Two new data providers will be included in the SQL Server 2008 R2 release of Reporting Services, Microsoft SQL Azure and Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, that will let you report from SQL Azure and SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse (code named Madison) databases respectively. I decided to take the Microsoft SQL Azure data provider for a spin. As you probably know…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…