Reporting Services includes two tools for creating reports:
- Report Designer can create reports of any complexity that Reporting Services supports, but requires you to understand the structure of your data and to be able to navigate the Visual Studio user interface.
- Report Builder provides a simpler user interface for creating ad hoc reports, directed primarily at business users rather than developers. Report Builder requires a developer or administrator to set up a data model before end users can create reports.
We'll start our tour of Reporting Services with Report Designer. Report Designer runs inside the Business Intelligence Development Studio shell, and offers several ways to create reports. You can either use the Report Wizard to quickly create a report, or you can use a set of design tools to build a report from scratch. You can also use the design tools to modify a report created with the wizard.
Using the Report Wizard
The easiest way to create a report in Report Designer is to use the Report Wizard. Like all wizards, the Report Wizard walks you through the process in step-by-step fashion. You can make the following choices in the wizard:
- The data source to use
- The query to use to retrieve data
- Whether to use a tabular or matrix layout for the report
- How to group the retrieved data
- What visual style to use
- Where to deploy the finished report
Try It!
To create a simple report using the Report Wizard, follow these steps:
1. Launch Business Intelligence Development Studio.
2. Select File > New >Project.
3. Select the Business Intelligence Projects project type.
4. Select the Report Server Project Wizard template.
5. Name the new report ProductReport1 and pick a convenient location to save it in.
6. Click OK.
7. Read the first page of the Report Wizard and click Next.
8. Name the new data source AdventureWorksDS.
9. Click the Edit button.
10. Log on to your test server.
11. Select the AdventureWorks2008 database.
12. Click OK.
13. Click the Credentials button.
14. Select Use Windows Authentication.
15. Click OK.
16. Check the Make This a Shared Data Source checkbox. This will make this particular data source available to other Reporting Services applications in the future.
17. Click Next.
18. Click the Query Builder button.
19. If the full query designer interface does not display by default, click the query designer toolbar button at the far left end of the toolbar.
20. Click the Add Table toolbar button.
21. Select the Product table and click Add.
22. Click Close.
23. Check the Name, ProductNumber, Color, and ListPrice columns.
24. Click OK.
25. Click Next.
26. Select the Tabular layout and click Next.
27. Move the Color column to the Group area, and the other three columns to the Detail area.
28. Click Next.
29. Select the Stepped layout and click Next.
30. Select the Ocean style and click Next.
31. Accept the default deployment location and click Next.
32. Name the report ProductReport1.
33. Check the Preview Report checkbox.
34. Click Finish.
Modifying a Report
Now that you've created a report with the Report Wizard, you can modify it with the Report Designer. If you've used any sort of visual report design tool in the past, you should have no problem making changes here. Among the possibilities here:
- You can change the available data or the sort order for the report by modifying the query on the Data tab.
- You can resize or rearrange controls on the Layout tab.
- You can use the Properties window to change properties of individual controls including their font, alignment, colors, and so on.
Try It!
To modify the report that you just created, follow these steps:
1. Click the Design tab to make the report editable.
2. In the Report Data window, right-click on DataSet1 and select Dataset Properties.
3. In the Dataset Properties window, click the Query Designer button.
4. Select a Descending sort type for the ListPrice column and click OK.
5. Click OK.
6. Click in the textbox at the top of the report, where the report name is displayed.
7. Click a second time in the textbox to put it in edit mode and change the value of this control to Products By Color.
8. Click on the header for the Product column.
9. Place the cursor between the column selectors above the Name and Product Number columns to display a double-headed arrow. Hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor to the right to widen the Name column.
10. Place the cursor between the column selectors above the Product Number and ListPrice columns to display a double-headed arrow. Hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor to the right to widen the Product Number column.
11. Click on the Preview tab to view the modified report.
Designing a Report from Scratch
You can also use Report Designer to build your own reports starting from scratch. In general, you'll follow these steps to create a report:
1. Create a Report project in Business Intelligence Design Studio or open an existing Report project.
2. Add a report to the project.
3. Create one or more datasets for the report.
4. Build the report layout.
Try It!
To create a fresh report in Report Designer, follow these steps:
1. Select File > New > Project.
2. Select the Business Intelligence Projects project type.
3. Select the Report Server Project template.
4. Name the new report ProductReport2 and pick a convenient location to save it in.
5. Right-click on the Reports node in Solution Explorer and select Add > New Item.
6. Select the Report template.
7. Name the new report ProductReport2.rdl and click Add.
8. In the Report Data window, select New > Data Source.
9. Name the new Data Source AdventureWorksDS.
10. Select the Embedded Connection option and click on the Edit button.
11. Connect to your test server and choose the AdventureWorks2008 database.
12. Click OK.
13. Click OK again to create the data source.
14. In the Report Data window, select New > Dataset.
15. Name the dataset dsLocation.
16. Click the Query Designer button.
17. If the full Query Designer does not appear, click on the Edit As Text button.
18. Click the Add Table button.
19. Select the Location table.
20. Click Add.
21. Click Close.
22. Check the boxes for the Name and CostRate columns.
23. Sort the dataset in ascending order by Name and click OK.
24. Click OK again to create the dataset.
25. Open the toolbox window (View > Toolbox).
26. Double-click the Table control.
27. Switch back to the Report Data window.
28. Expand the dataset to show the column names.
29. Drag the Name field and drop it in the first column of the table control on the design tab.
30. Drag the CostRate field from the Report Data window and drop it in the second column of the table control.
31. Place the cursor between the column selectors above the Name and CostRate columns to display a double-headed arrow. Hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor to the right to widen the Name column.
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