Procedure:
Create Linked Reports
As we discussed in the
introduction, and in our previous article BlackBelt
Administration: Linked Reports in Report Manager, a Linked Report acts as a duplicate of a "common"
report file. This original, source report can have as many "children"
(the Linked Reports) as we need, all of which share the .rdl of the
common source report. The differences in the Linked Reports are varying
parameters or other properties we assign to them, to "custom fit"
them, for instance, to restrict the data they return to the specific audiences
for whom we are providing the Linked Reports. Moreover, as we also
emphasized before, the power of Linked Reports lies in the fact that
they rely upon a single source .rdl file. This means a central point of maintenance
that enables us to make enhancements or other modifications in a single file,
while updating all the "child" reports simultaneously.
The creation
of Linked Reports involves similar concepts and steps, whether we
undertake the operation from Report Manager (as we did in BlackBelt
Administration: Linked Reports in Report Manager), or from MSSQL Server
Management Studio (our point of approach within this article). The differences
in the mechanisms with which we accomplish our ends justify some hands-on exposure
to the latter, however, and so we will examine the steps involved in the
procedure that follows. Perhaps most important of all is to consider each
approach, together with its nuances, efficiencies, security requirements and
associated attributes, and to determine which fits best within out local
environments for routine operations, as well as to be aware of a secondary, or "backup"
approach to the method we initially chose as the best general procedure.
Create
New Folders in SQL Server Management Studio to House the Linked Reports
Having
deployed our sample report, we are ready to create Linked Reports within
MSSQL Server Management Studio. First, we will create folders to house
them; just as we created new folders at the Report Manager level in BlackBelt
Administration: Linked Reports in Report Manager, we can create them within Management
Studio. We will get some exposure to this process in the section that
follows.
First,
let's open SQL Server Management Studio.
1.
Click the Start
button.
2.
Select Microsoft
SQL Server 2005 within the Program group of the menu.
3.
Click SQL
Server Management Studio, as shown in Illustration 30.
Illustration 30: Opening
SQL Server Management Studio
The Connect to Server
dialog appears, after the brief Management Studio splash screen.
4.
Select Reporting
Services in the Server type selector.
5.
Type / select
the server name (server name / instance, if appropriate) in the Server name
selector.
6.
Supply
authentication information, as required in your own environment.
The Connect to Server
dialog appears, with local settings, similar to that depicted in Illustration
31.
Illustration 31: Opening
SQL Server Management Studio
7.
Click the Connect
button to connect with the specified Report Server.
The SQL Server
Management Studio opens.
8.
In the Object
Explorer pane (it appears by default on the left side of the Studio),
expand the Home folder (click the "+" sign to its immediate
left), appearing underneath the Report Server with which we are working.
The Home folder
opens, exposing the folders that appear on the Home page (the
folders we saw in our verification steps earlier), as shown in Illustration
32.
Illustration 32: Exposing
the Report Server Home Folders ...
Let's
create three folders in MSSQL Server Management Studio to house our Linked
Reports. This way, we can manage security by controlling access to the
folders, limiting each group of users, in our example, to its respective Sales
Territory Group's folder. (We could also assign different roles to the Linked
Reports, as well as taking other approaches, but we will keep things simple
for our immediate purposes).
9.
Right-click
the Home Folder within the Object Explorer.
10.
Select New
Folder from the context menu that appears, as depicted in Illustration 33.
Illustration 33:
Creating a New Report Manager Folder from the Management Studio ...
The New
folder in / page opens.
11.
Type the
following into the Name field:
Europe
12.
Type the
following into the Description field:
European Sales Territory Reports
The
relevant portion of the New folder in / page appears, with our
input, as shown in Illustration
34.
Illustration 34: The New
Folder In / Page (Partial View), with Our Input
13.
Click OK
to create the folder and to close the New folder in / page.
The
Europe folder appears within the Home folder, within the Object
Explorer.
14.
Right-click
the Home Folder within the Object Explorer, as we did before.
The New
folder in / page opens.
15.
Type the
following into the Name field:
North America
16.
Type the
following into the Description field:
North American Sales Territory Reports
17.
Click OK
to create the folder and to close the New folder in / page, once again.
18.
Right-click
the Home Folder within the Object Explorer, once more.
19.
Select New
Folder from the context menu that appears, as we did for the first two new
folders.
The New
folder in / page opens, once again.
20.
Type the
following into the Name field:
Pacific
21.
Type the
following into the Description field:
Pacific Sales Territory Reports
22.
Click OK
to create the folder and to close the New folder in / page, as we did
for our first two folder additions earlier.
The
Object Explorer appears, with our newly added folders, as depicted in Illustration 35.
Illustration 35: The New
Folders within the Object Explorer ...
Having
created folders to house the Linked Reports for each of the Sales Territory Groups, we are ready to create Linked
Reports within those folders. We will accomplish this within the next
section.
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