On-Premise Reporting with SSRS 2016 · solution to support. With SSRS 2016’s new Mobile Reporting...

On-Premise Reportingwith SSRS 2016

A Pragmatic Works Whitepaper

The latest release of SQL Server 2016 includes enhancements to the SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) component that allows companies to host a single source for operational and analytical reports in an on-premise solution. SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services supports a variety of traditional reports plus new mobile and Business Intelligence reporting features, including Self-Service BI functionality. While Power BI has been a solution for cloud users, SQL Server has traditionally had two methods for producing reports. SSRS has traditionally been used to host traditional paper-based (rows and columns) reports, and SharePoint has hosted BI/analytics reporting through Power Pivot and Power View. For many companies, hosting SharePoint to provide analytics reports was an expensive solution, and a complicated solution to support. With SSRS 2016’s new Mobile Reporting options, SSRS can host traditional and new format reports.

SQL Server Reporting Services was first introduced in 2004 as an add-on to SQL Server 2000. It was released as a part of SQL Server 2005 in November 2005, with further releases in SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2014 and the latest release in 2016. In versions prior to SQL Server 2016, the focus of Reporting Services was the “paginated” reports, or printed reports, that met the needs of most operational/detail reporting. The application allowed users to view or subscribe to reports, which could be printed, viewed or exported to other formats. SSRS provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool for report building, as well as a Report Viewer tool, and allowed developers to imbed web-based reports into supported browsers as web parts.

While SSRS has been a part of the SQL Server product line since 2005, the 2016 version of SQL Server is one of the most important, as the rewrite allows it to support a wider range of customer browsers, and adds significant functionality with Mobile Reports.

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On-Premise Reporting with SSRS 2016 A Pragmatic Works Whitepaper

What’s New in SSRS 2016?In SQL Server 2016, Microsoft has worked to make the SSRS Web portal the new “hub” for the SQL Server Reporting tools. The Reporting Portal that has been featured in SSRS has been rewritten to support the newest web technologies, including HTML 5, and has eliminated the need for older technologies such as Silverlight. Microsoft has also removed the requirement for the SharePoint support for these analytical reports. A full featured solution for operational reports, ad-hoc queries, mobile device reports and analytics (KPIs and Mobile Reports) gives organizations the ability to deliver a full suite of reports that will support even advanced users with an on-premise solution.

What this means for business is that the SQL Server suite delivers a full set of data management and reporting tools for IT organizations that includes analytical and operational reports. The SQL Server suite of tools now delivers everything from databases, to analytic cubes, to desktop tools for reporting and analysis of data within and outside an organization. And, the SSRS Reporting Hub is a one-stop shop for IT departments to share their structured and unstructured data elements for user analysis and reporting.

Updated Web PortalOne of the primary new features in SSRS 2016 is the updated Web Portal. For this release, Microsoft rewrote the portal to support the newest web technologies, like HTML5, and eliminated the need for Silverlight. This expands the user base to include any device that supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. With HTML5, developers can create reports and analytics that are able to be displayed on many devices, not just Windows-based desktops. As well as the traditional data sources, datasets and paginated reports, the portal now also supports Mobile Reports and KPIs. The image below shows an example of a user’s web portal with all of the objects they can access.

This image shows an example of a user who has objects organized by object type. A user can further tailor their display to only list “favorite” items, therefore simplifying the experience, and can further organize their items by folder. By having both Mobile and Paginated reports located in a single hub, the user is less dependent on the databases and technical designs “under the covers”, and more focused on getting to the information needed.



KPIs

New Reporting Styles

For the first time, users can pin some Key Performance Identifiers (KPIs) to their Report Portal for more of a “Dashboard” type page that lets them do some business analysis at a glance. Having KPIs on the Report Portal means that common metrics used by the business are displayed. The format of the KPI can include several visual representations of the metric: Color, Amount and TrendLine are all configurable on the KPI to help the user quickly understand the status of the metric.

KPIs can be imported from Tabular Models, or developed from datasets, including desktop files (Excel).

Traditionally, SSRS reports have been paginated, “pixel perfect” reports that were rows and columns printed on paper. With the explosion of devices being used to access reports and analytics, the new Mobile Report Designer allows developers to build reports that can be viewed on multiple devices. Also, Microsoft has introduced additional report styles for traditional “paginated” reports. The figure to the right shows a report with a pie chart to summarize Sales by Product Category, with a detailed Sales Order report listing below.

With the rewrite of the Reporting Services Web Portal, reporting users get a “first class experience” in new browser technologies rather than generating paper reports.



New SQL Server Features

In addition to the new Report Portal and new Report Styles, there are other new features that are worth investigating. An exciting new feature is the custom branding for the Web Portal, as demonstrated in this graphic (right). Organizations can now custom brand the Report Portal for a look and feel unique to the organization. Also, report themes can be customized with CSS to continue the branding in the reports. This provides a more consistent look and feel for the entire reporting environment.

In addition to the branding functionality, SSRS has also added new improvements in the way report parameters are handled, and entering parameters has been improved to use AutoComplete and search.

Other New Features

As well as the new features in SSRS, there are also new features in SQL Server that benefit reporting. Row Level Security and Dynamic Data Masking are two features in SQL 2016 that enhance and enrich the reporting experience.

Dynamic Data Masking is a new feature that allows reporting-time masking of sensitive data elements. A good example of this is Social Security Numbers, where the developer wants to display the full number to some users, and only the last four digits for others. The Dynamic Data Masking feature allows that kind of customized data masking, with much less coding to make it simple for development.

Row Level Security allows the developer to implement restrictions on data row access at the database tier level, rather than at the application level. This makes data security more reliable and robust by creating standard security predicates at the table

level to filter out rows not applicable for a specific user, and the security policy can’t be ignored by the applications. This makes report development easier and more consistent across a wide variety of users.



In previous releases, organizations needed to install both SQL Server and SharePoint to give their users a full experience for ad-hoc and structured reporting, and to support any Business Intelligence reporting. With SQL Server 2016, the new Reporting Portal can host traditional, mobile and analytic reports from the same portal.

In most organizations, there are three categories of users for a reporting system:

• Power Users: Users that can generate data and reports, and analyze data in an ad-hoc manner

• Report Builders: Take data generated by Power Users and create new reports from that data

• Report Readers: Read reports generated by Power Users and Report Builders

The new Report Portal allows all types of users to access data from a single location. Power Users can create and manage Data Connections and Data Sets (pre-defined sets of data for user reporting), as well as build traditional reports, mobile reports and KPIs. Report Builders can build reports from these pre-defined data sets and can also add and manage KPIs. Report Users can also have organized access to information.

Something commonly seen on reporting engagements is the mashup of reporting requirements that span traditional operational reports, newer mobile and analytical reports and dashboards. Many companies are using the “Business Intelligence” (BI) as the overall description for reporting. When what they really need is a combination of both operational (low level detail, needed immediately, most up to date data) and analytics (long term data analysis, aggregations, trending). Trying to support both of those requirements with a single solution usually ends up with a frustrated IT department, and even more frustrated users. The advantage of the SSRS Web Portal solution is that users don’t have to have one system for traditional reports, and a separate solution for Business Intelligence. The Web Portal supports data sets that are from any data source (operational or analytical), and reports that are traditional paginated or new mobile formats. Using this web portal, the IT department can build traditional reports and datasets, and give users access to use these as data sets for ad-hoc queries and analytics.

Operational vs Analytics

Benefits of the New Features



Mobile ReportsWhile most people think “reporting on my phone” when they hear Mobile Reporting, it really is intended to be for “People on the Move”. Mobile Reporting allows reports to be developed and presented in several formats, depending on the type of device and the format of the device.

For developers, this allows data sets to be built from many different sources, and present a common look and feel for ad-hoc reporting. This lets users access the data without a detailed understanding of the data sources or data connection methods. An example Web Portal page (shown right) for a user might include KPIs imported from several different Analysis Services cubes, a few paginated reports from their operational system that provide low level reporting detail and some Mobile/BI reports for higher level aggregation and analysis from their data warehouse.

This updated Web Portal removes the requirement for users to have a different source for Business Intelligence reports that is separate from their traditional reporting sources

With the right setup and access, users can now view reports from any modern platform, with any platform orientation, using a single web portal.

The Mobile Report Builder is a new tool that allows developers to create reports that can have the content adjusted based on the orientation of the device (Tall or Flat).

Mobile Reports can be generated and tested for traditional displays (desktops, laptops), tables or phones, and the content can be built to work with different orientations of the display.



Addressing Legacy Technologies

Integration with Power BI

While the new features in SQL 2016 Reporting Services makes it an attractive option for users building out their first reporting environment, many users already have existing reporting solutions. Integrating SSRS with existing reporting technologies is straightforward for any on-premise reporting solutions. There are traditionally two formats for on-premise reporting with SQL Server: SSRS Native, and SSRS SharePoint Integrated.

In Native Mode, it is straightforward to upgrade the existing server to SQL 2016, and add the new reporting functionality. All of the existing reports and portals can be updated to the newest release following guidelines from Microsoft. New reports can be added without disrupting delivery of the existing reports.

For those users with SharePoint functionality, there are two choices: Continue to use SharePoint as the primary host for reporting, and use SSRS Native (separate installation) to host newer features, or begin migrating reports to SSRS. For now, Power Pivot models are still not supported via Reporting Services the way they are with SharePoint, but that integration is most likely not far in the future. In addition, most Power Pivot functionality can be replaced with data sets and mobile reports, removing the need for SharePoint Business Intelligence functionality. It makes sense to create a new SSRS Native Report Portal, and migrate appropriate reports to that portal as time allows.

Power BI has become Microsoft’s standard tool for Business Intelligence reporting for cloud users, as well as some on-premise (desktop) users. While the integration between Power BI and SSRS is now limited, more integration will be developed as these products mature. For now, there are three methods for integrating Power BI with SSRS 2016:

• Upload Power BI desktop files to the SSRS Web Portal. When uploaded, these files will be grouped together on the Web Portal. Files can be opened, viewed, modified, and saved back to the portal for easy access. More importantly, these files integrate with the SSRS Security model that users and developers are familiar with.

• Connect the Power BI Mobile App to SSRS, giving users access to SSRS Mobile Reports and KPIs from within the Power BI app.

• Pin Mobile Reports and KPIs to the Power BI Dashboard.

According to Microsoft, more integration is coming which will further enhance the users reporting experience, especially the on-premise experience. The roadmap for Reporting Services states that Power BI is the “on-premise solution for BI report delivery”, helping to turn SSRS into a modern web experience, and as a foundation for centralized reporting and sharing BI reports for organizations not quite ready for the cloud experience. Expect to see more integration with SSRS for BI reporting with upcoming releases.




Summary

Helpful Links

With Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 release, users now have, for the first time, a complete reporting solution that encompasses traditional paginated reporting, mobile reports and Business Intelligence. This solution can be hosted in an on-premise environment, as well as a cloud or hybrid environment.

• Mobile Reports Training: http://pragmaticworks.com/Training/Details/Mobile-Reports-and-Dashboards-with-SSRS-2016

• SSRS Information: http://blog.pragmaticworks.com/topic/ssrs

• Mobile Reports Publisher Information and Download: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt652547.aspx



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