Tuesday, September 29, 2009

SSRS-Keep Together

I was working on a building a SSRS report for the end users, got all the data ready and the queries worked out. Got to design the report by using the tablix control and attached the dataset to the control, the groups were created. I started to preview the report, the data was groupd by ID at the parent level and then there were the details. In the report the detail data for a one ID was spawning over several pages. This was getting difficult to understand the data on the report. Basically I wanted to keep the detailed data for a particular ID all together on one page. In the properties of tablix control, in the general section, under Page Break Options. there is an option called Keep Together On One Page If Possible. I checked this option and re-ran the report in the preview mode, this time the results were more in line with the users expectations. The detailed data for a particular ID was fiited on one page, then there was a page break to display the data for the next ID. I find this option very useful especially in complex reports where there are 2 tablix controls with the same dataset using the same grouping but displaying different parts of the detailed data.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

SSRS 2008 - Export Report

One of the widely used features in Reporting Services is the use of Export functionality. The formats I have seen folks in the business I work for is Excel followed By .pdf files. Excel exports are very popular with analysts for obivious reasons like working with numbers and trying come up with trends. The .pdf format gets used a lot in canned reports like situations. One of the export formats which has been becoming popular with the users here is the MHTML format. This format is available in the drop down list for the export options. One of the plus points using this format it is very easy on printing and displays report without any added controls or formats, it gives the user more real estate to view the report(s).