Complete Newbie Question

I have just installed Reporting Services and created a few reports that
I want to run in a web page - that seems easy enough to do but my boss
has asked me to provide a batch reporting solution.
He wants users to be able to request a report and the request be
written away to a sql db. I have a windows service that picks up all
new requests and fires up some .exe's depending on what sort of request
it is e.g password reset , password reminder etc..
When the reports are run I need them to be saved as PDF's into a
specific folder that can be accessed later from a web page.
Now all this is written and working using ActiveReports for .NET but we
hate that package and want to use sql reporting services. Can it be
done in sql reporting services and if so how do I do it - I mean I need
some real code examples
any help would be brilliant
cheers
JimI have been using log4net to log to SQL DB. You can log the web request when
reports are rendered. It is upto you to write the logic to who views the
page( for eg using session object who the user was like,
Session["UserName"]). log4net allows you to log when certain events are
triggered blah blah... Check out:
http://logging.apache.org/log4net/release/config-examples.html
Look for ADONETAppender which is what you want.
HTH
Rajesh Meenrajan
MCSD.NET
http://meenrajan.blogspot.com
"JimW13UK" wrote:
> I have just installed Reporting Services and created a few reports that
> I want to run in a web page - that seems easy enough to do but my boss
> has asked me to provide a batch reporting solution.
> He wants users to be able to request a report and the request be
> written away to a sql db. I have a windows service that picks up all
> new requests and fires up some .exe's depending on what sort of request
> it is e.g password reset , password reminder etc..
> When the reports are run I need them to be saved as PDF's into a
> specific folder that can be accessed later from a web page.
> Now all this is written and working using ActiveReports for .NET but we
> hate that package and want to use sql reporting services. Can it be
> done in sql reporting services and if so how do I do it - I mean I need
> some real code examples
> any help would be brilliant
> cheers
> Jim
>

Comparison with Crystal Reports

I showed my boss the functionality of ad hoc reporting in SRSS and he likes
it. He asked me if we could completely move away from Crystal Reports (CR) to
SRSS.
Does anyone have any issues with SRSS that didnt exist in CR.
One question i have is programmability capabilities. Some time back i had to
make a very complex report in CR. I create a table in the dataset. Designed
the report to pull data from that table and the table was being populated
through some VB.NET code. So the users will open a GUI and hit RUN, which is
when i will populate the table and show the report. You can assume that
populating the table required complex programming and couldnt have been done
through user defined functions in a report.
I dont suppose stuff like this can be done in SRSS?RS is designed a lot more around creating the query or the stored procedure
as the source for the report. You can have multiple datasets in a report and
you can easily create 1-many reports using subreports. If you absolutely
must create the dataset via code you can do this either using the VS 2005
report control in local mode (no server, you had the control the report and
the dataset) or you can create a data process extension. Neither is
non-trivial. I have done very complex reports and have never flelt the need
for creating the dataset in code. All my reports either have the query or a
stored procedure with it.
The reports have parameters that the user selects (can be either from a list
(which can be filled by a query) or date control etc). The parameters can be
cascading. i.e the second parameter list depends on what is picked with the
first parameter. Also you can have multi-select parameters as well.
The only issue I have seen are people that have a set of business objects
coded or they want to code that way. You can do this but it is harder (data
processing extension).
HTH,
Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
"Tk_Neo" <TkNeo@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9DB999DE-15AF-4E6F-BAB9-AF0D71FAC886@.microsoft.com...
>I showed my boss the functionality of ad hoc reporting in SRSS and he likes
> it. He asked me if we could completely move away from Crystal Reports (CR)
> to
> SRSS.
> Does anyone have any issues with SRSS that didnt exist in CR.
> One question i have is programmability capabilities. Some time back i had
> to
> make a very complex report in CR. I create a table in the dataset.
> Designed
> the report to pull data from that table and the table was being populated
> through some VB.NET code. So the users will open a GUI and hit RUN, which
> is
> when i will populate the table and show the report. You can assume that
> populating the table required complex programming and couldnt have been
> done
> through user defined functions in a report.
> I dont suppose stuff like this can be done in SRSS?

Comparison with Crystal Reports

I showed my boss the functionality of ad hoc reporting in SRSS and he likes it. He asked me if we could completely move away from Crystal Reports (CR) to SRSS.

Does anyone have any issues with SRSS that didnt exist in CR.

One question i have is programmability capabilities. Some time back i had to make a very complex report in CR. I create a table in the dataset. Designed the report to pull data from that table and the table was being populated through some VB.NET code. So the users will open a GUI and hit RUN, which is when i will populate the table and show the report. You can assume that populating the table required complex programming and couldnt have been done through user defined functions in a report.

I dont suppose stuff like this can be done in SRSS?

Depending on the version of Crystal you have, there are various differences, though it is a good path to move to in my opinion.

Here is one summary I have found outlining differences:

http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/SSRSandCR_ExecSummary.asp

There's lots of information out there on this.

It is also possible to use a dataset as the source of report data in a custom application with Reporting Services.

cheers,

Andrew