExcludedRenderFormats><SendEmailToUserAlias>True</SendEmailToUserAlias>

<DefaultHostName></DefaultHostName></RSEmailDPConfiguration>

RS Install - Licensing

This should be the same as your SQL DR Server Licensing if on the DR system

RS – Report Designer

Use Visual Studio .NET to create a Solution. A Solution can contain multiple Projects,

which loosely correspond to a Report Projects contain .RDL files (Report Definition

Language) and .RDS (Report Data Source) Solutions or Projects are Deployed to Web-

Server

RS Project Definition

Use either RS wizard or perform manually Define a new or use an existing Data

Source (.RDS) Design the Query (IDE looks like SQL View) Grouping and/or data summarization Look and style of output Add Parameters

RS Project Creation

From Solutions Explorer or from Startup (depending on configuration

Data Source Properties

Many are likely familiar with this sequence of dialog boxes

Data Source Access from Solutions Explorer

List will depend on MDAC

Credentials Entered at Run-time

Report Services will prompt for credentials at the time a report is executed. Reports requiring credentials at run time cannot be entered as subscriptions

RS Query Designer

This looks and acts a lot like creating / editing SQL Views

SQL Code gets stored in XML-based .RDL file. Note that more sophisticated T-SQL Code can be entered than can be parsed by this editor.

Note 3 main tabs in IDE

RS Grouping and Summarization Can group in T-SQL code or in Designer

(which allows drill-down access to detail) In Designer, you can use wizard to group,

layout manually, or a combination Grouping is established by selected field(s) a

new page / header can be forced with each group

Fields can be summarized (e.g., count, sum, average) by field(s) in a group

Groups can be “rolled up” by default and a mouse-click used to drill down to detail

RS Wizard - Grouping

This example groups and generates a new page for each visit (listing Account # and Name at the header

Within a page, data is grouped be procedure charge category

Detail charge Amount and Procedure Descriptions are displayed

RS Wizard – Subtotals and Drilldown

This subtotals by by the groupings

Within a group, detail can be rolled up or displayed using a mouse click on the (+) or (-) symbol

Grouping & Summarizing Output

Summarization

GroupingLayout is familiar to those who use Crystal

Group Drill Down Property

Drilldown default

Expression options

RS Report Format & Layout Again, can use wizard, layout manually, or a

combination Report can incorporate parameters for

customized output filtering Report can include data bound objects (e.g.,

data fields, lists, sub-reports, charts, maps, etc.)

Reports can include design objects (page headers/footers, lines, boxes, images, etc.)

Can define object properties as fonts, colors, boundaries, margins, field format, etc.

Virtually all format and layout properties can be determined dynamically using a function. The function may consider data values.

RS Wizard – Layout Stepped or Block

RS Wizard – Output Style

Style simple presets properties for fonts, sizes, spacing, margins, backgrounds, colors, lines, boxes, etc. Nothing magical, this can all be done by hand.

Again, similar to Access or Crystal Wizards

Adding Report Objects

Context Menus

Toolbox with layout objects available

Layout Tab

Formatting Report Objects

Field Properties

Advanced Formatting Options

Example to Bold output values when greater than $1000.

Expressions provide access to all report objects

RS Designer – Preview Pane

Bolded output

IDE is a sophisticated programmer development environment

Solution / Project Deployment

Deploy Solution

Deploy Project

Select Configuration

RS – Report Manager

ASP .NET Web-Based Application (IIS) Perform Report Management (e.g., security) Establish Subscriptions & Data Driven

Subscriptions Define Report Execution Features (e.g.,

scheduling) Define Report Delivery Strategy – (e.g.,

parameters, pull from web, push e-mail, push .PDF, etc.)

Report Management - Security

Security Settings

Scheduling Settings

Site Settings

Security – System Roles

System Roles determine what management activities a user can perform

Two default System Roles defined

New System Role defined

Security – Assigning System Roles

System Role(s) assigned to specific NT User or Group

“Golf” is no longer a System Administrator

Security – Item Level Roles

Items are reports, folders, data sources, etc.

This defines a new Item role.

Security – Item Level Roles Assignment

Select a report from a folder

Security – Item Level Roles Assignment (2)

Select security menu for item of interest

Security – Item Level Roles Assignment (3)

Select a new Role Assignment for this Item

Administrator defaults as “Content Manager” (Item role that can do anything) for all reports

Security – Item Level Roles Assignment (4)

This Assigns the NT User or Group to an Item Level Role for the Item (Charge Detail Report)

Report Subscriptions

An alternative to on-demand reports ‘pull’, subscriptions allow for ‘push’ reporting

A request to deliver a report at a specific time or in response to a specific event

A desire to have the report presented in an output format that is most useful to the end user

Subscriptions Require Credentials

Subscriptions require that credentials (i.e., user name & password) be included in data source definition. This is why Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is necessary for secure access to subscribed reports

Subscription E-mail Options

Subscription delivery properties are independent of Report Design properties

Subscription File Share Options

File Share subscriptions can be a wide array of formats.

Data Driven Subscriptions

Define the subscription (like a standard subscription)

Specify a connection and query that will return on record for each recipients

Define delivery option and parameters based on data in query result set

Schedule the report (or configure it to be updated on a snapshot refresh)

Scheduling Reports

Scheduled reports must be part of a subscription

Schedules can be for a specific report or a shared schedule (e.g., monthly reports) can be created

Scheduled reports can use parameters (like ‘today’)

Scheduling Types

RS Supports both Shared Schedules as well as Report specific schedules

Schedule Detail - Daily

Scheduler is extremely flexible making available virtually any combination and permutation of dates and times

The same report may have multiple Subscription, each with differing schedules.

Schedule Detail – Other Options

Other scheduling options

Scheduled Jobs – Are actually initiated by SQL Server Agent

I do not recommend editing from within SQL Server as it seems to introduce problems

RS – Schedules are actually set up in SQL Server Management / Jobs, and processed by the SQL Server Agent.

RS- Parameters

Report Parameters are constructed into a report in the Visual Studio .NET report designer

Report Parameters are entered when executing a Report

Report Subscriptions can have report parameters hard-coded or derived from data drive subscriptions

Parameters can be viewed, and some properties modified from within Report Manager

Parameters – In VS Designer

Note, parameter is tied to a query that generates a separate dataset from the primary result set of the report (next slide)

From VS Layout tab, bring up the context menu and select Report Parameters

Parameters – New dataset to query for default values

A second Dataset is added to this Project to collect a list of unique “lookup” entries for the parameter list

Insert Parameter into Report Filter for Main Dataset

The Project’s primary query is modified to use the parameter value (prefixed using an @ sign) in the criteria filtering section.

Parameter Preview in VS

After complete, re-deploy the report, project or, solution

Parameters – In Report Manager

Parameters appear in report header by default.

Example #1 Demographic List Identify all Inpatient Discharges that

occurred last month List the Patient’s Unit Number (once),

Account Number, Discharge Date, Primary Insurance

Sort By Discharge Date No Parameters –Scheduled to Run once Per

month on the first Monday and be pushed to an e-mail address.

Example #2 – Compute Average Inpatient LOS, Charges, and a Procedure Count, By Provider and DRG

Use a parameter to allow the specific DRG to be selected

Perform aggregation on the server for efficiency

List Providers sorted alphabetically Detail includes the Average Charges,

Average LOS, Count of Procedures (CPTs) Make this an ad-hoc query available to

anyone