SQL Server Magazine

Viewing Deployed Solution Items
After you deploy reports and related items from a project to a Report Server, you can view them in one of two ways. First, you can use URL access to read the contents of reports with read-only permissions. Second, you can invoke Report Server for a richer mix of capabilities, including Reporting Services administration. Both approaches require a Windows account on the local Windows server or a Windows account from another trusted Windows server. Administrators have unlimited permissions, including assigning users to predefined and custom roles with permissions to perform tasks, such as reading a report.

Connecting to Report Server through URL access. You can connect to a Report Server by navigating to its URL address from any user account that has permission to connect to it. For example, the IIS server hosting the Reporting Services Report Server in my office is called cab233a. Other computers in my office can connect to the Report Server at the URL http://cab233a/ReportServer. A user who has an authorized user account can navigate a browser to this URL and view a page showing links to folders on the Report Server. The link for the SSMRSIntro folder opens a Web page containing links for the two example reports in this article and the shared data source. The links are named after the item names in the SSMRSIntro project; the Report1 link opens Report1 in the browser.

Figure 6 shows an excerpt from the URL-accessed view of Report1. Notice that the report appears the same as it does in Figure 3, but the Address box shows a URL that contains a command to render the report (rs:Command=Render). In addition, the Select a format drop-down box near the top of the pane lets users save the report in a variety of useful formats. For example, selecting Acrobat (PDF) file from the drop-down box lets users save a local copy of the report in PDF format for offline use.

Invoking Report Server. Users who have appropriate permissions can connect to the Report Server by navigating to http://servername/reports. For this article's examples, the server name is cab233a. Figure 7 shows a connection to the cab233a Report Server and a folder list in the Home folder. Clicking any folder (e.g., SSMRSIntro) in a Home folder reveals the clicked folder's contents. Users can use the Report Server folders to perform tasks according to the role assignments for their Windows account and any Windows groups they belong to. An administrator has all possible permissions. Report Server automatically adjusts its UI to expose permissions and items consistent with the role of each user.

Beyond the Basics
Reporting Services is Microsoft's first entry into the enterprise reporting platform market. I like Reporting Services because it's easy to install and use. Reporting Services will be even more tightly integrated in SQL Server 2005. Learning it now will help you later as you start learning SQL Server 2005. As you work with Reporting Services you'll discover that its capabilities go far beyond what I cover in this tutorial, but you can use the information in this article as a first step to expanding your enterprise reporting capabilities.

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