Creating a Data-Driven Subscription
Assuming that
preparation has been accomplished, we can easily create and modify Data-Driven
Subscriptions through the Data-Driven
Subscription pages provided within
Report Manager, where we are walked through the steps required.
Similarly to the Standard Subscription, with which we worked in our last
article, access to any Data-Driven Subscription that we create can be
obtained either through the My Subscriptions page, or the Subscriptions
list of the report concerned, as we shall see once we create our new
subscription.
In this section, we
will discover how the data store we have created, together with the query
needed to return source data from that store, is used by the Data-Driven
Subscription process. It will become evident why these components need to
be in place as we progress. We will begin in the steps that follow, first
selecting the report that we need to satisfy the business requirements of our
audience.
Having
selected the report for which we will establish a Data-Driven Subscription,
let's begin creating the subscription with the next steps.
Define
the Data-Driven Subscription
1.
Click the Subscriptions
tab atop the FoodMart
Sales report view.
The Subscriptions
page appears, showing any existing subscriptions in place, in a manner similar to that shown in Illustration
32 (which depicts the Standard Subscription on my server that we
created in our last article).
Illustration 32: The
Subscriptions Primary Page (Compact View)
2.
Click New
Data-driven Subscription (the link circled in Illustration 32 above).
NOTE: This button is not enabled if stored
credentials are not defined / addressed for the report.
We arrive
at the first of seven Create a data-driven subscription pages, from
which we will be led, in a wizard-like fashion, to input the settings and
select the options that define our Data-Driven Subscription.
3.
In the Description
box, enter the following:
FoodMartSalesReport_Data-Driven_Subscription
4.
Select Report
Server File Share as the delivery method.
This
specifies the delivery extension for distribution of the subscribed
report. (We will revisit delivery extensions in subsequent articles).
5.
Under Specify
a data source that contains recipient information, click the radio button
to the immediate left of Specify for this subscription only.
The data source
connection is used to retrieve subscriber data, for which we have created a
basic database, RS_Subscription, for purposes of our present exercise.
As we discussed as part of the preparatory setup, the subscriber data consists
of subscriber names, designated file share "addresses," subscriber identification
numbers, subscriber preferences for export formats (such as PDF, MS Excel or HTML),
and specific parameter settings for each subscriber's version of the report.
While we can choose a shared
data source here (which can be established in Reporting Services for our subscription
database, just as we can establish a shared data source for any data
store upon which we base a report), we will make the source specific to this
subscription only at present.
The Step 1 - Create a data-driven
subscription: Foodmart Sales page appears as shown in Illustration 33, with our
settings.
Illustration 33: The
Step 1 - Create a Data-driven Subscription: Foodmart Sales Pagep>
We arrive
at Step 2 - Create a data-driven subscription: Foodmart Sales.
7.
In the Connection
Type selector box, choose Microsoft SQL Server.
8.
Type (or cut
and paste) the following into the Connection String box:
Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=RS_Subscription
NOTE: Make any
modifications to the string to customize it to your own data source. The above
reflects my settings, which access the source we created earlier, as it appears
on my local PC.
9.
Input the
appropriate user credentials, clicking Use as Windows credentials when
connecting to the data source, if appropriate.
The Step 2 - Create a data-driven
subscription: Foodmart Sales page appears as shown in Illustration 34, with our
settings.
Illustration 34:
The Step 2 - Create a Data-driven Subscription: Foodmart Sales Page
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