CHAPTER 13 CREATING REPORTS USING REPORT BUILDER 1.0, 2.0, AND 3.0Report Parts
There is one more feature that was added with SSRS 2008 R2 that provides some of the true power of ad
hoc reporting. As we briefly touched on previously, Report Parts can be created and deployed to the
reporting server with the sole purpose of being used by other report developers or ad hoc report authors.
Report Parts not only assist in keeping consistency through reusability, but they can also improve report
authoring efficiencies. What is also amazing with Report Parts is that when reports consume report
parts, if a change is made to the report part, then each report that is using it is notified of the change. The
report author can choose to use the new version or keep the existing version that the report is using. This
is incredible, I know, and it is a very well received addition to the Report Builder tool.
Before we get into an example, just note that not all report items can be published as report parts.
Most of the report items found in the toolbox can be used as a report part, but not all. A list of the report
items that can be used are:
- Tablix – Table, List and Matrix
- Charts
- Gauges
- Maps
- Rectangles
- Images
- Parameters
We are going to deploy an existing report to the Report Server as a Report Part. We could do this
using the Report Designer or Report Builder, but since we are showing the capabilities of Report Builder
3.0, we will show you how to open up an existing report and deploy it from Report Builder. After we have
it deployed, we will show you how report authors using Report Builder 3.0 can “consume” or re-use parts
of reports that have been deployed to the Report Server. Open up the Report Builder and let's get started.
Here’s what to do:
- Once you have Report Builder started, click on the Report Builder icon in the
top left corner and click Open. - Navigate to the location that you have extracted the Pro_SSRS solution and
locate the EmployeeSvcCost_RB3_ReportPart.rdl file. Click Open to load the
report in Report Builder 3.0. - Click Run to view the report to see it in action. The report shows a pie chart
with the estimated cost for each branch as shown in Figure 13-69.