Data Everywhere - Step 3 in the Stairway to Reporting Services

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Data Everywhere - Step 3 in the Stairway to Reporting Services

  • This is helpfull. Thank you!

  • Nice article Jessica, will you be discussing in a future installment how to combine data from multiple datasets using lookup(), multi-value parameters, and the like?

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    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
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    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • Thank you! I've been waiting patiently for this next installment of this excellent series... being a complete newbie this is just what I've been looking for. Here's hoping the next article isn't quite as long in coming! 😉

  • Hey Jessica, I've just been tasked to make all our reports work on iphones. Any hints on how I can accomplish this?

    The users will need to access an interface to pick their parameters and then consume the report (web, excel, pdf, etc).

  • Hi Jessica,

    2008R2 exposes a lot of datasources. I have a couple of questions though.

    1. Do I need to install the software drivers e.g teradata on the Reporting server?

    2. Is it considered "best practice" not to have sql code in the report. I.e. all reports should have a stored proc.

    Cheers.

  • Hello Jessica,

    One of the biggest frustrations we've faced is not being able to mash-up two report datasets from different data sources together elegantly. In your scenario at the start of article 3, your user says "You need descriptions from this source, metrics from that source, and filters from another source". I hope in the next article your fictional character will find an elegant way to do this?

  • What a great set of questions! Thanks to everyone who enjoyed my article. I'll try to answer your questions here.

    jcrawf02, The intent of this article series is to be an introduction to Reporting Services. I consider those to be more advanced topics, so wasn't planning on including them. I'll see if I can fit multivalue parameters into a later article though! In the meantime, here is a good reference on using the Lookup function: http://prologika.com/CS/blogs/blog/archive/2009/08/12/reporting-services-lookup-functions.aspx

    sbramblet, The result of working during the day and writing during the evening 🙂 I will do my best to get the rest of the series out as soon as I can!

    Ninja's_RGR'us, I'm actually not familiar with iPhone development, but SSRS reports can be exposed through any web browser. You may want to check out the mobile chapter in this book for help: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Professional-SQL-Server-2005-Reporting-Services/Paul-Turley/e/9780764584978

    Joe Fuller, Sure thing.

    1) Yes, you'll want the .NET Teradata provider, which you can find here: http://www.teradata.com/DownloadCenter/Forum146-1.aspx

    2) The "SQL or sproc" debate has been debated almost religiously over time, but my view is that it makes sense from an SSRS perspective to use stored procedures 🙂

    kpatrick, The best way to merge data from different datasets into one report item is to use the Lookup function (introduced in 2008R2). Be aware that it doesn't scale very well, so you'll need to use it with caution. I won't be covering it in later articles, but hopefully this will help you!

    And I'm off to work on the next article - thanks all!

    Jessica

  • Nice article. Very well written....

  • Thanks Jessica.

    KPatrick, aside from the lookup function, if you only need to filter based on one column in your 3rd dataset, you can have that dataset return the appropriate column only, then set a Multi-Valued Parameter based on that dataset.

    Then use that parameter in the WHERE clause of your dataset (e.g. WHERE IN(@myparam)). Since the Multi-Valued Parameter comes out formatted as a comma-separated list, it effectively filters your final dataset based on the values in the first dataset.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • Hi

    Very Useful article series...Thank You

    Eagerly waiting for your 'Charting the Unknown' article & 'Designing a Dashboard'.

    Please publish it soon....Thanks a lot once again..

  • We are in the midst of upgrading from SSRS 2005 to SSRS 2008 R2, so I took note when you mentioned shared datasets. It seems like this is just a built in method of using stored procedures, though. We took the approach that everything had to be done via stored procedure so that everything was always available. Is there any advantage to the shared datasets, now that they are available?

  • Hi bphipps,

    Shared datasets are searchable and versionable through SSRS. In addition, shared datasets can be used to access information from sources other than SQL Server.

    For more information on shared datasets, I would recommend looking here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee636147.aspx

    Best,

    Jessica

  • Jessica, I've been using Reporting Services for years but I'm still on 2008 (not R2).

    I have heard that when you use a shared dataset, the query for the dataset cannot be changed after it has been used in a report. Do you know if this is true? This seems to defeat the purpose of having a shared dataset!

    Thanks for a great article!

  • Shared datasets are easy and useful. I had scenario where I needed a report to have a variable connection string so that it could connect to more than one database. The only way to get it to work is having no credentials embedded in the report, and using the SSRS un-atteneded account. That can only be done using an embedded data set.

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