Summary

End- user reporting provides some fairly significant challenges. SQL Report Services answers this challenge with a combination of tools: the Model Designer and Report Builder.

The Model Designer is used by someone familiar with the data source to create a model that represents the database objects in terms of business objects.

The idea is to present the end user with collections of objects that they would recognize.

Report Builder is a Windows forms-based application that can be launched from the Report Manager website. It uses the report models as a data source, and, in combination with user input, it generates standard RDL documents as reports . Report Builder uses Microsoft Office paradigms so end users who use Microsoft Office should take to the product easily. The reports can then be saved onto the Report Server for later use.