SSRS 2012, Part 05 of 10: Layout, Parameters, and Visualizing

Course description

In this course, you’ll learn about these aspects of report design so that your reports have an effective layout and online versions provide a level of interactivity that will make reports more useful for users. One of the key ways to add this kind of functionality is by creating dynamic reports with parameters. This way, you can very flexible reports, customized for what the user needs or something in the environment. Then we’ll cover Groups. Groups are a great way to organize data in a report into a more manageable assemblage of information. If you need to create subtotals or other statistics you will likely need to create groups.

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

166 Minutes

Time to complete

641 Minutes

Course Outline

Report Formatting

Designing the Page Layout (19:25)

• Introduction (00:52)
• Consider Layout Options (02:00)
• Report Rendering & Pagination (03:23)
• Page Structure Properties (01:05)
• Report Page Structure (02:56)
• Demo: Report Pagination (04:52)
• Demo: Page Layout (03:55)
• Summary (00:19)

Page Headers and Footers (05:28)

• Introduction (00:37)
• Demo: Header and Footer (02:24)
• Demo: Header/Footer Formatting (02:01)
• Summary (00:25)

Report Formatting Options (12:03)

• Introduction (00:25)
• Report Formatting Options (00:28)
• Demo: Report Formatting (02:27)
• Demo: Properties Window (04:15)
• Demo: More Properties (03:50)
• Summary (00:36)

Making Reports Interactive (20:44)

• Introduction (00:46)
• Interactive Sorting (00:54)
• Demo: Interactive Sorting (04:09)
• Demo: Sorting by Groups (04:14)
• Drilldown Reports (00:34)
• Demo: Drilldown Report (04:38)
• Demo: Drilldown Properties (04:59)
• Summary (00:25)

Parameters

Creating Report Parameters (13:01)

• Introduction (00:55)
• Creating Report Parameters (01:11)
• Demo: Procedure Parameters (01:22)
• Demo: Create Report Parameter (03:41)
• Demo: Report Parameters (02:11)
• Demo: Preview Report (03:19)
• Summary (00:20)

Parameters with Ad-Hoc SQL (10:50)

• Introduction (00:22)
• Demo: Ad-Hoc Parameters (05:15)
• Demo: Including Parameters (01:43)
• Using Unbound Parameters (00:22)
• Demo: Unbound Parameters (02:42)
• Summary (00:23)

Understanding Parameters (09:48)

• Introduction (00:49)
• Demo: Parameter Properties (04:52)
• Demo: Dataset Parameter (03:34)
• Summary (00:32)

Using Dropdown List Parameters (07:59)

• Introduction (00:47)
• Providing a Dropdown List (01:20)
• Demo: Dropdown Values (01:30)
• Demo: Dropdown List (03:01)
• Parameter Value and Label (00:55)
• Summary (00:23)

Cascading Parameters (09:26)

• Introduction (00:58)
• Demo: Cascading SQL (04:15)
• Demo: Cascading Parameters (03:46)
• Summary (00:26)

Multivalued Parameters (06:31)

• Introduction (00:23)
• Demo: Multivalued Parameter (01:13)
• Demo: Setting Up Multivalue (04:11)
• Summary (00:42)

Visualizing Data

Using Charts in a Report (06:13)

• Introduction (01:09)
• Demo: Charts (02:00)
• Demo: Choosing Data Source (02:46)
• Summary (00:18)

Formatting a Chart (11:20)

• Introduction (00:17)
• Formatting a Chart (00:25)
• Demo: Chart Parts (04:57)
• Demo: Chart Formatting (04:55)
• Summary (00:44)

Data Bars (07:19)

• Introduction (00:58)
• Data Bars, Sparklines, Indicators (00:36)
• Data Bars (01:32)
• Demo: Data Bar (03:24)
• Summary (00:47)

Sparklines (07:14)

• Introduction (01:06)
• Demo: Sparklines (02:05)
• Demo: Fixing Sparklines (03:17)
• Summary (00:45)

Indicators (05:00)

• Introduction (01:13)
• Demo: Indicators (02:00)
• Demo: Gauge Data (01:26)
• Summary (00:20)

Map and Spatial Data (14:06)

• Introduction (00:38)
• Map and Spatial Data (03:24)
• Demo: Spatial Data (04:25)
• Demo: Map Formatting (05:06)
• Summary (00:32)