SSRS 2012, Part 02 of 10: Creating Reports

Course description

In this course, you’ll learn about using Data Tools with Reporting Services to create report server projects. I’ll start by looking at installing the tools, including how when you install them from the SQL Server installation you don’t really get what you expect. Next you’ll learn about the two report server project types, as well as the report development environment you get with the Report Designer. Then you’ll see what report project properties are available and how they work, as well as how to use them with Visual Studio project configurations. And we’ll run through building a report from the ground up without using the project wizard, which is how you’ll probably normally work once you’ve learned how to use Reporting Services.

Each LearnNowOnline training course is made up of Modules (typically an hour in length). Within each module there are Topics (typically 15-30 minutes each) and Subtopics (typically 2-5 minutes each). There is a Post Exam for each Module that must be passed with a score of 70% or higher to successfully and fully complete the course.

Prerequisites

This course assumes that you have a basic familiarity with the concept of relational databases and a basic understanding of what SQL Server is and the high-level tools in it, as well as how to create and manage objects using Management Studio. You should also have a basic understanding of how SQL Server implements security, including its authentication and authorization schemes, and how to assign permissions on securable objects to principals. You should know the fundamentals of Transact-SQL to write queries to retrieve data and join data from multiple tables, and how to execute scripts using the query editor in Management Studio. It will be very helpful, but not absolutely necessary, to have experience with .NET development using Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 for the portions of the course that deal with SQL Server Data Tools. At the very least, we’ll assume that you are well familiar with the Visual Studio user interface. The focus of this course is the Reporting Services Native Mode installation to learn the fundamentals of creating and managing reports. Almost all of what you’ll learn will be applicable to a SharePoint integrated mode installation as well, but there are additional tools and considerations for SharePoint that aren’t covered thoroughly here. This course is written using Windows 7 and 8.1, and taped using Windows 7, using SQL Server 2012. For Windows, we assume you know how to start programs, etc. in whatever version of Windows you’re using. The Reporting Services features should be pretty much the same in SQL Server 2014, although some windows will probably look different; but the feature set is the same.

Meet the expert

Don Kiely

Don Kiely is a featured instructor on many of our SQL Server and Visual Studio courses. He is a nationally recognized author, instructor, and consultant specializing in Microsoft technologies. Don has many years of teaching experience, is the author or co-author of several programming books, and has spoken at many industry conferences and user groups. In addition, Don is a consultant for a variety of companies that develop distributed applications for public and private organizations.

Video Runtime

65 Minutes

Time to complete

248 Minutes

Course Outline

Data Tools

Introducing Data Tools (15:09)

• Introduction (00:39)
• Introducing Data Tools (01:25)
• Installing Data Tools (02:08)
• Report Project Types (01:39)
• Demo: Data Tools Interface (04:44)
• Demo: Add Item (04:05)
• Summary (00:27)

Configuring Report Projects (13:12)

• Introduction (00:46)
• Demo: Report Properties (02:54)
• Demo: Deployment Properties (03:27)
• Demo: TargetServerVersion (02:49)
• Report Project Configurations (00:43)
• Demo: Configurations (02:00)
• Summary (00:30)

Creating a new Report (14:46)

• Introduction (00:39)
• The Report Designer (01:37)
• Steps to Building a Report (00:56)
• Demo: Report Designer (04:00)
• Demo: Data Sets (04:52)
• Demo: Sorting Data (01:31)
• Demo: Data Set Settings (00:43)
• Summary (00:24)

Building the Report (22:47)

• Introduction (00:22)
• Demo: Adding Components (02:27)
• Demo: Adding Data Regions (04:22)
• Demo: Formatting a Report (03:55)
• Demo: Dates and Currencies (03:41)
• Demo: Grouping (05:31)
• Demo: More Report Design (01:45)
• Summary (00:41)