The Authoring Phase
Once business
requirements are defined, the first stage in the reporting life cycle is the Authoring
phase. As report designers within Reporting Services, we create a Report
Definition with an authoring tool. The out-of the-box tool for Reporting
Services is the Report Designer in Visual Studio .NET 2003. Authoring
is accomplished on a client PC, from which (ideally, once it meets the business
requirements) it is published to one or more report servers. From these
servers the report can be accessed by organizational information consumers.
Report Designer affords us three main ways to
create a report. These general approaches consist of the following:
Manual - We create a blank report, to
which we add one or more queries and layout specifications.
Wizard
Assisted - We use
the Report Wizard, which automatically creates a table / matrix report
(see Table 1 below for a description of report layout options), based
upon information we provide in answer to prompts.
Import
- We can import
reports from MS Access and other sources.
While we
will examine each of these approaches to report creation over the life of the MSSQL
Server 2000 Reporting Services series, this article, as an introduction
to the Authoring phase, will undertake a practice example using the Manual
method to create a simple report, so as to focus more on Authoring generalities.
We will have many opportunities to explore the creation of reports to meet
specific business needs in future articles, where specific techniques and
strategies will be exposed.
The Report Definition
itself is a draft layout of a report, before the report is processed and delivered,
similar to the "blueprint" to which most of us have become accustomed
in our existing reporting applications. The Report Definition contains
several elements, including:
-
The physical,
intended report layout;
-
Data source connection
details;
-
Query information that defines the
source data that is extracted and presented in the report.
Reporting Services offers numerous layouts for reporting, as we shall
see throughout the series. Page-oriented (supporting what Microsoft refers to
as "traditional" reports, or "paper-based reports" in the
vernacular of the business population at large, who 1) maintains that the
avoidance of paper is highly desirable, while 2) continuing to kick off print
batch jobs at an ever-increasing rate) reports are supported; in addition, web-based,
"interactive" reporting is fully supported. Standard layout types
include the classifications detailed in Table 1.
|
Layout
Classification
|
Description
|
|
|
|
|
Tabular
|
A table-like report with a set number of columns
|
|
|
|
|
Matrix
|
A flexible report whose column number changes
dynamically to fit the result dataset of the underlying query.
|
|
|
|
|
List (free-form)
|
A report that allows the author to arrange data "free-form"
within its boundaries.
|
|
|
|
|
Chart
|
A report that presents a graphic (such as the classic
pie and bar charts) representation.
|
Table 1: Report
Layouts Available in Reporting Services
Like
many of the more advanced enterprise reporting applications that are common
today, layouts can be combined, with the Report Definition
becoming a set of layout sections to contain the constituent types.
The Authoring
phase within Reporting Services consists of the following steps:
-
Creation of
the Report Project / Report Files;
-
Establishment
of a Data Connection to the desired data source(s);
-
Creation of
the Query that entrains the data into the report;
-
Introduction
and arrangement of report controls into the report (to establish general
layout);
-
Introduction
of data to the report layout;
-
Setting properties
to customize the layout, add formatting and default
values, and specify grouping and other arrangements.
Let's
begin a practice example to transit the steps of Authoring a report in Reporting
Services.
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