AD HOC REPORTING in VB.NET

Make Data Matrix 2d barcode in VB.NET AD HOC REPORTING

a data source and instructing the Report Manager to build a model from that data source. This technique creates a model based on the data source without offering you any opportunity to tweak and configure that model. In other words, if you use the Report Manager to build a report model, you are stuck with all of the defaults that are created during this process. You can, however, open this model in the BIDS environment and make any changes to it as if you d created it in the BIDS environment. SQL Server Management Studio The SQL Server Management Studio is an integrated environment used both by developers and database administrators for accessing, configuring, managing, administering, and developing all things SQL Server. If you ve worked with SQL Server in the past, you re already familiar with the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. The Management Studio replaces the previous versions of the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. In fact, you can use the new Management Studio to manage older versions of SQL Server as well. To say that the Management Studio is simply the next version of the Enterprise Manager does not do it justice. The new Management Studio allows developers and administrators to manage relational databases (like our AdventureWorks database), SSIS, SSAS, SQL Mobile databases, and Reporting Services. Similar to the Report Manager, you use the Management Studio to build report models in two steps: 1) select a data source and 2) instruct the tool to create a report model. This builds a very basic model with all configurations set to defaults. To modify these defaults, you need to open the model in the BIDS environment. This tool provides you with an easy way to build and deploy simple report models in a short amount of time. Building simple models using the Report Manager or the SQL Server Management Studio is pretty straightforward. For more information on this topic, see the SQL Server Books Online documentation. To build models that are more complex (and, therefore, more useful to the end user), you can use the BIDS environment. In fact, let s take a look at how to build report models next.

Report models are the heart and soul of ad hoc reporting with RS. In section 7.1.1 you learned about the tools available for building report models. You saw how to build basic report models using the Report Manager and SQL Server Management Studio. You also learned that if you want full control of the creation and maintenance of your report models, you need to use BIDS. In this section, you learn how to take full control of your report models and all the steps involved by using the BIDS environment. Of the six steps that we outlined earlier, the first three belong to the developer, and what better tool to use than BIDS The first step is simple: choose a database that you want to model. This step also involves understanding how your end users want to use this database, what information they need from it, and planning the

model. Since in this chapter we re living in a hypothetical world, we work for AWC and have to model our favorite database, AdventureWorks! Well, step 1 is complete and now comes the fun part: steps 2 and 3. We spend the rest of this section executing these steps. Put your developer hat on and let s get to work. 7.2.1 Building a report model project To get started building a report model, we need to first create a report model project. This is a new Visual Studio BI project type available with SQL Server 2005 and BIDS, the main tools used to build and edit report models. Once created, the report model project environment breaks the report model into three layers: Data Sources Data Source Views Report Models Throughout the rest of this section we explore these three layers in detail so that you will fully understand how to best configure report models against your unique data sources. To understand the report model project, let s walk through an example. To begin, start a new project in the VS .NET BIDS environment by selecting the Report Model Project template, as shown in figure 7.3.

Figure 7.3 Report Model Project is a new template found under the Business Intelligence Projects in Visual Studio.