Professional Microsoft® SQL Server® Analysis Services 2008 with MDX

20.1. Report Designer

Report Designer is used to design a report that includes the infrastructure and layout for a report. The infrastructure first requires specification of one or more data sources. Data sources supported include anything accessible through the list of Providers shown in the Data Link Properties dialog (what you're used to seeing when creating data sources for other purposes). For the extraction of specific data, you have query builders that facilitate the query building process. This is built into Business Intelligence Development Studio and hosts a similar look and feel to Analysis Services and Integration Services projects. These tools enable the creation of tabular and matrix-based reports using a common infrastructure called tablix data region. You learn about tabular and matrix reports through examples in this chapter. Tablix supports the needed features for tabular or matrix reports. It also enhances the Reporting Services 2005 matrix feature to provide parallel row/column support and dynamic nesting of column groups and parallel row groups for the Reporting Services 2005 tabular feature. In addition, charts types like Gantt, Funnel, Pyramid, Histogram, Radar, and Pie Callout are also supported in Reporting Services 2008. You can customize your report to span multiple pages based on conditionals and grouping; this capability supports readability as does the judicious use of fonts and colors. Note that less is often more when it comes to things like fonts ...