Reporting Services User Education

What's New in Reporting Services July CTP

2007-08-11T04:51:00Z

If you are looking for information about what features the July Community Technical Preview (CTP) includes, our Books OnLine content has just been published on MSDN. Here are some links for Reporting Services:

Readme: http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=7457

What's New (Reporting Services): http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms170438(SQL.100).aspx

Reporting Services Backward Compatibility: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143251(SQL.100).aspx

The What's New topic leads you directly to the updated content, including a walkthrough using Report Designer Preview. Be sure to check the most current Readme for updates.

How to Activate the Report Server Feature in SharePoint Central Administration

2007-04-06T02:22:00Z

Report server integration settings are configured in SharePoint Central Administration after you install the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Technologies. Before you can configure integration, the report server integration feature must be activated. If you start Central Administration and the Reporting Services section is not visible in Application Management, the Reporting Services Add-in is probably not activated.

Note: By default, the feature is activated for the root site collection of the local SharePoint Web application. If the root site is not enabled or if you do not have a site collection defined when the Reporting Services Add-in is installed, the feature is not activated.

Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
Click Site Actions.
Click Site Settings.
Click Site Collection Features.
Find Report Server Integration Feature in the list.
Click Activate.

Resolving subreport errors and using nested objects (ReportViewer control in local mode)

2007-02-15T01:51:00Z

Special thanks to Ramzi Abu Abed from Microsoft (ramziabu@microsoft.com) for the tips in this article! There are 2 parts to this post.

Part 1: Error: Subreport cannot be found

If you are trying to use subreports with a ReportViewer control in local mode, and you get “Error: Subreport cannot be found”, verify that the name of the new ReportDataSource that you add at SubReportProcessing matches the name that is generated by the ReportDesigner for the SubReport. In the following example, the value “MyCompany_CustomerService” must be copied verbatim into the Report Data Sources field of the Report Data Sources dialog box. For example, given the following code:

void LocalReport_SubreportProcessing(object sender, Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.SubreportProcessingEventArgs e)

{

// Use author ID from event args to get project

ServiceRequest currentRequest = this.request[count];

e.DataSources.Add(new ReportDataSource("MyCompany_CustomerService", currentRequest.RequestType));

// e.DataSources.Add(new ReportDataSource("", currentRequest.RequestType));

count++;

}

The Report Data Sources dialog box (which appears on the Report menu when you are designing a report in Visual Studio) must have the following value:

Part 2: Using Nested Objects

If you are creating a subreport that uses nested objects, remember that you cannot drag and drop nested objects onto the report. You must manually enter an expression to access the values of second level properties. When you enter an expression, the Expression Editor will not display a drop-down value. In fact, it will flag a valid value as an error:

In the above example, Certificate.Value.Id is a valid value. Because it is a second level property, it does not show up in the dropdown list. Per Ramzi: It’s intuitive to get to the fields for the Current object but to get the fields of the object within the object…there are no dropdowns that show up after “.Value” as you can see from the first figure….So it’s not intuitive for someone to know that they can use the field. For more information about using nested objects and to view an example, see http://www.gotreportviewer.com/objectdatasources/index.html

Upgrading SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services custom extensions and assemblies to SQL Server 2005

2007-02-14T22:32:00Z

SQL Server Reporting Services provides an extensible architecture that allows developers to create custom extensions for data processing, delivery, rendering, and authentication. It also supports using custom code for report item values, styles, and formatting.

If you deployed custom extensions or assemblies in your SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services installation, Setup will block an automatic upgrade your installation and display the following error: "Custom assemblies are deployed for this report server." If you get this error, you can continue to upgrade other SQL Server 2005 components if you selected multiple components to upgrade. Otherwise, you must close Setup and take corrective action before you can proceed.

Prepare a custom installation for upgrade

To upgrade a custom Reporting Services installation, temporarily remove the configuration settings for the custom assemblies in the rsreportserver.config file. Removing the custom settings will make your installation look like a default installation, allowing you to bypass the upgrade check for custom assemblies. After upgrade is finished, you can add the entries back into the configuration file and move the custom assemblies to the new \ReportServer\Bin directory under the new SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services instance directory (MSSQL.x) that is created when you upgrade.

Backward compatibility and recompilation requirements

In most cases, assemblies you created for a SQL Server 2000 report server will continue to work against the same endpoint in the SQL Server 2005 release. However, for some custom assemblies, you must add an additional recompilation step to the upgrade process. In particular, if you are using a custom assembly that has a dependency on a file or path from a SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services installation, or if you are using a custom security extension, you must recompile the assembly before it can be used in the upgraded installation. Recompiling a custom security extension is necessary because your custom extension must include references for report models and model item security.

If you need to recompile, you must use Visual Studio 2005 or download a Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition component. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services program files are managed assemblies built on .NET Framework 2.0. Referencing the SQL Server 2005 version of Microsoft.ReportingServices.Interfaces.dll in your project requires that you compile the project using a Visual Studio 2005 development environment that builds .NET Framework 2.0 applications.

TIP – Upgrade will delete old samples and replace them with newer versions if you select the newer SQL Server 2005 samples in SQL Server 2005 Setup. If you are actively using sample extensions or applications, copy the source files to a different location before upgrading.

Modify configuration files prior to upgrade

1. Backup the rsreportserver.config file.

2. Remove custom extension settings from rsreportserver.config. You do not need to remove entries from other configuration files or security policy files. Those files will be updated and moved during the upgrade; any custom settings will be preserved.

3. Run Setup to upgrade your report server installation.

4. Copy the custom assemblies to the new directory structure. Put the files in the \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\Reporting Services\ReportServer\Bin folder.

5. Edit rsreportserver.config and add the custom extension settings back into the file.

Upgrade a custom installation and recompile custom application files

Custom security extension must always be recompiled. Other extensions and assemblies only need to be recompiled if they have a dependency on a file or file structure of the old installation. The following error, which occurs after upgrade, will tell you whether you need to recompile a data processing extension: "An error has occurred during report process. An attempt has been made to use a data processing extension <name> that is not registered for this report server.”

1. Remove custom extension settings from the rsreportserver.config file.

2. Run Setup to upgrade your report server installation.

3. Recompile your custom security extension or custom assembly that depends on a file in the report server directory structure:

o Start Visual Studio 2005.

o Open the solution. You will be prompted to convert the files.

o In Solution Explorer, right-click References, click Add Reference.

o Click Browse.

o Browse to Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\Reporting Services\ReportServer\Bin folder, and select Microsoft.ReportingServices.Interfaces.dll.

o Build the project or solution.

4. Copy the custom assembly to the \ReportServer\Bin folder.

5. Add the custom extension settings to the rsreportserver.config file.

6. Check the rsreportdesigner.config, rswebapplication.config, and the security policy configuration files to verify that the custom settings are still valid. Specifically, if the custom settings include a path to a Reporting Services folder, edit the value to use the new folder path.

7. Test your application or report.

Welcome

2007-02-14T01:16:00Z

Welcome to the Reporting Services User Education blog. I’ll assume you know what Reporting Services is but you may be wondering what User Education is and how it relates to Reporting Services. Well the quick and simple answer is we are responsible for creating all the documentation that ships with the product, specifically all Reporting Services documentation in SQL Server Books Online. To be fair, that statement is an over simplification of what we do; we see our role as educating users about Reporting Services and we don’t want to limit that to just documentation. There are many channels for interacting with the community and we feel that a blog is just one way for us to work with you to build a stronger set of tools to educate users. The following is some of the information we hope to post in the near future:

- Announcements for documentation releases

- Ideas for future content

- Code snippets or samples

- Anything else you would like to see

So without taking any more of your time, we hope that you find the posts here useful and educational and please feel free to let us know what you would like to see here. Thanks!

Reporting Services User Education Team