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Beware Hidden Calculated Members
January 18, 2010 / No Comments »
Here is another one of those "by design" issues (see the Not All Calculated Members Are Born Equal blog for another recent gotcha) that are not documented but can sure waste you precious time figuring out. The issue was first submitted on connect.microsoft.com by Greg Galloway almost a year ago where it was left in an investigation phase (what can we do to get the SSAS team actually review the connect cases and post findings?). Then, I submitted a similar issue and official support case since I was 100% sure it was a bug and I needed a closure. Alas, Microsoft came back to declare it "by design": "…per feedback from several AS 2005 Beta customers, for compatibility with pre-existing AS 2000 behavior, AS 2005 RTM (and later releases) was changed to not include hidden calculated members in cell calculations and scopes (except when a hidden calculated member is explicitly...
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Report Builder 3.0 Edit Sessions
January 18, 2010 / No Comments »
When Report Builder 2.0 shipped , it introduced local and server preview modes. If the report uses local references only, such an embedded data source(s), Report Builder 2.0 executes the query and renders the report locally just like the BIDS Report Designer. However, when the report uses a server reference, such as shared data source(s) or subreports that were saved on the server, Report Builder 2.0 would transparently upload and process the report on the server just like the Report Builder 1.0. Report Builder 3.0 improves the performance of server preview mode by introducing edit sessions. An edit session is implicitly created when the user runs the report for the first time. Behind the scenes, Report Builder 3.0 calls the new CreateReportEditSession API to instruct the server to create an edit session. The server caches the report dataset(s) in the ReportServerTempDB database (not in memory) and uses the cached data...
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Report Builder 3.0 Enhancements in R2 and SharePoint 2010 Mode
January 13, 2010 / 3 Comments »
A couple of Report Builder enhancements in SharePoint 2010 integration mode caught my attention. First, Report Builder 3.0 now launches by default when the Open in Report Builder action is initiated inside SharePoint 2010. Previously, Report Builder 1.0 would be launched. Second, if the report includes a drillthrough action to another report, the action now works when the action is initiated from Report Builder 3.0 preview mode. As it turns out, a drillthrough action is forwarded directly to SharePoint. Previously, a report drillthrough action will result in an error because the Report Builder would attempt to resolve the action locally.
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ReportService2010 Endpoint
January 13, 2010 / No Comments »
Here is a little gem for developers programming Reporting Services. SQL Server 2008 R2 brings a new web service endpoint, ReportService2010, which merges the functionalities of the ReportService2005 and ReportService2006 endpoints. The new endpoint can manage objects on a report server that that are configured for either native or SharePoint integrated mode. Previously, the ReportService2005 endpoint was used for managing objects on a report server that is configured for native mode and the ReportService2006 endpoint was used for managing objects on a report server that is configured for SharePoint integrated mode. This required code changes and retesting if the report server was re-configured in a different mode. These endpoints are now deprecated but still supported. The ReportService2010 endpoint includes the functionalities of both endpoints. When unsupported APIs in ReportService2010 are invoked, such as invoking the CreateLinkedReport API in SharePoint mode which doesn't support linked reports, the endpoint will return an...
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Virtual Adventures
January 7, 2010 / No Comments »
Scenario: Mount base and differencing VHD disks using Windows Virtual PC on Windows 7 x64. Dude, did you run out of BI stuff to talk about? I didn't but I think other folks may benefit from my experience especially MCTs who have discovered that Windows 7 hasn't happened yet to the Microsoft Official Curriculum and resorted to all sorts of hacks to get Virtual Server 2005 or Lab Launcher working with Windows 7. In the process, I've learned a lot about the virtualization technology that goes beyond just mounting disks. OK, I have a hidden agenda to write this blog as well – I want to document these steps. So, I am preparing to teach 6326A - Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services in an instructor-led environment where I have to install the required software on the student's machine. After downloading the trainer resources, I have discovered...
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Most Requested Features
December 21, 2009 / No Comments »
You can use the Microsoft Connect website to find most requested features. Unfortunately, the search doesn't let you specify a product so the search results may be related to other products. For example, searching on reporting services may bring in results from Analysis Services and reporting. Nevertheless, it was quite interesting to find the top voted suggestions. For example, the following query shows the top suggestions for Reporting Services (flip to the Suggestions tab): https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/SearchResults.aspx?KeywordSearchIn=2&SearchQuery=%22reporting%22+AND+%22services%22&FeedbackType=1&Scope=0&SortOrder=10&TabView=0&wa=wsignin1.0 Reporting Services-Recognize multiple result sets returned from a stored procedure – (50 votes) Merging / Linking datasets on report level (50 votes) – No 6 on my SSRS Top 10 wish list. SQL Reports should support stylesheets (43 votes) – No 9 on my list. Support for XML Paper Specification (XPS) Output Format (29 votes) – I am personally surprised about this one. Reporting Services Security Using Membership and Roles (29 votes), and so on
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Running ReportViewer Under Trusted Account
December 16, 2009 / No Comments »
Scenario: You have an Internet-facing web application that uses the Visual Studio ReportViewer control to render reports. The application takes care of authenticating the users. You want all report requests to the report server to go under a single (trusted) Windows account. There are at least two approaches to implement this scenario: Basic Authentication You can configure ReportViewer for basic authentication by implementing the Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.IReportServerCredentials interface, as follows: [Serializable] public class MyReportServerCredentials : IReportServerCredentials { public MyReportServerCredentials() { } public WindowsIdentity ImpersonationUser { get { return null; } } public ICredentials NetworkCredentials { get { return new NetworkCredential( ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["reportUser"], ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["reportPassword"] , "<your domain here>" – comment out this line if a domain account is used as a trusted account ); } } public bool GetFormsCredentials(out Cookie authCookie, out string user, out string password, out string authority) { authCookie = null; user = null; password = null; authority = null; return...
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Infragistics Silverlight for Analysis Services
December 9, 2009 / No Comments »
Don Demsak pointed out another Silverlight-based control from Infragistics, which is currently in a CTP phase. There are actually two controls: XamWebDataChart and XamWebPivotGrid. I played a bit with it and it looks great. I liked the Excel-like paradigm with the metadata pane on the right and the PivotChart and PivotTable synchronized. As I've been saying – give me a Silverlight-based Excel Pivot and I am happy. See my previous blog about the Intelligencia for Silverlight which is another Siliverlight-based control for Analysis Services.
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Analysis Services Top 10 Wish List
December 7, 2009 / No Comments »
Analysis Services leads the OLAP server market and it should be your platform of choice for historical and trend reporting. In the spirit of the season, here is my Top 10 Wish List for Analysis Services. All items are related to regular cubes and none to PowerPivot which I am yet to try. Improved client support – No 1 on my list has nothing to do with the server itself but with how well the Microsoft-provided clients support Analysis Services. To its credit, Microsoft continues improving the Excel OLAP support but still there are major functionality gaps from one tool to another. This is especially evident in the area of Reporting Services (see my No 1 SSRS wish list item). I am not sure if that's possible from a technical standpoint but I wish the SSAS team re-factors the query generation logic into a MDX Query Generator binary of some...
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Reporting Services Top 10 Wish List
December 7, 2009 / No Comments »
Reporting Services has gone a long way for the past five years and it's getting better. In the spirit of the season, here is my Reporting Services Top 10 Wish List revised from three years ago. This list is based on my work, so your priorities may differ. Improved Analysis Services integration – Since its debut in SSRS 2005, the MDX query designer hasn't changed. R2 continues the trend, so no hope until at least 2011, that's six years! Yet, the MDX query designer has plenty of deficiencies and bugs to be addressed, such query schema limitations, poor support for parent-child hierarchies, parameter limitations, and so on. I use SSAS heavily in my real-life projects and have to battle these deficiencies on a daily basis. I think it's time for Microsoft to poll customers and MVPs for feedback and improve the integration with SSAS. Eventing model – Although SSRS 2008...
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