Introduction

SQL Server Reporting Services is a server-based, extensible and scalable platform that delivers and presents information based on data that a business collects during its operation. Information, in turn , helps business managers to evaluate the current state of the enterprise and make decisions on how to increase revenues , reduce costs, and increase customer and employee satisfaction.

The Reporting Services scope extends from traditional paper reports to interactive content and various forms of delivery: email, file shares, and so on. SSRS is capable of generating reports in various formats, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and Excel formats, thus allowing users to manipulate their data in whatever format is required.

Before diving into this book, let's take a moment to understand the layout as well as some of the conventions used in the book. First, we cover how this book is organized and what you can expect in each section. Second, we cover the style and formatting conventions used in this book. It is particularly noteworthy to note the style changes in reference to code lines, including SQL Server and .NET code.

How This Book Is Organized

This book begins with an introductory overview of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and covers a broad range of topics in the areas of report authoring, Reporting Services deployment and administration, and custom code development for Reporting Services.

The chapters in Part I, "Introduction to Reporting Services," provide a high-level overview of Reporting Services and highlight key features of the Reporting Services, deployment scenarios, typical users of Reporting Services, and Reporting Services architecture. This part allows for leisurely reading and does not require you to have access to a computer.

The chapters in Part II, "Report Authoring from Basic to Advanced," take you through report development tools and processes. This part describes report building blocks and walks through building a report from simple to complex.

The chapters in Part III, "Reporting Services Administration and Operations," discuss advanced topics of Reporting Services administration, such as setting proper security, managing Reporting Services as individual servers and in a web farm, and gathering report execution information.

The chapters in Part IV, "Developing for Reporting Services," are for those of you who might want to extend Reporting Services and incorporate reports in their applications. This part covers key programmable aspects of Reporting Services.

Conventions Used in This Book

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services is frequently abbreviated as SSRS.

Business Intelligence Development Studio is frequently abbreviated as BIDS.

New features available in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services as compared to SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services (SSRS2K) are labeled with ^{"NEW in 2005"} .

Names of products, tools, individual windows (docking or not), titles, and abbreviations are capitalized. For example, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server Reporting Services, Visual Studio 2005, Report Designer, Report Builder, Report Manager, Windows , and so on.

Monospace is used to highlight:

• Sections of code that are included in the flow of the text"Add a text box to a report and place the following code in the Background Color property: =Code.Highlight(value) ."

• Filenames"Visual Studio creates a project with a single class Class1 . Let's rename file Class1.cs in Solution Explorer to MainClass.cs ."

• Pathnames"The compiled assembly must be located in directories where it is accessible by Report Designer (the default directory is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies) and SSRS (default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin )."

• Error numbers , codes, and messages: " [rsInvalidReportParameterDependency] The report parameter 'SalesOrderId' has a DefaultValue or a ValidValue that depends on the report parameter "MaxOrderId". Forward dependencies are not valid ."

• Names of permissions, constants, properties, collections, and variables : Execute , Fields , ReportParameter , Parent .

To indicate adjustable information, we use

• "{}", mostly where the variable information can be confused with XML, for example <Value>{EXPRESSION}</Value> . In this example, an {EXPRESSION} is any valid expression, such as =Fields!ProductImage.Value .

• "<>", where the variable information cannot be confused with XML, for example =Fields!<Field Name >.Value .