One more SQLSaturday done I love SQLSaturdays, it’s always a fun experience for me. Uhm, ok, maybe let me qualify that. It’s always a nervewracking AND fun experience for me – when I’m speaking. I just always want it to be worth people’s time to attend my presentations.

I think there was a good crowd at my session, and I’m quite happy to see they seemed to have fun too (I hope!) …
Btw I have a couple more presentations in the upcoming SQLSaturday#114 – on PowerShell, and on ETL Basics.

Here’s a couple mementos for me to remember this day by. Thank you to everyone who attended, and spent their Saturdays with us …

These are the files. If you have any questions about them, please feel free to contact me.
SQLSaturday108 Redmond – SSRS Beyond the Basics Presentation – Donabel Santos
SQLSaturday108 – Donabel Santos – RDL files

SQLSaturday108 – Donabel Santos – PowerShell Files
SQLSaturday108 – Donabel Santos – jquery point generator

Here’s a short PowerShell script that :
1. Connects to your report server
2. Creates the same folder structure you have in your Report Server
3. Download all the SSRS Report Definition (RDL) files into their respective folders

In addition to backing up your Source Project, your ReportServer database, or good old RSScripter (see http://sqlserver-indo.org/blogs/mca/archive/2009/03/08/extract-and-transfer-rdl-files-from-ssrs.aspx) this is just another way you can “backup” or archive your reports.
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Just a short tidbit on how to list your ReportServer Items using PowerShell

#note this script is tested on PowerShell v2 and SSRS 2008 R2
 
$ReportServerUri = "http://yourserver/ReportServer/ReportService2005.asmx";
$Proxy = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri $ReportServerUri -Namespace SSRS.ReportingService2005 -UseDefaultCredential ;
 
#check out all members of $Proxy
#$Proxy | Get-Member
#http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa225878(v=SQL.80).aspx
 
$items = $Proxy.ListChildren("/", $true);
 
$items | select Type, Path, ID, Name | sort-object Type, Name

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Just another handy code snippet for generating dates for date dimensions in your data warehouse.

I am providing just the select statement here, but to generate (massive) date records, just create and set your start and end date variables, and enclose your insert and the code below in your WHILE loop.

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Your report is only as good as your requirements.

When I first worked with reports and reporting services, I was excited and giddy. Beside my plain old text and T-SQL, I now get to work with some shapes and colors! And look ma, no hands, err, it’s drag and drop!

But the fascination with colors, drilldowns, drillthroughs, what-have-yous fade away as quickly as that drag and drop. You realize fast that – although managers typically like the pie charts, the drill downs, the colored legends – if any number, or any minor thing for that matter, is not “right”, the whole report is not right, and all your work really goes down the drain.

Sometimes, it’s not because the report is “completely wrong”.
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Just a few queries against the ReportServer database that might come in handy…
Of course, these are just some sample queries. Tune and modify according to your needs …
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I would like to say a huge and warm thank you to all who attended my sessions for SQLSaturday#43 in Redmond. It was such a great event, and I hope you enjoyed the sessions – and enjoyed the whole day with all the wonderful speakers.

As promised here are the files for my sessions:
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These two books are great, and they almost never leave my desk. I’ve been reading them nonstop.

Prologika Press. Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services by Teo Lachev

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Recipes: for Designing Expert Reports by Paul Turley and Robert M. Bruckner