Creating reports is natural in any business, and there are many Microsoft products for this purpose. However, the oldest and the most popular product is SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), which is ideal for any standard type of report. With technology evolving and the benefits of self-service reporting becoming evident, a new tool was needed. Microsoft responded to this need with Power View.
This book will cover all of the features of SSRS and Power View and will provide a step-by-step lab activity for each feature so that you can develop reports very quickly. You will learn the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, and thus be able to ascertain the best one to use for various reporting scenarios that you will encounter.
We, the authors of this book, are consultants who work with companies on a daily basis to design and create reports as well as help others to do so. When looking for a book to recommend to our clients that covers both SSRS and Power View, we found that books either talk about just one of these tools or include both but with limited information because they also cover a wide range of other reporting tools. Also, we could not find books that addressed the following topics: various reporting scenarios and the best tool to use for each; Power View for Excel 2013; the differences between Power View for SharePoint and Power View for Excel; and how SSRS is used for standard reporting, while Power View is used for self-service reporting. This book is our attempt to fill all these gaps.
Chapter 1, Getting Started with Reporting, gives an introduction to SSRS and Power View and discusses which is the best tool to use in various reporting scenarios.
Chapter 2, SSRS – Standard Reporting, describes what standard reporting is and talks about how SSRS solves standard reporting needs, covering its main features and functionalities.
Chapter 3, Development Activity with SSRS, is a step-by-step lab activity that walks you through the process of creating a basic SSRS report.
Chapter 4, Power View – Self-service Reporting, describes what self-service reporting is and talks about how Power View solves self-service reporting needs, covering its main features and functionalities.
Chapter 5, Development Activity with Power View, is a step-by-step lab activity that walks you through the process of creating a basic Power View report.
To follow the step-by-step lab activities in this book, we recommend that you have a PC with the following software installed on it:
Windows 7 or Windows 8
Excel 2013
SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013
SQL Server 2012 (the relational engine)
SSRS 2012
SQL Server Analysis Services 2012
Power View
SSDT or Visual Studio 2010
This book is intended for those who wish to learn the use of SSRS and Power View and need to understand the best use for each tool. This book will get you up and running quickly—no prior experience is needed with either of the tools!
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Regular users only have access to their own My Reports folder."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "One way to accomplish this is to use the Windows Authentication option for the credentials of the report data source(s)."
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.
We also provide you a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/1720EN_ColoredImages.pdf
Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
You can contact us at <[email protected]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.