SP2 is here

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The much anticipated and long-delayed RS Service Pack 2 is here! Download it from from the Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=502C0D89-1308-4662-8F58-CEC55EF1235B&displaylang=en. The list of changes and bug fixes can be found here. The SP 2 is cummulative and it includes the SP1 changes. Therefore, you don’t need to apply SP1 before installing SP2.


Join me to give credit to the RS team for their heroic effort. For little more than a year they managed to release two service packs (with numerious enhancements), merge the RS 2000 codebase into Yukon, implement the new Yukon feature set, and meanwhile address hundreds of questions on the RS newsgroup (which by the way is one of the most active discussion lists). I personally know of a few “enterprise” shops that couldn’t complete the design phase for this period of time. Well done for a team of about 30 people!

SQL Server 2005 March Community Technical Preview (CTP)

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Today, Microsoft released the third Community Technical Preview (CTP) for SQL Server 2005. The latest CTP includes a number of new features, such as enhanced integration with Visual Studio 2005, performance improvements in Management Studio, a SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005 upgrade tool, and 64-bit support for Reporting Services, Notification Services and the management, development and configuration tools.


In addition, this CTP includes Report Builder, a new component of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition and based on the technology acquired from ActiveViews. Because the new self-service, ad hoc report building client is built upon SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, the tool will make enterprise reporting easy, scalable, and reliable for end users. This CTP includes model files that can be used with Report Builder. These model files are available as separate downloads from the Beta Download Page.


The SQL Server 2005 CTP is now available to all MSDN and Betaplace subscribers.

Harden MS Reporting Services Using Custom Extensions (Part 2 of 2)

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The second part of my article for DevX.


In Part 1, you learned to create a custom security model for Microsoft Reporting Services. Now, tighten the screws by adding role membership authentication and stave off problems by troubleshooting and debugging your custom extensions ahead of time. 

Writing custom rendering extensions

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As you probably know, the custom rendering specification wasn’t documented with RS 2000. The features set was there, only the information was lacking. The SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 documentation now includes the rendering extension specification.


James Yip has written an excellent article about writing custom rendering extensions in the February issue of the MSDN magazine. As you can imagine, custom renderers are not trivial to write. For this reason, I highly recommend you check for availability of third-party rendering extensions that support the rendering format you need before you embark on this journey. For example, as I mention in one of previous posts, SoftArtisians provides flexible Excel and Word rendering extensions.


Happy rendering!

Article here, article there…RS, RS everywhere

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Some of my recent writings see daylight:



  • The publisher of my book donated Chapter 1 of my book (Introducing Microsoft Reporting Services) to The Code Project website. It is available for free access here http://www.codeproject.com/books/MSReportingServices.asp?msg=1015597#xx1015597xx

  • DevX published part 1 of my two-part article about RS Forms Authentication. It is available for free access here http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/26759.

  • MSDN has picked up my article first published by Pinnacle Publications  in the November issue of the Visual Basic Developer magazine. The article demonstrates how to leverage Reporting Services to generate reports on the server side of ASP.NET applications using a custom web control called AwReportViewer. You can read the article and download the sample code here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnhcvb04/html/vb04k8.asp).

Introducing Microsoft Reporting Services

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The publisher donated Chapter 1 of my book (Introducing Microsoft Reporting Services) to The Code Project website. It is available for free access here http://www.codeproject.com/books/MSReportingServices.asp?msg=1015597#xx1015597xx

Harden MS Reporting Services Using Custom Extensions (Part 1 of 2)

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DevX published part 1 of my two-part article about RS Forms Authentication. It is available for free access here http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/26759.

 

“One of the most useful features of Microsoft Reporting Services is its extensibility model. Just about any aspect of Reporting Services can be custom-tailored to meet your specific requirements. Part one of this two-part series explains how to replace the default Windows-based security model of Reporting Services with forms authentication security. First, you’ll learn the ropes of implementing forms authentication security and how you can leverage it for Web-based reporting. Then you’ll enhance the form’s authentication extension by adding role-membership features to simplify the security maintenance.”


Enjoy it!

Service Pack 2 brings client-side printing

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Printing reports was akward with RS 2000 to say the least. This was especially true when the reports were rendered in HTML since in this case the report is generated inside an IFRAME element. Since the frame could scroll right-clicking and engaging the standard browser printing was problematic. As a workaround, the report had to be exported in PDF format (or other non-HTML renderer) and printed as such.


You will be happy to know that SP2 puts this issue to rest by supporting client-side printing in the form of the new print control which allows printing of a report on the client side (inside the browser). This control makes printing a report a breeze. Once you install Service Pack 2 and request a report, you will see a new toolbar button added to the report toolbar (between the Refresh Report and Help buttons).


 


The print control is implemented as an ActiveX control. When you click on the Printer button, a request is made to download the print control if it is not installed already on the user machine. Once the download process is complete, the familiar Print Dialog is displayed.


 


As you can see, the print control supports also a preview mode.


 


Once the preview mode is initiated or the report is printed, the control instructs the Report Server to print the report using the EMF rendering extension. This is the same concept as the Bryan Keller’s article demonstrates.


The print control also supports a client-side object model (RSClientPrint object) to give developers access to the print control functionality should custom toolbars have to implemented.


Client-side printing has been one of most demanded RS features and the new print control solves this issue elegantly. For more information about SP2, please see my previous post.


Happy printing and reporting in the new 2005!

Where is my ecryption key gone?

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As I stressed out in one of my previous posts and my book, it is an absolute must that you back up the RS encryption key as one of the first steps after you install RS and lock it up in a safe place. You can back up the encryption key this by using the rskeymgmt utility as follows:


rskeymgmt -e -f <filename> -p <password>


Trust me on this–sooner or later you will need that key. One situation when you will definately need it is after resetting the ASP.NET account either by explicitly invoking aspnet_regiis.exe or when installing a new version of the .NET framework. For example, recently I installed .NET Framework Beta 2 which effectively reset the ASP.NET account. This caused RS to invalidate the encryption key. As a result, when navigating to the Report Manager, I got the dreaded error:


“The report server cannot decrypt the symmetric key used to access sensitive or encrypted data in a report server database. You must either restore a backup key or delete all encrypted content and then restart the service.”


Panic will not help resolve this issue, but a copy of the encryption key will definetely help. Here are the steps to reset the encryption key if the ASP.NET account is reset:



  1. Recall where you saved the RS key. If you haven’t saved it or you can’t recall, try to extract the key by issuing
    rskeymgmt -e -f <filename> -p <password>

  2. Open the RSReportServer.config file and copy the installation ID GUID from the InstallationID node. The InstallationID node looks like this:
    <InstallationID>{7d8664d4-3bae-496b-b607-fbb5d0879c7c}</InstallationID>

  3. Delete the references to the old RS encyption key:
    rskeymgmt -r <installation id>

  4. Restart IIS and the Report Server windows service.

  5. Reapply the encryption key:
    rskeymgmt -a -f <filename from step 1> -p <password>

This should fix the error and you should be able to navigate to the Report Manager without any issues.


If you don’t have a backup copy of the key and you cannot extract it with rskeymgmt -e, than the only option is to delete the ecrypted content by issuing rskeymgmt -d


The net effect of this is that you will need to reenter the credentials of all data sources that use standard security because the credentials are stored in encrypted format.

You better watch out…SP2 is coming to town

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While we still have to wait for a couple of more months to get the official release, Santa is giving us a Beta preview of the forthcoming RS 2000 SP2.

Key new features include:

  • Reporting Services SharePoint Web Parts enable you to explore and view reports located on a report server by using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server. A set of Reporting Services SharePoint Web Parts are installed with SP2. These Web Parts are called Report Explorer and Report Viewer. Using Report Explorer, you can browse available reports on a report server. Using Report Viewer, you view reports hosted on a report server. Included with Report Explorer is a subscription function that allows you to receive reports by e-mail. Both Web Parts are optimized to run within the SharePoint environment; however, they can be run as standalone components also.
  • Yes, the wait is over! SP2 comes with a brand new Microsoft ActiveX control  to support a rich client-side printing experience and allow users can print reports directly from Internet Explorer. To support this functionality, a downloadable ActiveX control is used. The control’s .cab file is hosted on the report server and is downloaded by the client on request. When you request a report, the HTML viewer returns the report along with a toolbar for navigation. The toolbar contains a print button that displays a print dialog box when clicked. Using the dialog box, you can make standard Windows printing selections including orientation, page size and page range. When the printer settings are selected, you can select Print to print the entire report or a range of pages within the report, or Preview to preview the report in a separate preview pane.

In addition, SP2 will include numerous bug fixes as outlined in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 889640 (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=889640).

For instructions how to subscribe to and get SP2 Beta, please read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889641.

Merry Christmas!