Testing the Reports - and Resolving Data Source Issues
Having uploaded the seven reports listed above, let's perform a test of the first, Company Sales, to ascertain that it is working properly. This offers us an opportunity to experience a data connection problem, and then to resolve it. The same process will need to be accomplished for each of the uploaded reports experiencing the issue.
9. From the Home page Folder view, Contents tab, click the Company Sales report we uploaded first in the previous section.
We arrive at the Company Sales page, View tab, but are confronted with a Reporting Services Error message, as seen in Illustration 10.
NOTE: If no error was received, and if data appears, close the report and perform the connectivity test on the remaining reports, returning to the steps that follow if, and when, an error occurs.
10. Click the Properties tab of the page to see properties for the Company Sales report.
The Properties tab assumes the focus.
11. Click the Data Sources link at the left side of the page.
The Data Sources page appears, indicating the cause of the error, as shown in Illustration 11.
Illustration 11: Data Source Page, Indicating Problem
The next page that appears gives us an opportunity to remedy the missing data source issue. A box exists within which we can name an alternative source; we also see a tree from which we can select a data source with which to marry the report under consideration, as shown in Illustration 12.
Illustration 12: Options for Associating the Report with the Data Source
Let's correct the problem by naming the replacement data source. Regardless of the number of data sources you may see here (what you see on your local PC will vary if you have set up other data sources, before, etc.), we will select the AdventureWorks2000 data source we created earlier, located in the Home folder, as depicted in Illustration 13.
Illustration 13: Select the AdventureWorks2000 Data Source
13. Click AdventureWorks2000 in the tree, under the Home folder.
We see AdventureWorks2000 populate the Location box, as shown in Illustration 14.
Illustration 14: AdventureWorks2000 Populates the Location Box
14. Click OK to accept our specifications.
We arrive at the initial Data Source property page, where we see that the shared data source is designated.
15. Click Apply at the bottom of the page to apply the new data source designation.
16. Click the View tab at the top left of the Properties page.
NOTE: Be sure to always apply before navigating to the View tab - there is no "are you sure?" message if we skip this step.
The Company Sales report appears, as shown in Illustration 15.
Illustration 15: The Company Sales Report - Connection Established
We see that we have established a data connection to the report.
17. Perform steps 9 through 16 above for each newly uploaded report, as required to establish connectivity.
The Folder view of the Report Manager will appear similar to that shown in Illustration 16, once we have uploaded the reports we listed earlier.
Illustration 16: Report Manager - Folder View, Displaying Uploads
Keep in mind that uploading can happen in other ways: the most common method, outside the confines of the Report Manager, is via the Report Designer, which we visited from a fairly high level in our initial articles, and to which we will no doubt return in upcoming articles of the series.
18. Close the browser, after experimenting with the various reports, as desired.
Summary and Conclusion ...
In this article, we introduced Managing as a phase of the Reporting Services development life cycle. We discussed the focus of this and subsequent Managing articles, and then took a look at data connections within Reporting Services. We set up a shared data source item for the sample reports set. We then practiced the upload process with each of the sample reports, to gain familiarity with the steps involved.
Next, we associated the sample reports with the new shared data source item, with the tandem benefit of returning the reports to a working status, and of practicing a method of re-establishing connections to a data source, in cases where a previous connection has been deleted or altered. Finally, we practiced the verification of data connections through initial report viewing, ensuring that each brought back data as expected.
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