Practice
Our
first objective is to create a copy of the Sales Reason Comparisons sample report, into which we can implement
enhancements from the perspective of the SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.
The focus of our
efforts is the addition of navigation support via the Reporting Services
Document Map feature within a report (the mechanics behind enabling the
feature, not the design of the report itself). Because of time
limitations, we will be working with a simple, pre-existing sample report – in
reality, the business environment may require significantly more
sophistication. The process of setting up a Document Map is the same in real
world scenarios, with perhaps a more complex set of underlying considerations involved.
I often encounter the need to add more sophisticated navigation capabilities within
client environments, which might include customization of the Document Map
feature that comes with Reporting Services, combinations of the
rudimentary Document Map feature with other navigation support, or even
fully customized solutions based upon additional programming.
We
will perform our practice session from inside the MSSQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio. For more exposure to the Business
Intelligence Development Studio itself, and the myriad design, development
and other evolutions we can perform within this powerful interface, see other
articles in this series, as well as within my Database Journal series Introduction
to MSSQL Server Analysis Services. In this article, we will be commenting only on the
features relevant to our immediate practice exercise, to allow us to work
within the focus of the article more efficiently.
Preparation: Create a Clone Report within the Reporting Services Development Environment
For purposes of our
practice session, we will create a copy of the Sales Reason Comparisons report, one of several samples
that are available with (and installable separately from) the Microsoft SQL
Server 2005 integrated business intelligence solution. Creating a “clone”
of the report means we can make changes to our report while retaining the
original sample in a pristine state – perhaps for other purposes, such as using
it to accompany relevant sections of the Books Online, and other
documentation, in learning more about Reporting Services in general.
Making preparatory
modifications, and then making the enhancements to the report to add the
functionality that forms the subject of our lesson, can be done easily within
the Studio environment. Working with a copy of the report will allow us
the luxury of freely exploring our options, and leave us a working example of
the specific approach we took, to which we can refer in our individual business
environments.
Open the Sample Report Server Project
For purposes of our
practice session, we will open the AdventureWorks Sample Reports
project, which contains the sample reports that ship with the Reporting
Services component of the MSSQL Server 2005 integrated business
intelligence solution. We will complete our practice session within the sample
project so as to save the time required to set up a development environment
from scratch within the Business Intelligence Development Studio.
To open the AdventureWorks
Sample Reports project, please see the following procedure in the References
section of my articles index:
Ascertain Connectivity of the Shared Data Source
Let’s
ensure we have a working data source. Many of us will be running “side-by-side”
installations of MSSQL Server 2000 and MSSQL Server 2005. This
means that our installation of the latter will need to be referenced as a server
/ instance combination, versus a server name alone. (The default server
for the Adventure Works DW project sample’s connection is localhost,
which will not work correctly in such a side-by-side installation, as MSSQL
Server 2000 will have assumed the identity of the local PC by default.)
If you do not know how
to ascertain or modify connectivity of the Analysis Services data
source, please perform the steps of the following procedure in the References
section of my articles index:
Create a Copy of the Sales Reason Comparisons Report
We will begin with a copy
of the Reporting Services 2005 Sales Reason Comparisons OLAP report,
which we will use for our practice exercise in meeting the business
requirements of our Adventure Works colleagues. Creating a “clone” of the report
means we can make changes to select contents (perhaps as a part of later
exploration with our independent solution), while retaining the original sample
in a pristine state for other purposes. (Examples might include using the
original to accompany relevant sections of the Books Online, and other
documentation, as a part of learning more about Reporting Services, and
other components of the Microsoft integrated business intelligence solution in
general.)
If you do not know how
to create a copy of an existing report, please perform the steps of the
following procedure in the References section of my articles index:
Once we
have a clone OLAP report file within our Reporting Services 2005 Project,
we can proceed, in the next section, to make modifications for our subsequent
practice session.
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