Understanding Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

About

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform used to create and manage reports that contain data from relational and multidimensional data sources.

These reports:

• Can be tabular, matrix, graphical, or free-form.

• Can be viewed and managed over a web-based connection. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides a complete set of services, tools, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow you to use Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services without extensive programming knowledge.

• Can be authored, published, and managed using the applications and tools included in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. For each each phase of the report life cycle there is a tool or application that supports that phase. If you do have programming expertise, an API is available to extend or integrate report capabilities into custom solutions.

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services has a modular architecture. This means that the platform is based on a report server engine that consists of processors and services that obtain and process data. The diagram below illustrates tools included with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and Microsoft SQL Server, and it indicates how custom tools provided by third-party vendors fit into the overall framework. The diagram also shows the flow of requests and data among the server components, and which components send and retrieve content from a data store. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services uses Microsoft SQL Server and the .NET Framework web services environment to integrate data from different sources and deliver information in a variety of formats.

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is a web application that delivers a rich web service API to write custom reporting clients. In addition to access through Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides other Report Client Windows applications to open reports. Refer to Understanding Reporting Services Applications for more details.

Key Concepts

• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform used to create and manage reports that contain data.

• The reports that you create can be viewed and managed over a web-based connection.

• For each each phase of the report life cycle there is a tool or application that supports that phase.

• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is a web application that delivers a rich web service API to write custom reporting clients.

More Detailed Information

For detailed information on the use of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, refer to the following Microsoft website: http://microsoft.com/sql/reporting/and http://msdn.microsoft.com/library. Then, select Servers and Enterprise Development > SQL Server > Reporting Services.

Reporting Services reports and additional information on the following areas can be found at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159106(v=sql.110).aspx.

• Report Server

• Reporting Services Reports

• Report Data

• Report Parameters

• Report Parts in Report Designer

• Schedules

• Subscriptions and Delivery

• Data Alerts

• Power View

• Security and Protection

• URL Access

• Extensions

• Tools

• Errors and Events Reference

• Feature Reference