Can you consume OData in an SSRS report? - reporting-services

Is it possible to consume OData in an SSRS report? If so how do I go about this?
I found the following which seemed quite hopeful, but nothing recently confirms for whether this is actually possible:
http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/559570/ssrs-should-be-able-to-use-odata-as-a-data-source
If this isn't yet implemented in SSRS 2008R2 are there any recommended workarounds?

Not directly, no. OData isn't a supported data source for Reporting Services in current versions.
However SSRS can use ODBC data sources, so perhaps an OData ODBC driver like this one might be an alternative? I haven't tried this myself but it seems like a good option.

Related

Access 2000 reporting functionality substitute

Here in my job, we use Access 2000 as our only report deployment tool, and as many of you know, Access 2000 has some limitations, like not supporting OOP.
My question is:
What is the better replacement for it, Crystal Reports, Active Reports or SQL Server Reporting Services ? If you guys have any better idea, I would be happy to know it.
I have been searching and finally found the answer. First of all there are a lot of tools capable of this task, examples: Crystal Reports with RAS(Report application server, a crystal reports solution for building dynamic reports) API for .NET; You can do with xml and SSRS, first you generate a xml file with the information and then use the rdlc to display it. You can use Xtrareports a devexpress team solution. You with c# code create and manage your reports. This is it.

Consume SSRS Report within Windows Service

I want to consume a SSRS report within a windows service (wrote in C#). The service will then export the report as a PDF and write it to disk.
Is this even possible? I am new to SSRS.
Interesting question Mick. We have done code where we can call the SSRS report and export it as PDF but that code is in DLL. Now windows service is no different I would advise you to go through the following code http://sandeep-aparajit.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/how-to-execute-and-save-ssrs-report.html and try the same. It should work as far as i can see the only problem you might come across might be Code access security but it is worth a try. Thanks for the question you have given me an idea.
The URL for Reporting services will depend on what version of SSRS you are using but as you can see you can easily spot and change it http:///reportserver/reportservice2005.asmx instead of 2005 you might have to change to 2008 or something.

ColdFusion Reporting Options

We currently use Report Builder with ColdFusion. This Report Builder hasn't seen any Adobe development in around 5 years and doesn't look like it will see any soon.
I need a scalable reporting solution that will work in the cloud without huge licencing implications. I've looked at Crystal (which I don't understand the pricing or what I need) and JasperReports with iReport, and I guess that Microsoft SQL Reporting is an option also.
I'd like to get some recommendations on what people are using and how you have integrated that into ColdFusion. I appreciate that it may not be as seamless as Report Builder.
We are using Windows 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2008 in a Cloud infrastructure.
What ever solution we come up with, the resulting output of the reports need to be PDF.
I've used Crystal, SQL Report Builder and ColdFusion Report Builder.
Crystal and SQL Report Builder are much better than ColdFusion Report Builder. Like you said CF is not going anywhere and is really buggy to me.
Crystal is great but it becomes really expensive when you want to publish reports to the web. The standard product requires a report viewer that is installed locally. If you need to publish to the web it is much more expensive.
SQL Report Builder is a really good option. Version 3.0 is really nice and makes it very easy to write advanced SQL queries or call SPs and publish to the web.
I am a pretty big fan of SQL Report Builder.
Hope this helps.

Is the Azure SQL Reporting Service a complete replacement of SSRS?

I think the question in this thread's title is self-explanatory. Is there still a way to use SSRS or is SQL Azure Reporting Service the way to go?
This question may sound a little bit strange but I even have never used SSRS (seems to be server sided), just have to know this for a proof-of-concept paper.
Thanks :)
Here is a comparison of SQL Azure Reporting and SSRS by Microsoft.

What are the limitations on using SSRS with SQL Server 2005 Express edition?

I found this extremely old document which appears to say that many of the web client features are not availiable when running on express edition--scheduling, subscription, etc--as well as no access to the report builder. Is that information still current, and are there any other features which are unavailable?
Subscriptions and scheduling are indeed absent in both MSSQLEx2005 and MSSQLEx2008, but I have never found this to be much of a problem. The underlying platform has a scheduler and the web service will do all the rendering, so you can recreate the missing elements without too much trouble.
The report builder is also absent, and this is non-trivial to replicate. You could always install SQLEx locally and let them use BIDS. Or you could stop being cheap. It's pretty good for free.
I recommend you use SSRS2008 rather than 2005 because it no longer requires IIS, and there are several sexy new capabilities in the report engine. In particular it now supports flow-based rich text with inline fields for mail-merge type reports.
Compatibility is excellent but some applications reject a newer database engine version. If this is a problem, continue to use SQLExpr2005 for the database.
So, are you saying that A) SSRS 2005
requires IIS whereas 2008 does not,
and that B) SSRS2008 is backwards
compatible with a SQL2005 database?
(It sounds like you might be saying
that SSRS 2008 could be used with
somebody running 2005 DBs
Yes, I am indeed saying that
SSRS 2005 requires IIS whereas 2008 does not
SSRS 2008 is backwards compatible with a SQL2005 database
SSRS 2008 could be used with somebody running 2005 DBs, or even 2000 DBs.
You can use SSRS with any database server for which ADO.NET drivers are available, including Oracle and MySQL.
I've caught somewhere the idea about rich text in SSRS 2008.
As I see it will allow me to make such static text
"Some test with some text in bold and some italic text"
with a single text box which was impossible in RS 2005. (even don't know good way to make it there)
You wrote it doesn't require SQL Server 2008 to be installed.
What about IDE for reports development ?
Looking forward with big hopes for SSRS 2008,
thanks for attention in advance,
Alex