Teo Lachev MANNING Microsoft Reporting Services IN ACTION TEAM LinG Microsoft Reporting Services in Action Microsoft Reporting Services in Action TEO LACHEV MANNING Greenwich (74° w. long.) For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books, please go to www.manning.com. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity. For more information, please contact: Special Sales Department Manning Publications Co. 209 Bruce Park Avenue Fax: (203) 661-9018 Greenwich, CT 06830 email: orders@manning.com ©2005 by Manning Publications Co. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in the book, and Manning Publications was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps. Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, it is Manning’s policy to have the books we publish printed on acid-free paper, and we exert our best efforts to that end. Manning Publications Co. Copyeditor: Linda Recktenwald 209 Bruce Park Avenue Typesetter: Denis Dalinnik Greenwich, CT 06830 Cover designer: Leslie Haimes ISBN 1-932394-22-2 Printed in the United States of America 12345678910–VHG–0807060504 To my beautiful wife, Elena, and our lovely children, Maya and Martin, for your sacrifices in making this book a reality To my parents for supporting my decisions to take the road less traveled and for always being very proud of me vii brief contents 1 Introducing Microsoft Reporting Services 1 2 Report authoring basics 39 3 Working with data 63 4 Designing reports 102 5 Using expressions and functions 142 6 Using custom code 183 7 Managing the Reporting Services environment 215 8 Securing Reporting Services 260 9 On-demand report delivery 299 10 Reporting for Windows Forms applications 337 11 Reporting for web-based applications 377 12 Reporting for OLAP applications 416 13 Enterprise reporting 456 14 Subscribed report delivery 483 15 Extending Reporting Services 517 16 Performance and scalability 566 ix contents foreword xix preface xxi acknowledgments xxiii roadmap xxv source code xxviii author online xxxiii about the title and cover xxxiv 1 Introducing Microsoft Reporting Services 1 1.1 What is RS? 2 Why do we need RS? 2 ✦ How is RS implemented? 4 RS and the Microsoft BI platform 5 1.2 RS at a glance 6 Authoring features 7 ✦ Management features 8 Delivery features 9 ✦ Extensibility features 9 Scalability features 10 ✦ Security features 10 Deployment features 11 1.3 RS architecture 11 The Report Server 13 ✦ The Report Server database 14 The Report Manager 15 1.4 Understanding Report Processing 17 Execution stage 18 ✦ Rendering stage 18 1.5 Delivering reports 20 On-demand delivery 20 ✦ Subscribed delivery 21 1.6 What is the report lifecycle? 22 1.7 RS in action 23 About the Adventure Works Reporter 23 ✦ Your first report 24 1.8 Evaluating RS 33 [...]... Reporting for web-based applications 377 11.1 Understanding web reporting 378 Reporting for intranet applications 378 ✦ Reporting for Internet applications 379 ✦ Reporting for extranet applications 382 ✦ Introducing the Adventure Works Web Reporter 383 11.2 Client-side reporting techniques 384 Requesting reports from hyperlinks 384 ✦ Creating write-back reports 388 ✦ Using HTTP-POST 390 ✦ Calling the... Server-side reporting techniques 395 Using the ReportViewer control 396 ✦ Using the Adventure Works ReportViewer control 399 ✦ Reporting off application datasets 407 ✦ Business-to-consumer reporting 409 Business-to-business reporting 412 11.4 Summary 414 11.5 Resources 415 xiv CONTENTS 12 Reporting for OLAP applications 416 12.1 Understanding OLAP 417 OLTP vs OLAP 417 ✦ How Reporting Services and Analysis Services. .. Services in action 577 Determining requirements 577 ✦ Setting up the testing environment 580 ✦ Performance testing 584 Analyzing performance results 585 ✦ Identifying resource constraints 587 ✦ Eliminating resource constraints 589 xvi CONTENTS 16.3 Summary 592 16.4 Resources 593 appendix Installing Reporting Services 594 A.1 A.2 A.3 A.4 A.5 A.6 A.7 A.8 Choosing components to install 595 Selecting the... Reporting Services 517 15.1 Understanding Reporting Services extensibility 518 Understanding interface-based programming 518 ✦ Working with interface inheritance 519 15.2 Reporting off ADO.NET datasets with a custom dataset data extension 523 Design goals and tradeoffs 525 ✦ Authoring dataset-bound reports 526 ✦ Implementing the custom dataset extension 533 ✦ Debugging dataset extensions 537 15.3 Distributing... Understanding the OLAP storage model 419 ✦ Designing OLAP solutions 422 12.2 Implementing an OLAP solution: AW Data Miner 424 Implementing the data warehouse 426 ✦ Implementing the OLAP cube 427 ✦ Authoring OLAP-based reports with RS 440 ✦ Implementing AW Data Miner 443 12.3 Summary 453 12.4 Resources 454 13 Enterprise reporting 456 13.1 Understanding enterprise reporting 457 Evaluating enterprise reporting. .. Specifying RS virtual folders 597 Configuring the Report Server database 599 Configuring Reporting Services for e-mail delivery 600 Setting up the RS samples 601 Configuring RS licensing mode 601 Post-installation steps 603 Installing RS sample reports 603 ✦ Backing up the encryption key 604 A.9 Resources 604 index CONTENTS 605 xvii foreword Let me let you in on a little secret: creating software at Microsoft. .. embedded code 184 ✦ Using external assemblies 187 6.2 Custom code in action: implementing report forecasting 191 Forecasting with OpenForecast 192 ✦ Implementing report forecasting features 192 6.3 Using XML-based reports 204 Understanding XML exporting 205 ✦ Exposing the report content as an RSS feed 205 6.4 Summary 210 6.5 Resources 211 Part 2 Managing reports 213 7 Managing the Reporting Services environment... was involved in a project where I was able to confirm to myself that, indeed, RS was the reporting platform I had been dreaming about for years xxi To share my enthusiasm I decided to write a book about Reporting Services While I contemplated what the book’s scope would be, it dawned on me that I could bring the most value by following my heart and approaching Reporting Services from a developer’s point... (microsoft. public.sqlserver.reportingsvcs) Brian Welcker, Microsoft Group Product Manager for SQL Server Business Intelligence, has been phenomenal in helping me with my project on several fronts, including reviewing the book and providing valuable technical feedback, as well as writing the foreword Thanks go to several Microsoft engineers—Brian Hartman, Bryan Keller, Daniel Reib, and Tudor Trufinescu—for reviewing parts... Understanding the WMI provider 250 ✦ Implementing an RS management console 251 xii CONTENTS 7.4 Other ways to manage Reporting Services 253 Managing RS with the script host 253 ✦ Using other management utilities 254 7.5 Analyzing report execution 255 Analyzing the Report Server execution log 255 ✦ Analyzing trace log files 257 7.6 Summary 259 7.7 Resources 259 8 Securing Reporting Services 260 8.1 Exploring . Lachev MANNING Microsoft Reporting Services IN ACTION TEAM LinG Microsoft Reporting Services in Action Microsoft Reporting Services in Action TEO LACHEV MANNING Greenwich (74° w. long.) For online information. Advanced reporting 515 15 Extending Reporting Services 517 15.1 Understanding Reporting Services extensibility 518 Understanding interface-based programming 518 ✦ Working with interface inheritance. Resources 376 11 Reporting for web-based applications 377 11.1 Understanding web reporting 378 Reporting for intranet applications 378 ✦ Reporting for Internet applications 379 ✦ Reporting for extranet