| 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. |
