Reporting Services and Log Shipping

Hey All,
I setup a log shipped server so we could have a warm
backup but the only way I could make the business case to
spend the money was to use it as a reporting server as
well. Needless to say, people are not that happy about
getting kicked out all the time when the data is loading.
Is there anyway to mask the fact that the data source is
unavailable and just get reporting services to wait until
the load is done and resubmit the query when the
connection is available again.
Thanks,
BryanHave you looked into using execution snapshots. You could set the data to
only be refreshed when the data source is known to be available.
--
-Daniel
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
"bmurtha" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7ce501c47735$e821d580$a301280a@.phx.gbl...
> Hey All,
> I setup a log shipped server so we could have a warm
> backup but the only way I could make the business case to
> spend the money was to use it as a reporting server as
> well. Needless to say, people are not that happy about
> getting kicked out all the time when the data is loading.
> Is there anyway to mask the fact that the data source is
> unavailable and just get reporting services to wait until
> the load is done and resubmit the query when the
> connection is available again.
> Thanks,
> Bryan

Reporting Services 2005 and Business Logic

I'm working on a app with complex reporting requirement and would like to centralize the business logic for app and reporting. We are not planning to use SP for reporting. Having said that, i would ideally like the reports call the business layer (business.dll) assembly which in turn will call the data access layer (data.dll) assembly to run the required queries and get the results via business assembly as a custom business entity or data set. I'm not sure if this possible with Reporting Services 2005. I have looked at the custom data processing extensions but i dont think it will provide me the required business-data separation unless i'm missing something.

I was wondering if anyone has done this before and if yes, could you please provide me some direction or insight or sample. It will be of great help. I also saw the custom references tab where you can reference an .NET assembly and invoke a method within .NET assembly but i'm not sure if that method could return a custom entity that could be consumed by the reports. Please recommend the right approach to achieve this.

Thanks in advance

There are at least four approaches you could consider:

1. Your app can call down to the business logic layer to retrieve the entity or an ADO.NET dataset and bind it to a local report. This scenario assumes that you don't need to deploy the report to the report catalog (the report is available to the application only). For more information about local vs. remote processing, read this article.

2. If you need to share the report with other users (deploy to the report catalog), write a CDE that will take the serialized entity (e.g. as an ADO.NET dataset) and expose it to the report, as demonstrated here.

3. Assuming SQL Server 2005, implement a CLR stored procedure(s) to call down to the business layer and surface the results to the report, as shown here.

4. Write a web service to return the results in XML and use the RS 2005 XML data provider (see this post).

The first approach is probably the easiest to implement.

|||

Hello Teo,

Thanks for your response. Since this is a web app and would like to deploy to the report catalog i'm thinking of option# 2. I have read the customer data extensions and i see it more as a data layer assembly. We will have to retrieve the custom entity from the middle tier, update it (only if required) and then display using CDE. Now based on that i have these follow up questions

1. Our entity is not going to be a ADO.NET data set at the business layer level, its going to be a custom .NET class so will be possible for the CDE to retrieve this custom entity and then display it. I can serialize the custom .NET class into a XML and then have the reports consume the XML but i'm concerned about the app performance serializing/deserializing.

2. I do not require any open/close connection in the CDE since this will be handled by the app data layer. Is this OK?

3. What is your opinion about accessing .NET code via assembly references and embedded code within the report properties? Is this a good option to think about.

Thanks

|||

1. Performance should be an area of concern. Assuming 100 Mbts LAN, it will take a fraction of time to send the serialized payload across the wire. I didn't see any performance issues with my CDE which serializes ADO.NET datasets.

2. The CDE that I pointed you to doesn't establish a connection either. This is entirely optional.

3. You cannot use this approach to bind a dataset to a report region if this is what you are after. That's because the DataSet property is not expression-based. Other than that, I do use external .NET code extensively to call common functions, e.g. to handle number formatting. In general, I'd recommend you put any .NET function that you need in your reports in an external assembly so you can reuse it across reports.

reporting services (client or server) ad-hoc user created reports?

Hi,
I would like to allow my users to create report templates and save them.
The reports should get their data from my business objects. I'm not really
sure where to begin with this.. I image that i'll need to setup reporting
services.
Currently I have rdlc client reports and report viewer. I don't mind moving
to server reports if required, but i'd like to continue to use the viewer to
display them in my application.
Has anyone else done this?
Thanks
Andyhey Andy
have you had a look at Report Builder? This is really what this is
for.
Dianne
On Apr 26, 8:50 am, Andy <A...@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I would like to allow my users to create report templates and save them.
> The reports should get their data from my business objects. I'm not really
> sure where to begin with this.. I image that i'll need to setupreportingservices.
> Currently I have rdlc client reports and report viewer. I don't mind moving
> to server reports if required, but i'd like to continue to use the viewer to
> display them in my application.
> Has anyone else done this?
> Thanks
> Andy|||On Apr 26, 5:55 pm, jewelfire <jewelfi...@.gmail.com> wrote:
> hey Andy
> have you had a look at Report Builder? This is really what this is
> for.
Yes, but I'm at the point where I still need to learn how to build the
model for use in report builder. As I said, I'm just starting with
this.. and only one book I found spends any time on ad-hoc reports,
and only one chapter.

Reporting Service , VS Studio .NET 2003, and Business Intelligence

Hi,
I have a question regarding the business intelligence projects.
I have installed VS Studio .NEt 2003 and SQL Server 2000 as well as
the Reporting Service.
However I can't find "Business Intelligence Projects" when I want to
create a new project from Visual Studio.
1. How do I add the "Business Intelligence Projects" to the new project list
so I can create a new report?
2. Do I need SharePoint Portal Server because I didn't install it?
Thanks a lot for the reply.2) You don't need SharePoint to develop and view Reporting Services reports.
1) Run the Reporting Services installation on your development machine, but
only choose Client tools. Make sure you choose Report Designer when
installing. This will add the things you need to your VS.NET. You will find
Business Intelligence Projects at the top of the list of Project Types when
you start a New Project.
Kaisa M. Lindahl
"EAA" <EAA@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FCBBCF65-2B0C-4448-8A3F-5B2E58CBB5B8@.microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> I have a question regarding the business intelligence projects.
> I have installed VS Studio .NEt 2003 and SQL Server 2000 as well as
> the Reporting Service.
> However I can't find "Business Intelligence Projects" when I want to
> create a new project from Visual Studio.
> 1. How do I add the "Business Intelligence Projects" to the new project
> list
> so I can create a new report?
> 2. Do I need SharePoint Portal Server because I didn't install it?
> Thanks a lot for the reply.