Ohad's WebLog : Reporting Services

Using an ADO.NET DataSet as a Reporting Services Data Source

Ohad Israeli — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 21:40:00 GMT

Learn how to build a data processing extension for Reporting Services that enables you to use an ADO.NET DataSet as a data source through this MSDN Article by Christa Carpentiere.

Extending Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services with Custom Code

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 16:27:00 GMT

This article presents an excerpt from the book, Microsoft Reporting Services in Action, by Teodor Lachev. Learn how to implement advanced report functionality using custom code.

Several new interesting MSDN articles

Ohad Israeli — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 20:33:00 GMT

How to Write a Windows Driver

Deliver User-Friendly Reports from Your Application with SQL Server Reporting Services

Web Services Enhancements 2.0 Support for WS-Policy

What's New in WSE 2.0

Debugger Visualizations, Garbage Collection

Test Automation for ASP.NET Web Apps with SSL

C# to Visual Basic Translation Tool

Getting Started: Developing with Visio 2003

Events and Errors Message Center

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 07:18:00 GMT

There are so many times when you see some error in the event logs and don't know what exactly caused the error as the description isn't clear enough... well this is for you !

Microsoft's Events and Errors Message Center lets you enter Event Source and Event ID and get a detailed explanations, recommended user actions, and links to additional support and resources.

Currently the events and errors center supports the following applications:

Windows Server 2003
Windows XP Home/Professional
Windows 2000 Professional/Server
BizTalk Server 2004
Exchange 2000 Server
Exchange Server 2003
Host Integration Server 2004
Microsoft Office
SQL Server Notification Services
SQL Server Reporting Services

Reporting Services - needed security permissions

Ohad Israeli — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 07:45:00 GMT

When you install Reporting Services the installation will grant aspnet account several security permissions.
There are time when you want to run under different account say for security reasons, you will have to add the following permissions to the new account in order for Reporting Services to function.

Folder Permissions:

Folder	Permissions
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\LogFiles	Read, Write and Delete
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportManager	Read and Execute, List Folder Contents,Read
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer	Read and Execute, List Folder Contents, Read
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services RSTempFiles	Read, Write Modify
C:\Windows\Temp	Full

File Permissions

File	Permissions
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportManager\global.asax	Full
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer\global.asax	Full
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer\ReportService.asmx	Full
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting Services\ReportServer\RSReportServer.config	Read and Write

Reporting Services Security model

Ohad Israeli — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 22:35:00 GMT

For a brief summary of the Rosetta Security model check the following articles :

Reporting Services Security Model

Code Access Security in SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services

SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Service Pack 1 - Released

Ohad Israeli — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 21:49:00 GMT

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Reporting Services includes bug fixes, performance enhancements, and some functional enhancements was release today !

Bugs that are fixed by SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services service packs

Key Functional Enhancements :

Excel rendering extension has been improved and now supports viewing in Excel 97 and 2000.
PDF rendering extension is more robust and has better performance.
Chart control provides more control over display styles.
References to external URLs (images and resources) from within a report are now supported.
Data caching behavior for report preview is now supported.
Newline in expressions is now supported.
The style of the HTML Viewer toolbar can now be modified through a style sheet.
New URL parameters offer more options for customizing report presentation at run time
Report Manager proxy persists authentication cookies so that they can be used by custom security extensions.
Hidden parameters are now supported.
Temporary snapshots can be compressed as well as stored on the file system.
Integrated security support for accessing report data sources can be disabled.

Microsoft press release is here.

To download Reporting Services sp1 click here

Reporting Services - Hebrew Webcast

Ohad Israeli — Sun, 20 Jun 2004 21:02:00 GMT

For all the Hebrew speaking persons over there.... Yinon Nadav Bi Manager at Microsoft Israel gave an Introduction to reporting services webcast in Hebrew a week ago.

So if you are new to reporting services and wants to know some more ...
you can watch a recording of this webcast over here

BizTalk Server 2004: WSE 2.0 and SQL Reporting Services

Ohad Israeli — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 22:11:00 GMT

Soon there is going to be an interesting webcast...

MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004: WSE 2.0 and SQL Reporting Services - Level 200
July 6, 2004
1:00PM-2:30PM Pacific Time

In this webcast learn how to seamlessly plug the WS-Security and WS-Policy support into BizTalk® Server with the WSE 2.0 adapter. Both consume and publish secure Web Services using this technology. Also check out some of the other features of the WSE 2.0 adapter. The second part of the webcast demonstrates the new SQL reporting capabilities of BizTalk Server 2004 to analyze your artifacts and a community submitted nant-based build experience.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=31077

Check Boxes for Reporting Services Reports

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 18:29:00 GMT

Reporting Services offers a wonderful array of reporting features, but surprisingly leaves out one important feature you find in most other reporting tools: check boxes !

There’s a simple solution to this problem, checkout this article by Trent Miesner on Sql Junkies.

Ohad

Moving Reporting Services Virtual Directories

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 18:26:00 GMT

During install Reporting Services uses two Virtual Directories. Currently, these directories can be installed only in the "Default Web Site" site, there is no mechanism in the setup program to change the target Web site.

Trent Miesner wrote an article on sql junkies where he discuss How to move Reporting Services Virtual Directories to whichever Web site you’d like.

Ohad

SharePoint WebParts For Reporting Services

Ohad Israeli — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 13:26:00 GMT

Are you interested in collection of SharePoint WebParts that integrate with SQL Server Reporting Services ?

Bryant Likes had published in his blog an article regarding using Reporting Services in WebParts.
He posted a walkthrough that explains how to install and configure the RsWebParts.
Reporting Services WebParts - Walkthrough and had opened a Gotdotnet workspace for it .

Ohad

MSDN TV - Great Place for insights and to meet the people behind the products

Ohad Israeli — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 17:34:00 GMT

MSDN TV is a short weekly video featuring useful technology tips and insights from the behind-the-scenes folks at Microsoft. Tune in to stay in-the-know with MSDN TV.

MSDN TV archive is worth checking... as you can find there lots of nice 10-30 min intros to MS architecture and technologies.

For Example:

Enterprise Architecture: the Next Three Years
Profiling Managed Code with the CLR Profiler
Visual Studio 2005: Whitehorse
First Look at ADO.NET 2.0
Highlights of the WinFS Data Access API
Developing Applications Using SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services
Introduction to Visual Studio 2005 Team System

And the rest of MSDN TV Episode Archive

Check it out... and even register to thier rss feed

Ohad.

Reporting Services - Links

Ohad Israeli — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 18:00:00 GMT

As i've been using Reporting Services for some time now several pepole asked me where they can get demos and extentions to some of its features.
Here are some great samples i've found... i will try to gather a storage place and add some of my own too.

Reporting Services - Dynamic Sort Example
Simple example showing how to sort using parameters and by clicking on a column header

Reporting Services - Rounding out MS BI Platform
This white paper is an attempt to analyze the enterprise reporting landscape in general and SQL server reporting services in particular. It also covers the Business Intelligence (BI) platform since enterprise reporting is an integral part of BI. First four sections of the white paper deal with essentials of enterprise reporting in the decision making process of an organization as well as the current market trends in enterprise reporting. Subsequent sections provide a glimpse of the Microsoft’s SQL Server reporting services and case studies.

Build an XML Data Extension for SQL Server Reporting Services
Get to know the main features of SQL Server Reporting Services and learn how to extend it with an XML Data Provider Extension.

HTTP Image data extension for SQL Server Reporting Services
This HTTPImageDataExtension permits to load from a remote server through HTTP connection one image to render into a report built with SQL Server Reporting Services. You can load images with an URL like http://www.company.com/image.jpg or with parameters http://www.company.com/charts.aspx?

Custom Dataset Data Extension for Microsoft Reporting Services
Version 1.0 of Reporting Service doesn’t support natively binding and reporting off application .NET datasets. However, the RS extensible architecture allows developers to write a custom data extension, which could expose the dataset as a report data source. This custom dataset extension allows the application to pass the serialized to XML copy of the dataset to the Report Server. For example, a report consumer application could retrieve a dataset during runtime, e.g. from a data layer, and generate a report from it.

Multi-select listbox sample for SQL server Reporting Services parameters
example of passing multi-selection parameters to a report. It also contains a process for dynamically generating parameter controls at runtime based on metadata stored in a tables

Using ADO.NET DataSets from SQL 2000 Reporting Services
Another implementation of Dataset Extention

Rohancragg had added in his WebLog some more links to RS Extentions... so here they are:
File Share Extension
XML Data Extension
Clarification on the Placement of CodeGroup Elements for Extensions
How hard is it to write Reporting Services extensions?

Update: For starters : Introduction to Reporting Services Article by Atilla Ozgur on Code Project