Recently in Reporting Services Category

Just thinking aloud here. So, let’s say you have a team of report developers and you find that more than one report needs to access a common set of routines.

Note to self (and anyone else using RS Scripter to backup/transport a Reporting Services catalog): If you get a permissions error when scripting, try un-checking any User folders that you don’t own. Apparently, it can’t access other user’s reports when scripting.

I’ve been working with the new “2008 R2” Reporting Services BI tools (which generate 2010 RDL) that get installed with the latest release of SQL Server. Ah, I have a pretty good idea why Microsoft chose to release this “sub-release” instead of a “2010” version, but I’ll leave that discussion to another post. At this time (unless its already too late) I would like to provide a few suggestions for the Reporting Services team working on the 2011 version of the BI tools. Sadly, I expect that these tools are cast in stone somewhere on campus or on the other side of the world…

This week I’m transitioning my existing Reporting Services catalog to SQL Server 2008 R2. I’m also building a separate VM where I can demonstrate the differences in “native” vs. SharePoint integration. This blog will serve as a notepad to log the issues I encounter along the way. Incidentally, I had to bump up the VM RAM to 3GB to get this install sequence to run without swapping. I also allocated 3 processors to the VM as it was also CPU bound with only one processor. I noticed that deploy performance was noticeably longer once SharePoint integration was enabled.

They’ve invited me to talk at the local SQL Saturday #47 on June 12th. I’m giving two talks—one on Report Builder 2.0 and another on Visual Studio Local Data Cache.

SQL Saturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server. This event will be held Jun 12 2010 at THE MIXER on the Microsoft campus, 15255 NE 40th Street, North Commons, REDMOND, WA 98052. Admittance to this event is free, all costs are covered by donations and sponsorships.

Please register soon as seating is limited, and let friends and colleagues know about the event.

Given the number of people that struggled with the intermediate to advanced topics in my SQL Server and Reporting Services 9-hour series of sessions for Progressive, we've decided to offer the first in a series of introductory webinar courses to be offered each month (for the forseeable future). We're also providing guided labs for this course--as if it's taking place in a classroom. I'll be there to answer questions and if necessary setup a SharedView session with the student to debug their work in real time.

I’ve been tuning my monthly webinar again to include more information about SQL Server Reporting Services (R2) and Visual Studio 2010. This high-impact series of six 90-minute webinars held over three mornings is for anyone who wants to leverage Visual Studio, SQL Server and Reporting Services best practices—learning what works, what doesn't and why. These sessions are for developers, architects and managers who want to know how and (more importantly) when to leverage the power and benefits of SQL Server and Reporting Services. The fee also includes both of my Reporting Services and Visual Studio books.

Incidentally, Progressive does not care how many people sit in on the sessions so you can fill a meeting room or the local theater if you want to. These are also designed to be interactive—that is, I encourage the attendees to chat in questions anytime or ask over the phone at the end.

In the latest offering I stripped out the “Connecting” session and pushed in a brand-new session “Report Design Foundations” even though the online outline does not reflect this change. 

Want a front-row seat in my next Webinar? If so, I’m accepting applications for the live studio audience. All you need to do is send me an note saying why you would like to attend. I can comfortably sit about four people so get your application in early. Let me worry about the conference $999 fee, but if you bring doughnuts for everyone... I’ll pick the audience the Friday before the next talk (which is Monday April 26th at 09:00 Pacific time).

The next offering is May 19-21 09:00 Pacific time.

We’re also introducing a more “basic” workshop “Introduction to Reporting Services” in early June. Stay tuned for more details.