Using SQL Azure for Business Intelligence : Creating a Report

Open Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 BIDS and then click File | New Project.

In the New Project dialog box, select Business Intelligence Projects and click Report Server Project. Provide a name for the project (such as AzureReports).

Click OK. When the new project has been created, you’ll have three default folders in the project: Shared Data Sources, Shared Datasets, and Reports. Right-click the Shared Data Sources folder and choose Add New Data Source.

In the Shared Data Source Properties dialog box, click the General tab and then provide a name for the data source (such as ContosoSales).

In the Type drop-down list, select Microsoft SQL Azure as the data source you want to use.

Click Edit to add the server name, credentials, and database name you want to use. For example, you’ll enter servername.database.cloud.net for name, click Use SQL Server Authentication and add your user name and password, and then select (or type) the database name.

The project now adds the data connection to your solution as an .rds file in the Shared Data Sets folder (for example, ContosoStores.rds). You’ll also see that the connection string has been added to the Shared Data Source Properties dialog box after you connect to the database. The next step, then, is to add a data set that you will use to display in the SSRS report.

To add a data set, right-click the Shared Datasets folder, provide a name for the data set (such as ContosoSalesDS), and enter a specific SQL command (either a SQL query or a stored procedure). Note that you can add multiple data sets if you want. Add a simple SQL query to select all records from the ContosoSales table in the Contoso database, as shown here:

SELECT * FROM Contoso.dbo.ContosoSales

At this point, you should have something that looks like the following graphic in front of you.

You can explore some of the other options in the Shared Dataset Properties dialog box. When you are done, click OK to complete the configuration of the SQL Azure data source.

SSRS allows you to create a custom form that will display the data. The amount of effort you put in here is up to you. If you want to simply display the data in SharePoint via your Report Server site without too intricate of a design, you can use a couple of controls to display your data. The form works in concert with the data sets you create. You can also use the Report Wizard to create a simple and lightly designed form.

To create the form, right-click the Reports folder and select Add New Report. This invokes the Report Wizard, which you can use to build one or more reports that work against the SQL Azure data source.

Leave the default data source selected (Shared Data Source), and click Next.

In the next step, you can build a query for the report. You can use the graphical Query Builder tool (by clicking the Query Builder button), or you can type a SQL command in the Query String window. Type SELECT * FROM Contoso.dbo.ContosoSales in the Query String window.

In the Report Type dialog box, select Tabular, and then click Next.

You can now design the report structure on the Design The Table page. Add all of the records to the Details view by clicking each field in the Available Fields list and then clicking the Details button. Do this for all of the fields, as shown in the following graphic.

Click Next. You can now select a style for your report. Click one of the options in the list and click Next.

You’re now presented with the final step in the wizard, which is a summary page. Provide a name for the report (such as MyContosoStoresReport), select the Preview Report check box, and click Finish.

At this point, you’ve created the core components for the report that you’ll deploy to SharePoint. To deploy the report, you need to edit the properties of the project. The properties you edit will point to a set of document libraries in SharePoint. Thus, before you can deploy the report, you need to navigate to your SharePoint Report Server site and create a new document library for your data set, data connection, and report.

To edit the properties of the project, right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Properties.

Edit the target folders in the Property Pages dialog box to ensure that they point to document libraries in SharePoint. For example, add something like http://blueyonderdemo:39447/Data as the document library in your SharePoint site for your data sets and connections, and http://blueyonderdemo:39447/Reports as the library for your reports.

To deploy the report to SharePoint, right-click the top-level project in the Solution Explorer and select Deploy. This deploys the form, data connection, and data set to the specific SharePoint folders you configured.

When you’ve deployed the report to SharePoint, you can then navigate to your SharePoint site—the Report Server site you built to house your SSRS reports. Click the document library in which you deployed the report, and then click the report. As shown in the following example graphic, your report renders inside of your SharePoint site.