Report Processor

The Report Processor ties components of a report server together and takes care of caching within SSRS. Caching refers to an ability of the SSRS to keep a copy of a processed report and return that copy when a user opens the report. Caching can shorten the time required to retrieve a report, especially if the report is large or is accessed frequently. All report caches are stored in the SSRS catalog ( specifically ReportServerTempDB database) and survive both SQL Server and Report Server restarts.

Report Processor performs the following operations:

• Execution Retrieves a report definition and combines it with data retrieved by the data-processing extension. This operation generates an intermediate format.

• Rendering Renders the intermediate format to a requested output format using rendering extensions.

• Processing of models This is similar to Execution operation for reports that are generated by Report Builder and contain a semantic model (or simply a model, which serves as a data source for a report) and a semantic query. Semantic query refers to a query performed against a model that, in turn , just like a SQL query, generates a report's data set.

This is how Report Processor responds to users' requests :

• New interactive report request Intermediate format is generated and passed to the rendering extension; user receives rendered report.

• Request to generate cache or snapshot Intermediate format is generated and stored in the database.

• Request for cached report or snapshot Intermediate format is retrieved from cache (or snapshot) and passed to the rendering extension; user receives rendered report.