Getting Started with SSRS - Part 2 - Designing a report using Report Wizard
Introduction
This article frames a guideline on how to make the use of the Report Wizard and create a simple report using the Business Intelligence Studio. A Report Wizard is the simplest form for creating a readymade report by simply selecting the data that should be displayed and by selecting the inbuilt templates available as per the requirement. Let us now see how to create the reports using the Report Wizard Template of the Business Intelligence Studio.
Steps
The first step towards our task is to open Business Intelligence Studio. To open it, navigate to Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server Denali / Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as per the installed version and then select Business Intelligence Development Studio as shown in the screen below.
This will open Visual Studio. Visual Studio is a Business Intelligence Development Studio for SQL Server and looks as shown in the screen below.
Next, select File >> New >> Project to create a new project. We can even use the shortcut Control + Shift + N directly as shown in the screen below.
Once a new project is selected, a list of templates will be available as shown in the screen below.
As we are in Business Intelligence Studio, the list of template will not have the normal templates (C#, VB.Net, Office etc).
Now the next step is to create a report using the Report Wizard. To do this, select the Report Server Project Wizard as shown in the screen below.
Once we select the Report Wizard and provide a valid name to the project as shown in the screen above, click on OK to create the project. Once the project is created, we can see a screen as shown below.
This is the start-up screen. To stave off the start up screen in the future, we can select the option “Don’t show this page again”. Once we are done with the above changes, click on the Next button to proceed further.
Now we can see a new window requesting for the data source input details. In this input request, we can either configure a shared data source or create a new data source as per the requirement. In our example, we will create a new data source as shown in the screen below.
Next, click on the Edit button and edit the connection string to connect to the database from which the data has to be retrieved to present in the reports. On clicking Edit button a window will open as shown in the screen below.
Once we have provided the above details (It may change as per your system database), click on Test Connection to test if the connection is successful. Once the connection is successful, click on OK and we can see the window as shown in the screen below.
Clicking on Next button will move to the next step in the wizard, which is the Query Builder. With this Query builder, we can build our query based on the requirement of the report. We can use this screen in the same manner as we write a query in a Query Analyzer as shown in the screen below.
To make use of the query builder click on the Query Builder button. It will open a new window as shown in the screen below.
Now, a query has to be written to pull up the record as shown in the screen below. Once the query is written, click on the Execute button. This will give complete details of the data for our reference to finalize the query. We can do as many executes as required to get a final data as per the business requirement. This is shown in the screen below. Once done, click on OK to close this window and navigate back to the wizard.
This will load the query that we selected back in the wizard as shown in the screen below. Now click on Next to proceed further.
Now we can see an option to select the format in which the data can be displayed. The Wizard has two options (Tabular and Matrix) that can be used based on the requirement.
Once we select the required format and click on the Next button, we will get a window to select fields that has to be displayed. Here we have more control over the data display, such as; we can select the data that should be displayed at the header or to group the data in a particular format as shown in the screen below.
Once selected, click on the Next button to move to the next screen. The next screen allows selecting the layout of the report as shown in the screen below.
Selecting Stepped option and clicking on the Next button will open a new window to select the style. This will allow us to display the report with a good look and feel. The report wizard displays a list of styles available as shown in the screen below. Select the required style and click on Finish button to complete the wizard.
A summary of the options selected will be presented with the data source as shown in the screen below. Click on Finish button to complete the process.
Clicking on Finish button will open the report in the designer view of the Business Intelligence Development Studio as shown in the screen below.
Now Press F5 or hit the Play button from the tool bar to start building and executing the report. Once the process is started and we can see the report generation in progress as shown in the screen above.
Once the report generation is completed, we can see report in a nice format as shown in the screen below, which is also our expected output.
Summary
Therefore, in this article we have seen how to create a report in SQL Server Reporting Services using Business Intelligence Development Studio Report Wizard template.
This article frames a guideline on how to make the use of the Report Wizard and create a simple report using the Business Intelligence Studio. A Report Wizard is the simplest form for creating a readymade report by simply selecting the data that should be displayed and by selecting the inbuilt templates available as per the requirement. Let us now see how to create the reports using the Report Wizard Template of the Business Intelligence Studio.
Steps
The first step towards our task is to open Business Intelligence Studio. To open it, navigate to Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server Denali / Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as per the installed version and then select Business Intelligence Development Studio as shown in the screen below.
This will open Visual Studio. Visual Studio is a Business Intelligence Development Studio for SQL Server and looks as shown in the screen below.
Next, select File >> New >> Project to create a new project. We can even use the shortcut Control + Shift + N directly as shown in the screen below.
Once a new project is selected, a list of templates will be available as shown in the screen below.
As we are in Business Intelligence Studio, the list of template will not have the normal templates (C#, VB.Net, Office etc).
Now the next step is to create a report using the Report Wizard. To do this, select the Report Server Project Wizard as shown in the screen below.
Once we select the Report Wizard and provide a valid name to the project as shown in the screen above, click on OK to create the project. Once the project is created, we can see a screen as shown below.
This is the start-up screen. To stave off the start up screen in the future, we can select the option “Don’t show this page again”. Once we are done with the above changes, click on the Next button to proceed further.
Now we can see a new window requesting for the data source input details. In this input request, we can either configure a shared data source or create a new data source as per the requirement. In our example, we will create a new data source as shown in the screen below.
Next, click on the Edit button and edit the connection string to connect to the database from which the data has to be retrieved to present in the reports. On clicking Edit button a window will open as shown in the screen below.
Once we have provided the above details (It may change as per your system database), click on Test Connection to test if the connection is successful. Once the connection is successful, click on OK and we can see the window as shown in the screen below.
Clicking on Next button will move to the next step in the wizard, which is the Query Builder. With this Query builder, we can build our query based on the requirement of the report. We can use this screen in the same manner as we write a query in a Query Analyzer as shown in the screen below.
To make use of the query builder click on the Query Builder button. It will open a new window as shown in the screen below.
Now, a query has to be written to pull up the record as shown in the screen below. Once the query is written, click on the Execute button. This will give complete details of the data for our reference to finalize the query. We can do as many executes as required to get a final data as per the business requirement. This is shown in the screen below. Once done, click on OK to close this window and navigate back to the wizard.
This will load the query that we selected back in the wizard as shown in the screen below. Now click on Next to proceed further.
Now we can see an option to select the format in which the data can be displayed. The Wizard has two options (Tabular and Matrix) that can be used based on the requirement.
Once we select the required format and click on the Next button, we will get a window to select fields that has to be displayed. Here we have more control over the data display, such as; we can select the data that should be displayed at the header or to group the data in a particular format as shown in the screen below.
Once selected, click on the Next button to move to the next screen. The next screen allows selecting the layout of the report as shown in the screen below.
Selecting Stepped option and clicking on the Next button will open a new window to select the style. This will allow us to display the report with a good look and feel. The report wizard displays a list of styles available as shown in the screen below. Select the required style and click on Finish button to complete the wizard.
A summary of the options selected will be presented with the data source as shown in the screen below. Click on Finish button to complete the process.
Clicking on Finish button will open the report in the designer view of the Business Intelligence Development Studio as shown in the screen below.
Now Press F5 or hit the Play button from the tool bar to start building and executing the report. Once the process is started and we can see the report generation in progress as shown in the screen above.
Once the report generation is completed, we can see report in a nice format as shown in the screen below, which is also our expected output.
Summary
Therefore, in this article we have seen how to create a report in SQL Server Reporting Services using Business Intelligence Development Studio Report Wizard template.
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