Chapter 12: Extending Outside the BoxCustomizing Reporting Services

Overview

Up to this point, we have been using Reporting Services just as it comes out of the box (or off the installation CD, if you want to get technical). All our management of Reporting Services features and all our report execution have been through the Report Manager. Reporting Services and the Report Manager do, after all, provide a feature-rich environment in their default configuration.

One of the best features of Reporting Services, however, is the capability to extend it beyond its basic operation. In this chapter, we do just that. You learn ways to execute reports without using the Report Manager interface. You look at ways to manage Reporting Services without using the Report Manager interface. Finally, you work through an example showing how to change the security mechanism used by Reporting Services.

All of this gives you a brief taste of what Reporting Services can do when you start extending outside the box.