Tap into Oracle Databases with SQL Server Reporting Services

The data-retrieval layer of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) supports a variety of data sources, including MS SQL Server, Oracle, ODCB, OLE DB, as well as several custom ones. The product has been optimized for MS SQL Server, so SSRS interacts seamlessly with that data source option. Connecting to other data sources, however, involves some additional subtleties.

This article examines SSRS interaction with Oracle databases. Under the hood, SSRS uses ADO.NET classes. Hence, to display data from the data source onto the report, you need to create a dataset that fetches the data from the data source. The data source contains the information required to connect to the database, including its name and credentials. A dataset, which contains the required query information and parameters, refers to such a data source to connect and retrieve information.

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