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Chapter 55: Authoring Reports in Reporting Services
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the rendered report causes the report to re-sort as wanted. Although column headers are
the normal place to enable sorting, no real restrictions exist for how interactive sorting is
enabled, and it can be used for detail rows, groups, or various combinations.Working with Visualization Tools
Reporting Services has greatly enhanced graphics to present report data. Charts show
proportion, trends, and comparisons of series of data. Drag a chart onto the design sur-
face, and click to select the item. Three areas appear ready for data fi elds to be dragged
onto them:■ Series: This is the fi eld that separates the data into groups that appear in the
legend.
■ Category: This is the fi eld that subdivides a series into distinct bars or points on a
line.
■ Data: These are the actual values to be charted.
Fields can be dragged directly from the Report Data pane where the dataset is defi ned to a
chart. Titles, placement, and many formatting details can now be set by directly typing on
or moving items within the chart. An exhaustive set of additional properties is available
via the right-click menu to control nearly every detail of the chart.To change the colors of elements inside a chart, right click the selected item. From the con-
text menu, select its properties. Then select the Fill tab and select the color and pattern
you desire. For instance, if you want to change the colors of the bars on a bar chart you
would select the series in design mode, right click and then select Series Properties.
From the properties window, select Fill and customize the colors as you wish.Prior to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services, the only option for enhancing a report with
data visualization was to add a chart. Now visualization options have been expanded to
include Databars, Sparklines, Indicators, gauges, and maps.A gauge is, conceptually speaking, a much simpler control. It displays how far a value falls
on a scale, such as a gas gauge or thermometer. The dataset that drives the gauge needs to
provide only a single value (or for some gauges a few), and, optionally, the minimum and
maximum values for the scale. For example, a gauge could display how all salespeople per-
form against their sales quota.Drag a gauge onto the design surface, and select it to see the data handle. Drop the fi eld
from the dataset to be displayed into this handle. Then right-click to access the scale prop-
erties to enter the minimum and maximum scale values, or choose the dataset fi elds to
associate them with.Databars, Sparklines, and Indicators are new chart types that are best used at the end
of each line of data in a report. They provide a way to quickly assess the data in a detail
or group line-by-line by providing a tiny visual representation of the data, which the
mind can interpret much faster than it can read the data in the row. A Databar visuallyc55.indd 1253c55.indd 1253 7/31/2012 10:28:07 AM7/31/2012 10:28:07 AM
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