Chapter 3. Key
Concepts
Report Services ships with the following tools
and
components
that support configuration, management, design,
development, processing, rendering, and delivery of
reports
:
-
Reporting Services Configuration
Manager
-
Reporting Services Configuration Manager is a
tool used to deploy a local Reporting Services installation and
configure remote Reporting Services instances.
-
Report Manager
-
Report Manager is a web-based report access and
management tool used to administer a single report server instance.
Report Manager lets you view, search, and subscribe to reports;
manage the report server folder hierarchy; configure site
properties, security, and report execution properties; create
shared data sources; create report models; and launch Report
Builder.
-
Report Designer
-
Report Designer is a report creation tool hosted
in Visual Studio. Report Designer supports designing and defining
tabular, matrix, chart, and freeform reports. Report Designer
provides tabbed
windows
for Data (query builder and expression
editor), Layout, and Preview that allow you to design a report
interactively and iteratively. Report Designer is accessed through
Business Intelligence Development Studio.
-
Report Model Designer
-
Report Model Designer is a report model creation
toola report model is the basis of an ad hoc report. Report Model
Designer is used to define, edit, and publish report models used by
Report Builder. Report Model Designer is accessed through Business
Intelligence Development Studio.
-
Report Builder
-
Report Builder is an end-
user
authoring tool
used to create tabular, matrix, and chart reports through a simple
drag-and-drop interface. Report Builder lets you select queries and
fields;
group
,
sort
, filter, and explore data; define expressions,
calculations, and aggregates; define layout and format; and
preview, print, publish, and export reports.
-
Report Server
-
Report Server is the primary component of
Reporting Services providing its report processing, rendering, and
delivery.
A report is the result of the integration of
four separate definitions defined in order of dependency on each
other (i.e., order in which they are created). The definitions are
stored in files with the file extensions listed in parentheses
after the definitions that follow.
-
Data Source (.ds)
-
A data source contains information about how to
connect to a data sourcefor example, a database, flat file or XML
file. This includes authentication information, a data source
name
,
and a connection string. A data source can be used by a single
report and contained within that report or shared among multiple
reports and stored independently on a report server. A report can
access one or more report-specific and shared data sources. A
report model can reference only one data source and one data source
view.
You create a data source using Report Designer,
Report Model Designer, or Report Manager.
-
Data Source View (.dsv)
-
A data source view is a description of the data
to which the data source refers including (in the case of a
relational database) the tables, fields, and relationships.
You create a data source view using Report
Designer, Report Model Designer, or Report Manager.
-
Report Model (.smdl)
-
A report model is a metadata description of data
providing a business abstraction of the underlying data and
relationships that exist within the data. A report model references
one data source (.ds) file and one data source view (.dsv)
file.
A report model lets Report Builder users easily
explore and select data they are interested in from the underlying
data sourceReport Server then uses the report model to generate a
query to retrieve the data.
You create a report model using either Report
Model Designer or Report Manager.
-
Report Definition
(.rdl)
-
A report definition completely describes the
data source connections, queries, expressions, parameters, images
and other design-time elements, properties, and layout used in a
report. A report definition is rendered to a
processed
report.
You create a report definition using either
Report Designer or Report Builder.
The
next
four sections of this book will examine
the tools and components.
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