Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

It used to be that we had to install a cut-down version of SQL Server. Instead, let's now install a version with the full functionality of the Enterprise edition - for personal use only, though.

Now let's go through the process of installing SQL Server. I'll also go through the various editions of SQL Server (e;g. 2008, 2012).

Now the back engine has been installed, it would be good to install SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio).

There are various forms of user interfaces for SSRS, including Visual Studio, SQL Server Data Tools, and BIDS. In this lecture, we will compare these with a more corporate edition using SharePoint called Report Builder. We'll look at the differences between them and the similarities.

We'll find out how we can open SSRS - whether it be called BIDS, SSDT or Visual Studio - and create a new project.

We'll locate a database called AdventureWorks, download it, and install into SQL Server. We'll then create a data source based on it, and find that sometimes SSRS cannot see our SQL Server database, and how to overcome it.

We'll go back into the data source that we just created, to see additional sources of data we can use, where we can add credentials, and we'll rename our data source.

Without writing any SQL, we'll use the Query Assistant to create a dataset that we'll focus in on the data we will use in our first report.

We'll create our very first report, using the Report Wizard. Note that we can't use shared datasets directly in the Report Wizard.

I had a problem when setting up a report on a different computer - let's see what the problem is and how to resolve it.

Let's see how much you remember. It's your turn to create a report.

How did you get on? Here's my answer to this Practice Activity.

We'll start from scratch recreating our report, but this time not using the Report Wizard. This gives us more flexibility.

We'll find out where the Properties pane is hiding, and I'll introduce how important it is to SSRS.

Let's create another report.

How did you get on? Here's my answer to this Practice Activity.

Unfortunately the Help system is fairly poor about number and date formatting. We'll learn some of the standard number formatting, using the spreadsheet which is in the Resources to this lecture.

Sometimes you just want more control of your formatting. We'll have a look at cystom number formatting.

Dates can also be formatted in a variety of ways. We'll have a look at standard and custom date formatting.

We'll override the sort from the dataset, and we'll also group similar records together and add a group header.

We'll hide the detail from our report, so we start off with the summary and show the detail whenever we want it, and we'll keep the table headers on subsequent pages.

Let's practice formatting, sorting and grouping.

How did you get on? Here's my answer to this Practice Activity.

We'll use a more complex query to create a report of the categories and subcategories.

We'll create a hyperlink from our new report to our old report, and find that it opens the entirety of the old report.

We'll add a parameter to our Product report to create a smaller version of it, and we'll use that in the Categorised report to open the relevant entries in the smaller Product report.

Let's see if you can create two reports, linked together by a parameter.

How did you get on? Here's my answer to this Practice Activity.

We'll introduce the Product report as a subreport in the Categorised report.

We'll create a page header with a Text Box, Image and rectangle, and a page footer with Page Number and Total Pages.

At the moment we have to manually enter a number as a parameters. Let's convert this to a drop-down text list for a better user experience.

It might not be enough to select a single value for a parameters. Let's allow multiple values to be selected, which means updating our SQL query.

Our drop-down list does not allow NULLs to be selected. Let's alter the drop-down list to add a NULL category. Note: This does require some knowledge of T-SQL.

Let's have a look at what you have learned.

Here's my answer to this Practice Activity.

We can alter the fore- and back-colors depending on the data, just like in Excel. Let's find out how.

We'll have a look at various ways to indicate that a number is in a certain range. We'll look at text formulas, indicators, and bars.

We'll look at one of the most graphical indications of a number, which also shows the overall context - the gauge.

If you summarise data, you will probably want to add totals. Let's find out how.

We'll allow the end user to change the sorting in a report, and create a document map so that we can click on various headings to get into that part of the report.

Let's develop our report from our first Practice Activity.

How did you do? Here's my answer.

We'll create a new dataset, and create a pie chart based on it.

We'll look at the various options which we can use to expand and customise our pie chart.

We'll create a new query, with dates and locations, and create a bar chart by location.

We'll create a calculated field which shows the year that the address was created, and convert the chart to a stacked bar chart to separate the bar by year.

We'll find out how to plot information onto a map - in this case, of the United States.