Beginning SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Part 3: The Chart Control

This is Part 3 of a four-part article series on SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS). Part 1 provided a step-by-step guide to basic report creation and Part 2 took a tour of some of the core SSRS features and functions that you'll need to develop dynamic reports. Here, we turn our attention to the chart control that ships with SSRS.

Microsoft's chart control is, in fact, a scaled-down version of the Dundas Chart Control. Scaled down or not, as far as built-in controls go, I have to say that this one is pretty impressive and feature-rich. For many people, this feature alone constitutes a pretty good reason to adopt SSRS.

In this article we will set the chart control on a report and populate it. We will also cover the different charting display options and I'll demonstrate some rather cool formatting techniques.

Getting Started

Now that we have reached Part 3, I'm going to assume that you've installed all the software you need to follow through the examples, that you have created the ReportingDemo database in SQL Server and have also mastered the basics of creating basic reports, data sources and datasets. If any of these assumptions make you feel nervous, please work your way through Part 1 (at least) and then come back.

NOTE:

You can download the code file for this article from the Code Download link in the speech bubble to the right of the article title. The code file contains a sample Visual Studio project with all the reports from this article, along with a .bak file (or, alternatively, a SQL Script) for creating the ReportingDemo database.

Ed.Note:

The BAK file provided with part 1 of this series accidentally omitted the Purchase table. If you created theReportingDemo database from that BAK file (as I did) then you will need to run the provided ReportingDemo_Update script to create and populate the Purchase table.

Creating a basic chart

Start by creating a new report server project (called ChartProject, or similar) and add a shared data source that points to your ReportingDemo database. Add a new report called MyChart.rdl to the project. Set up a data set for the report using the following query, which fetches various bits of information pertaining to customer purchases:

SELECT
Purchase.PurchaseID,
Purchase.CustomerID,
Purchase.PurchaseDate,
Purchase.PurchaseType,
Purchase.PurchaseAmount, 
Customer.FirstName + ' ' + Customer.LastName AS CustomerName

FROM Purchase INNER JOIN
Customer
ON Purchase.CustomerID = Customer.CustomerID

On your new report, drag the open content area out so that we have room to work and then drag a chart control onto the content area. It should look like this:

From the Dataset fly-out window expand the dataset you created. Drag the PurchaseAmount field into the area above the chart labeled Drop data fields here. Drag the PurchaseDate field into the area below the chart labeled Drop category fields here.

We have now designed a report that will display the total value of customer purchases on a given date. Save the report and navigate to the Preview tab to run the report. It should look like this:

If your requirements are fairly basic, then charting can be this easy.

Chart types

Before we delve deeper into the chart control, it's worth noting that this control can produce a variety of the different chart types. Simply right-click on the chart (in the Layout tab) and use the Chart Type option to select a new chart type. For the time being, switch to a Smooth Line chart.

Add a series

The Data fields and the Category fields make up the horizontal and vertical settings on the chart. The chart control can also layer multiple sets of data onto the same chart. Each layer is called a series. In this case the purchase data we are looking at pertains to two different customers. Drag the CustomerName field into the area to the right of the grid called Drop series fields here. Switch to the Preview tab and view the report, which displays each customer's spending patterns over the various dates:

Setting report properties

Before we get started, change the chart type back to Simple Bar. Then, right-click on the chart again and select Properties. Here you can set all of the properties of the grid and you can also control nearly every aspect of how your data is displayed. Note that you can also manually set up Data, Categories and Seriesdata, which we did via drag and drop previously. We are going to look at each tab of the Properties dialog.

Please notice that as we look through the various options, you will see the 'fx' button nearly everywhere. This is used to set a property value with an expression rather than with a hard-coded value, as described in Part 2.

General tab

On this tab you can give your chart a Name. You can also set the chart type. When you click on Chart Area Style you can set the properties for the background of the chart. The Plot Area Style button allows you to modify basic properties for the chart itself. You can also add a Title to your chart. You can set the title properties such as Font and Color, using the button just to the right of the Title field. Another neat option is that you can apply a palette to the chart. Let's set the palette to Pastel. Click on Chart Area Style and select the Fill tab. Set the color to Thistle and the Gradient to TopBottom. The chart is easier on the eye already!

Data tab

The Data tab allows you to manually set up which data is displayed in the grid and how it is displayed. Just like on the chart, there are three areas for data: Values (called Data Fields in the drag and drop), Categories andSeries. You can add and remove items in the different areas. Click on the Edit buttons to set the specific property for each group you created.

Now we are going to take a closer look at the Values properties in the Data tab. Click the Edit button next to the Values field. The dialog will open to the Edit Chart Value tab. On this tab you can set the field from the dataset the values of which will be displayed on the chart, and you can also give the series a name. TheAppearance tab allows you to set point markers on your chart and control the style for the series. The Point Labels give you the ability to set a data field or other expression to label the points on your grid. The Action tab turns values into a hyperlink. You can jump to different places in the report or indeed to any valid URL. The URL can be hard-coded or set with an expression.

Let's open up the Point Labels tab so that we can display the values of the purchases being charted right on the bars in the chart. Set the Data Label to the expression =Fields!PurchaseAmount.Value and set the Format Code to C for currency. This will display the purchase amount directly on the grid bars in the $X.00 format. You can use the Label Style to manipulate the font and the color of the label.

X and Y axis tabs

These tabs allow you to set the values for the X and Y display. You can add a title which appears outside the chart area. You can also control the gridlines and the label formatting. Our X Axis is the purchase date. Let's get rid of the time in the purchase date by placing a 'd' into the Format code textbox. This tells the chart to format the date time value as mm/dd/yyyy. Let's check the Side Margins and Reversed checkboxes. This will add some margin space to the chart and place the values on the top. On the Y Axis tab check the Interlaced strips option to break up the chart's background.

Legend tab

This tab allows you to control the legend on the chart. The first option you have is whether or not to show the legend at all. The layout option allows you to display the legend in either a single column, single row, or in a table of columns and rows. The position you use for your legend will likely determine which layout is best. For example, if you move the legend to the bottom position, you might want to use the Row layout. Give it a go. The Legend Style button opens a dialog that allows you to control the style of the legend itself.

3D effect tab

This tab allows you to turn your flat chart into an exciting 3D experience.

I love this tab! I could play around with these settings for hours. For the most part the default settings for each chart type look great. The four values that control the 3-D aspects of the chart are Horizontal Rotation, Perspective, Wall Thickness and Vertical Rotation. While it is fun to work with these to see what you can do, I suggest that you start with the defaults and use the slider for each value to see if you make the values on the chart readable. They work particularly well when you are working with a multi-layered 3-D chart like the one in this example.

For this example set the following values:

Horizontal Rotation	65º
Perspective	0%
Wall Thickness	5%
Vertical Rotation	-5º

Set the Shading to Realistic. Check the Clustered option to display each series on a different plane. Check the Cylinder option to change the square bar on the chart into cylinders.

After you've had a chance to preview these settings, come back and play with the various settings. Believe me, you can make some incredible looking charts with the 3D settings.

Filter tab

This screen allows you to use the columns in your datasets, or expressions, to filter the data that is displayed on the grid. This could be applicable if you were displaying multiple charts on a single report. The important thing about the filter is that it allows you to show a subset of data from an existing dataset. For example, you could have multiple charts report off the same dataset, but each shows the purchases of a different purchase type.

Let’s display two charts in our report. One will report on Internet Sales and the other on In Store Sales. First copy the chart and paste the copy below the existing chart.

For the top chart, open the properties tab and on the General tab set the Title to 'Internet Sales'. Now go to theFilters tab and set the filter:

Expression	Operator	Value
=Fields!PurchaseType.Value	=	Internet

Click Ok and close the properties window.

For the bottom chart, open the properties tab and on the General tab set the Title to 'In Store Sales'. Now go to the Filters tab and set the filter:

Expression	Operator	Value
=Fields!PurchaseType.Value	=	In Store

The Report

Navigate to the Preview tab and let's take a look at the final reports. As you can see, we create a report with two 3-D Charts displaying subsets of data from a single dataset. While the data for this article was kept necessarily simple to allow us to focus on the chart control itself, imagine what you can accomplish in your own reporting system.

Wrap up

I hope this article has given you some insight into the chart control. Between the control's rich features and SSRS's ability to set nearly every property with an expression, you can now see that Microsoft has delivered an extremely powerful and user-friendly charting component in their reporting tool.

Beginning SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Part 2

We will investigate:

• Use of expressions that allow you to dynamically control nearly every aspect of reporting from control properties to data binding
• Common functions that allow run calculations and manipulate data within the report itself
• Custom code, used to build your own library of functions within the report.

We'll also set up a Matrix control and create a sub-report. Lastly, we will add some flair to the report by adding dynamic drills and sorting.

Getting started

In order to follow my examples, you will need to have SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, and Visual Studio 2005 correctly installed and configured. If you need some help with this, please refer back to the links in Part 1 of this series. Next, download the code file for this article (see the Code Download link in the speech bubble to the right of the article title). The code file contains a sample Visual Studio project and a SQL Script for creating the ReportDemo database. If you've not done so already, go ahead and create the database using theReportingDemoDatabaseScript.sql script or, alternatively, by restoring the provided ReportingDemo.bak file.

Now start a new Business Intelligence project in Visual Studio 2005 (or using BIDS, which installs with SQL Server 2005). Select Project | Add Existing Item function to add to the project the shared datasource (ReportDb.rds) and the sample report, FirstReportMan.rdl. Next, open up the shared datasource and set the server, database, login and password to point to your copy of the database. We will start with the FirstReportMan.rdl report, so double-click on it in the solution explorer to load it into the designer.

Expressions

An expression is a short statement, written in code, which sets the value of a property. An expression can set the value of a property based on just about any data available in the report: parameters, report global values, fields in a dataset, and built-in functions.

SSRS 2005 has made some drastic improvements in how expressions are created. It now supplies an intuitive expression editor. If you scroll through the Properties window, you will notice that most of the properties of controls on the report can be hard-coded or can be set through expressions. (That's the  option you see everywhere.) You will also see buttons labeled fx in the pop-up Properties dialog. These buttons will access the expression editor.

The expression feature makes SSRS 2005 into an incredibly versatile tool, because it allows most aspects of the report, from the data it shows to how it shows it, to behave dynamically. Rather than using a hard-coded value for a particular property, the SSRS resolves the expression to set the value for the property.

Looking at our report, let's say we want it to highlight all the customers from a particular State. We could use the expression:

=iif(Fields!State.Value = "CA", "Bold", "Normal")

If we apply this expression to the detail row in the table and run the report it will bold the text for each row where the value of the State field is California. That's great if the data from California is all that you are interested in. However, it would be ridiculous to have one report for each state, so let's make this expression even more dynamic by adding a report parameter that will determine which State is highlighted when the report is run.

First, let's add the new parameter to the report. Open the FirstReportMan.rdl report and navigate to the Layout tab. From the Report menu select Report Parameters. When the dialog window opens, click the Add button at the bottom of the screen. Call the new parameter 'HighlightState' and set the available values as follows:

California	CA
Florida	FL
Louisiana	LA
Illinois	IL
Texas	TX

Now click on OK.

Note:
You'll see that when setting up a list of pre-defined values for a parameter that there is a 'From Query' option. You can use this option by defining a dataset on the data tab of the report designer. For example, if we had a State table in the database we could define a dataset to retrieve the data for the parameter dropdown from that table. Once you choose the 'From Query' option, you select the dataset, the value field (this is the field from the dataset that contains the value passed to the report) and the label field (the field from the dataset that contains the value displayed to the user when they are prompted for parameters).

The next step is to set up the expression. Click on the table control on the report. When the table control is selected, an extra control tab appears at the top and left of the table. Click on the little 'row maker' icon, just to the left of the detail row. This allows you to set properties for the entire row. In the properties window select FontWeight and choose  from the drop-down list to open the expression editor. Typing =iif( should give you Intellisense. You can use the expression builder to create the following line of code:

=iif(Fields!State.Value = Parameters!HighlightState.Value, "Bold", "Normal")

The iif is a flow control statement commonly used in SSRS expressions. Its format is:

iif (boolean statement, true result, false result)

If the boolean statement is true, then the true result is returned, and if not, the false result is returned. In this case, the boolean statement is asking: 'Does the state code equal the state code that was passed to the report? If it does, return the word 'bold'. If it does not, return the word 'normal''. The value returned is then used to set the property for that instance of the row.

Now switch to the Preview tab and select a State to highlight. When the report runs, all the rows with customers from the selected State should be displayed in bold.

Common functions

Let's navigate back to the expression editor. In the bottom half of the screen there are three columns. The first column lists different categories for building expressions. The last option is Common Functions. Expand theCommon Functions node. Click on the Date & Time category. In the next column, double-click on one of the functions. You will see that it is added to the expression box at the top of the dialog box. Next, simply put the cursor in the expression box after the function. If you then type in the opening left bracket you should instantly see Intellisense for the function you selected.

Let's use the Year function in the report to display only the year in which someone was born, instead of their full birth date. Right-click on the field that displays the date of birth and select Properties. On the General tab, find theValue field and click the fx button to bring up the expression editor. Change expression to read.

=Year(Fields!DateOfBirth.Value)

There we have it. It's a good idea to preview the report now.

Also of note here are the aggregate functions. These functions assist you in working with all of the data in a dataset. For example, let's say your report is an order form with a list of items and their prices. You can use theSum function on the Price field to create a total price on the report. In a different example, if you had a report that listed all the purchase dates and the total amount of each purchase, you could use the AVG function to get the average purchase price for that customer.

Global variables

Let's go back again to the expression editor. This time, click on Globals in the first column of the expression editor. In the second column, you will see the list of the global variables that are provided to the report.

In this example, we are going to use the global variables to create a page-numbering scheme for our report. First, add a footer to the FirstReportMan.rdl report. You enable this by going to the Layout tab and selecting the Report Footer option from the Report main menu. Now that you have a footer, drag four text boxes into the footer section. Set their font properties to 8 pt, bold. Set the text for each text box as follows:

Page

=Globals!PageNumber

of

=Globals!TotalPages

Switch to the Preview tab and run the report. You will now have a footer on each page that looks something like 'Page 1 of 5'.

Some other globals worth noting are:

• ExecutionTime – this tells you how long it took to run the report
• ReportServerUrl – this allows you to verify that you are getting your report from the correct source
• UserID - this shows under which User ID the report was run

You can use these global variables to build some basic diagnostics into your reporting. You could also add these variables to the report footer and use a parameter to hide or show them. That way, even in production, your users can see a tidy, clean report, but you can see the same report with all the extra information on it.

Custom functions

There are about 100 common functions in SSRS 2005, and they can handle most of what you will need to do. Occasionally, however, you will still need to set an expression with more control than the common functions can manage. So, to make SSRS even more flexible, you can write custom VB.NET or C# functions and use them in expressions.

Now we are going to add a custom function to the FirstReportMan.rdl report.

Open the report and navigate to the Layout tab. From the Report menu select Report Properties and then jump to the Code tab. We are going to write a custom function that returns a different color, depending on the value that is passed to it. We will then use that function to set the background color for the status field in the report detail table.

Copy the following code into the code window:

Public Function GetColor(ByVal status as String) as String

IF status = "100" Then

Return "White"

End IF

IF status = "101" Then

Return "Yellow"

End IF

IF status = "102" Then

Return "Tomato"

End IF

End Function

Click OK and close the window.

Note:The full list of available colors is found in the Color dropdown list in the properties window.

Now that we have a function that returns color names we need to wire up that function to an expression. Click on the Customer Status cell and open the Properties window. Find the Background Color property and chooseExpression from the dropdown. Add the following line of code to create an expression:

=code.GetColor(Fields!CustomerStatus.Value)

When the report runs and this expression is resolved, SSRS will call your GetColor function and pass the value of the customer status for that instance of the row to the function. The function takes over and decides which color should be returned. SSRS then uses that value as the value for the background property for that cell.

Please note that custom functions must be called using =code..

Now navigate to the Preview tab and run the report..

Subreports

A subreport is a report that is embedded into another report. Subreports can take parameters and execute their own datasets. A key aspect to note is that a subreport in SSRS is actually just another report (unlike some reporting tools, where a subreport is a special construct). In fact, in SSRS you can execute a subreport on its own.

To add a subreport to a report, you simply drag a subreport control onto the report and tell it which report to display. If the subreport requires parameters, you have to tell the main report which value to pass to the subreport. It's actually very simple.

Let's add a new report to the project and call it MainReport.rdl. Create a new dataset using the shared datasource and the query:

SELECT CustomerID, FirstName, LastName FROM Customer

Switch to the Layout tab. Drag a table on the report detail area. Set up the first column to display the customer's first name (by dragging that column from the Datasets tab into the Detail row) and set up the second column to display the customer's last name. Label the third column 'Address'. Preview the report, just to be sure it works.

Create another report, and call this one MySubReport.rdl. This time, create a dataset that uses the shared data source, and use the following query text:

SELECT Address, City, State, ZipCode

FROM Customer

WHERE (CustomerID = @CustomerID)

In the Layout tab, use text boxes to create the address layout, as shown in figure 5. You can simply drag the text boxes onto the screen by clicking on the field in datasets tab and dragging it onto design surface. You will also note that when you do this, the expression used to set the value property for the textbox uses the First() function. This function will use the value from the first row returned by the dataset. All other rows returned are ignored.

Now preview the report and use '100' for the CustomerID parameter.

Let's jump back to the MainReport.rdl. To embed the subreport, drag a SubReport control into the detail cell for the column you labeled 'Address'. Right-click on the SubReport control and select Properties. In the Properties dialog choose MySubReport from the subreport dropdown.

Next, switch to the Parameters tab. This is where you connect your subreport to the main report. You do this by indicating which value from the main report is to be passed to the subreport to fulfill its parameter requirements.

In the Parameter Name column choose CustomerID and in the Parameter Value column choose=Fields!CustomerID.Value. This will wire up the subreport to whichever customer is being displayed in the row of the table.

Click OK to close the dialog, and then preview the main report.

The Matrix

It's this question that drives us, Neo. What is the Matrix? OK, I'll stop right here. You can insert your own slam to the second two movies. However, there is a really cool control in SSRS called the Matrix control. The Matrix is used to create pivot table style reports. We are going to set up a simple Matrix control to show us which customers, in which State, have which status.

First, start a new report called MatrixReport.rdl. Add our standard dataset where you use the shared data source, and then add the Select * from Customer query.

Navigate to the Layout tab and drag a new Matrix control onto the page. Where it says Rows, drag the State field from the dataset. Where it says Columns, drag the CustomerStatus field from the dataset. Drag first name and last name into the data area on the Matrix control. After a little formatting, it should resemble this:

When the report runs, it looks like this:

Adding drill downs

The drill down functionality in SSRS allows you to have areas of your report that can expand and collapse, much like a tree view.

First, start a new report called AdvancedTable.rdl. Add our standard dataset, where you use the shared data source and the Select * from Customer query.

Navigate to the Layout tab and drag a new table control onto the page. The first thing we need to do is to add a group to the table. Click the table to highlight it, then right-click on the little box with three horizontal lines in it that appear at the left side of the table at the beginning of detail row. Select Insert Group. When the Group Dialog appears use =Fields!State.Value as the expression, so that the report now groups on State. Now drag the State field into the first column on the Group row. Next, drag the First Name, Last Name and City fields into the detail row. Add some formatting, and preview the report.

We've now performed a grouping, but we still have to enable the drilldown. Click on the table to highlight it. Right-click on the nub that appears, just to the left of the detail row. Select Properties. When the Properties window opens, expand the visibility section. Set the Hidden property to True and set the ToggleItem property to State. TheHidden property determines the state of the row when the report is first run. If we set it to True then the data is collapsed and hidden. By setting the ToggleItem property to Statee, when the report is run a little + sign appears next to it when the report is run and it works like a tree view.

Switch to the Preview tab and run the report. Now only the States appear, but you can see the customer in each State by using the tree-style +/- controls.

Adding dynamic sorting

It is incredibly easy to add sorting to your table. Let's re-open the FirstReportMan.rdl report. Navigate to the Layouttab of the report designer. Click in the cell labeled First Name in the header of the table. Right-click and selectProperties. Switch to the Interactive Sort tab. Check the checkbox for 'Add an interactive sort action to this textbox'. Next, set the Sort expression to the value that is displayed in the column – in this case=Fields!FirstName.Value. Now repeat this process for the rest of the report.

Preview the report, and you should have interactive sorting on each column.

Wrap up

I hope this look into some of the more advanced features of SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 will help you make your reports more interactive and better adapted for your users. In Part 3, we will take an in-depth look at the chart control and its diverse set-up functionality.

Beginning SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Part 1

Building and deploying basic reports

If ever there was job for "real" developers to shuffle to their juniors, it is building reports. It's not real development anyway; it's more like glorified formatting. Besides, the esoteric tools that you use to build reports try to provide an abstraction layer, which often prevents you from having any real control over the report. I've heard all these arguments before. If this sounds like a conversation you've had by the water cooler, then I invite you to take a closer look at SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS).

SSRS 2005 is the latest version of SQL Reporting Services, and ships with all versions of SQL Server 2005. SSRS allows you to quickly and easily create reports from multiple database sources. The finished reports can be presented directly from the reporting services website, or they can be displayed in your web- or Windows-based applications. Reports can be exported to multiple formats, including comma delimited text, XML, portable document format (pdf) and Microsoft Excel.

This article is the first of four parts, which will provide in-depth coverage of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services:

• Part 1 covers the basics of the SSRS. It demonstrates how to build quick, simple reports and will familiarize you with the basic Report Designer environment
• Part 2 will cover use of custom functions, aggregate functions, sub-reporting, the matrix control, drill-downs, and sorting.
• Part 3 will take an in-depth look at the charting control
• Part 4 digs into the actual Report Definition Language (RDL) and the new Report Builder tool.

Installing and configuring Reporting Services

After much debate, we decided that full installation and configuration details were outside the scope of an article focused on how to build basic reports using SSRS, especially as there are already several online resources that treat this area in detail. See, for example:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143736.aspx

and

http://www.awprofessional.com/articles/article.asp?p=357694&seqNum=1&rl=1

Well worth reviewing are the details in the latter on the need to install SSL on any machine hosting SSRS.

---Editor's installation notes---In order to test the reports in this article, I went through a single-machine installation on Windows XP (meaning that SQL Server 2005, Reporting Services, and much more, are all installed on my poor laptop). Since I didn't install SSRS when I installed SQL Server 2005 (I didn't have IIS installed at the time), I had to first install IIS 5.1, and then Reporting Services (from the SS2005 disks). I then jumped immediately into Reporting Services Configuration Manager tool (All Programs ¬ SQL Server 2005 ¬ Configuration tools). The left panel acts as a sort of checklist of items to configure:

All went well until the Database Setup. Because I had not installed SSRS at the same time that I installed SQL Server, the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB were not created by default. These databases hold all the report definitions and reporting server configuration information. Connecting to SQL Server using Service Credentials, the databases appeared to be created, but I received an error suggesting that I didn't have permissions to perform the requested task, and a red cross remained next to the Database Setup icon. This had me stumped for a while – eventually I appeared to solve it by hopping to the Server Status section, stopping the Report Server, opening SSMS and deleting both the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB databases, and then restarting the Report Server and trying again! Even though I swear this didn't work the first time I tried it, it seemed to do the trick the second time (while I was on the phone moaning to Steve that I couldn't get it to work!). However, I'm still not clear why I had the problem in the first place – or why it suddenly went away.

This wasn't quite the end of my problems. Installing SSRS creates two new virtual directories under the default website on IIS. By default, they are named Reports and ReportServer. The ReportServer site hosts a web service for running and managing reports. The Reports site allows you upload reports from a browser and run reports over the web. When I tried to navigate to http://localhost/ReportServer I received the following error: "Failed to access IIS metabase". Fortunately, the information on the error page is quite useful (for a change) and this, coupled with a quick Google search, led me to grant access to the metabase to the ASPNET user account by executing the following from the directory housing the aspnet_regiis executable (WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727, in my case):

spnet_regiis -ga ASPNET

This did the trick, and I was up and running. I received some raised eyebrows here when I proposed to install SSRS. It made my long-suffering sys admin team particularly nervous. The 2000 version of SSRS seems to have a very bad reputation among the Red Gate team, both as a performance nightmare, and in one case for "completely annihilating" a developer's machine. However, the above slight quirks aside, the SSRS 2005 experience seems pretty smooth and I've had no real performance, or other, issues. So far.
-----End of Editor's note----

Once you've completed the installation and configuration process, the first thing to do is download the code file for this article (see the Code Download link in the speech bubble to the right of the article title). The code file contains a sample Visual Studio project and a SQL Script for creating the ReportDemo database. You will need this database if you want to follow the examples in this series of articles so go ahead and create the database using the ReportingDemoDatabaseScript.sql script or, alternatively, by restoring the provided ReportingDemo.bak file.

If you are using SQL Server Authentication on your SQL Server you will also need to set up a login with permissions to the ReportDemo database (for the examples, I set up a login called DemoUser as a DBO on my ReportDemo database).

Using the Report Wizard

There are two ways to create SSRS Reports. You can build the report manually, or you can use the Report Wizard to give yourself a head start. For this first report, we are going to take advantage of the wizard. Start a new Business Intelligence project in Visual Studio 2005. Then, from the menu, select Project > Add New Item. Select the Report Wizard option and call the file "FirstReportWZ.rdl". Click Add. Click Next on the Welcome screen and this will bring you to the Select the Data Source screen:

Select the New data source radio button and give the data source a name. Select Microsoft SQL Server as the type.

Note:Use of the Shared data source option is actually a better option in most cases but, for the sake of this example, we will just create a new data source. We're going to set up a shared data source later in this article.

Click the Edit button to bring up the Connection Properties dialog:

Enter or select a server name. The default is to log on using Windows Authentication. If you are using SQL Server Authentication, choose that setting, and enter the username and password. Finally, select a database, in this caseReportingDemo. Make sure you test the connection before you click OK.

Next up is the Design the Query screen. You can use the Query Builder by clicking the button at the top left, but in this case simply enter "Select * From Customer" into the Query string text box and click Next. On the Select the Report Type simply select the type you prefer (tabular or matrix) and hit Next.

This brings up the Design the Table screen:

Select State in the Available fields box and click the Group button. This will group the data in the result set by State. Select Next. On the Choose the Table Layout page, select the Stepped option and check the Enable Drilldowncheckbox. On the next screen, choose a style for your report (I chose Ocean) and click Next.

This brings up the final screen, Completing the Wizard:

It shows a summary of your report options, and gives you an opportunity to rename the report and to preview it. Click Finish to end the wizard.

You should be shown the report in the standard Report Designer:

There are three tabs: Data, Layout and Preview. You should be on the Layout tab. Click on the Preview tab to view the report. Since this report doesn't take any arguments, it will run as soon as you click on the tab.

Use the +/- symbols next to the State abbreviations to expand and collapse the grouping of the report.

Manual report creation

The previous section, while perhaps overly simplistic, does show you how to get a report up and running with zero code and zero property setting. Obviously, such reports will not meet most development requirements, but do not discount this option as a starting point for more complicated reports. Once you've created a report with the Report Wizard, you are free to make any modifications to it.

In this section, we are going to create a more realistic report from scratch, including how to create and use a shared data source object, stored procedures, and how to format your report, set report properties and use report parameters.

Creating a shared data source

Before we start the report, we are going to build a shared data source i.e. a data source that is common to, and can be used by, all of the reports on a reporting server. While each report can contain its own connection information, it is good practice to use shared data sources, as it will save you a lot time and headaches. This way, you only have to set the connection information once. For example, let's say your company has Development, Test and Production environments. If you put the connection information into each report, you will have to change it each time when you publish to Development, Test and Production. If you use a shared data source, you still have to set up a data source object for each of three environments, but you can simply publish the report to each environment, and they will automatically use the connection information associated with that environment.

From the menu select Project > Add New Item > Select Data Source. On the General tab, call the data source "ReportsDB". Leave the Type as Microsoft SQL Server. Click the Edit button on the right, and enter the connection information for Reporting Demo, as before. Click OK on the Shared Data Source screen and the data source is done.

Add a new report

From the menu select Project > Add New Item. Select Report and name it "FirstReportMan.rdl". A new report will be added to the project, and the Report Designer will open at the Data tab. At this point, let's take a closer look at the Report Designer tool. At the top of the Report Designer window are three tabs: Data, Layout and Preview. TheData tab is used to build data sources for your report. The Layout tab is the physical report designer where you set up the header, the footer and the data presentation of the report. The Preview tab allows you to actually run the report from Visual Studio 2005, without having to publish it to a report server first. If your report takes parameters, the Preview tab will ask you to fill them out before it runs the report.

The first thing we need to do is get data into our report. At the top of the Data tab choose  from the dropdown list:

The Dataset dialog opens:

Name the dataset "ReportData", and select the ReportsDB data source from the dropdown. SelectStoredProcedure as the command type, and enter "spr_CustomerSelectAll" in the query string box. Click OK to close the dialog.

Note:

spr_CustomerSelectAll is a very simple, parameter-less stored procedure that selects all of the columns from the Customer table. The source code is included in the ReportingDemoDatabaseScript.sql script with the code download.

Test the dataset by clicking on the big red exclamation point at the top of the report designer. This executes the query and displays the results. You can repeat these steps if you wish to add multiple datasets to your report.

Setting up the report display

Next, switch to the Layout tab. This is where you actually build the report display. Start by dragging a table from the Toolbox, onto the Body section of the report. By default, the table shows a header row at the top, a detail row in the middle and a footer row at the bottom. You can add additional columns to the table by right-clicking on one of the columns and selecting one of the two Insert Column options.

Click on the Datasets tab under Toolbox on the left-hand side of the Visual Studio environment. You should see theReportData dataset. Expand it, select FirstName and drag it to the first cell of the body row of the table. This will display the First Name field in the first column. Now put the LastName in the second column, and theCustomerStatus in the third:

Note that, when you drag the column FirstName into the body row of the table, SSRS make a guess as to what to call the row. It calls it "First Name". You can click on the Preview tab to view the report.

Adding formatting

OK, so we have a basic, very plain, report. Let's add some formatting to make it look good. Let's add theDateOfBirth column to the table. You can expand and shrink the size of the columns by highlighting and dragging:

If you wish to get rid of the footer row of the table and then click on any field in the table. You will see a grey box surround the table. Right-click on the icon at the beginning of the body row and then click the Table Footer option to deselect it.

The table header is next. To format all the cells in the header in the same way, click and drag over all the cells to select them. Open the Properties window and set background color, font, and so on.

Note, however, that if you wish to change the justification of the text or the size, then you do so using the main menu at the top, not via the properties window. Again, you can click on the Preview tab to view the report.

Add a report header

The table already has a header, but the report can also have a header and footer. Report headers and footers appear on every page of the report. Put the Report Designer in Layout mode and select Report > Page Headerfrom the menu. A new band labeled Page Header appears on the report above the body. Drag a text box onto the header and click directly on it. Type "My First Report", not in the Properties window, but right on the control.

To adjust the text style and size of your heading, highlight the text box and use the option from the top menu.

Formatting

Each field can have formatting. Let's deal with that ugly Date of Birth field. The time information is superfluous, so let's format the date properly. Right-click on the cell that contains the date of birth, and choose Properties. Next, select the Format tab.

Click on the second button (labeled "…") to the right of the Format code field. When the dialog opens, use the standard options. Select Date in the list on the left, then choose the sample date format you want on the right. ClickOK to close the dialog.

Click OK to close the Properties window and then click on the Preview tab to view the report.

Setting report properties

To access the report properties, you need to be on the Layout tab of the Report Designer. When you click on this tab, a new menu item, Report, activates. This menu gives you options for turning on and off the report header and footer sections (as we have seen), adding embedded images, setting report properties, and setting report parameters.

Setting up the report print settings is not intuitive, compared to other products. In the report Layout tab you see your report with a ruler across the top. That ruler is set up in inches. A standard sheet of paper is 8.5 x 11 inches. The default setting in SSRS is to have a 1-inch margin all the way around the content area. So, at 8.5 inches wide with a 1-inch margin on the left and another on the right, you have 6.5 inches for content. Any more, and the content beyond the 6.5 inches will spill over onto a second sheet of paper when printed. It will not automatically shift to Landscape.

To get Landscape reports, you have to make the proper report settings. Navigate to the Layout tab of the Report Designer. From the Report menu select Report Properties. Switch to the Layout tab of the dialog box. To switch to Landscape printing, you need to change Page width to 11in and the Page height to 8.5in.

On the same Layout tab, you can also get up your report to display the data in multiple columns, and you can control the margins. By default, all the margins are set at 1 inch. Remember, if your report width, plus the right and left margins, is greater than the width of the printer, you will get spill-over when you print out your report.

Using parameters

There are two ways to add parameters to your reports. The first is to use parameters in the queries in your data sources. The second is to set up parameters through the Report Parameters dialog box. We will do both.

Query parameters

First, we will set up parameters using a data source query. Navigate to the Data tab, and click the "…" button right next the Dataset dropdown box. The Dataset dialog box opens and allows you to edit the query for the dataset. Change the Query string from "spr_CustomerSelectAll" to "spr_CustomerSelectByState".

Note:spr_CustomerSelectByState accepts a parameter called StateCD that allows us to filter the data from the Customer table by State. Again, the source code is included in the ReportingDemoDatabaseScript.sql script with the code download.

Click OK and then run the query by clicking the red exclamation point (!) on the Data tab toolbar. You will be prompted to enter a parameter value for StateCD (the State code). Enter "CA" and click OK. The query should return all the customers that live in California.

Switch to the Preview tab. Instead of the report just running, there should be a place for you to enter a value for the "StateCD" and run the report. Enter "CA" and click the View Report button. You should see your report filtered by state.

To edit the parameters, or to add new ones, switch to the Layout tab of the Report Designer and open the Report Parameters dialog from the Report menu. First, we are going to make the "State code" prompt a little more friendly. Select StateCD in the Parameters list box then, in the Parameters Properties box, change the prompt to read "State". In the Available values section enter "California" and "CA" on the first line. Enter "Louisiana" and "LA" on the second line.

This will make the prompt for "State value" into a dropdown. You can also build additional datasets into your report, and use the values in those datasets as criteria for dropdowns.

Report parameters

Now let's add a parameter that is not used in a query. Click the Add button in the Report Parameters dialog from the Report menu. Give the new parameter the name "ReportTitle". Its Data type should be String. Set the Prompt to "Report Title". Click OK and close the dialog box.

Drag a new text box onto the report header area. Right-click on it and choose the Expression option. In the Edit Expression dialog select Parameters. Double-click on the ReportTitle parameter. This text box will now display the value you pass to the Report Title parameter.

Switch to the Preview tab and try it out.

Publishing your reports

Up to now, you have been running your reports in the Visual Studio 2005 environment but, to make them useful, you must publish them to a report server. The easiest way to do this is to have Visual Studio publish your reports.

Start by right-clicking on Project in the Project Explorer and choose Properties.

Set TargetServerURL to the URL of your report server. Use the TargetReportFolder property to set up a folder for your reports. If the folder does not exist, the Publisher will create it for you. The other key thing to pay attention to here is the OverwriteDataSources property. When this property is set to "True", it will automatically copy over all your data source objects when you publish. When set to "False", it will copy any new data source objects, but it will not overwrite existing ones. This is important when dealing with development, test and production servers. You can publish a set of data source objects to each server, pointed at the correct database, and never have to worry about what database your reports are hitting in each environment.

From the Build menu select Deploy Solution. This will publish the project to the selected folder on your report server. You can also deploy individual reports by right-clicking on the file in the Solution explorer and selectingDeploy.

Once your report has been published, you can access and run it on your server through the browser athttp:///. From the Home page, you should be able to find the folder you published to, with the reports in it. Select a report to run. At the top of the page you can enter any values for report parameters, and then run the report. From here, you can also print or export the report.