Professional Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2007 Reporting with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

12.3. Creating Gauges that Use SharePoint Data

Creating a gauge that uses SharePoint data can involve various types of lists, but here you will use a special type of list. In this section, you will create a gauge for a site created using one of the 40 Application Templates provided by Microsoft.

NOTE

The 40 Application Templates are out-of-the-box templates that are custom sites created for specific scenarios and can be downloaded from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb407286.aspx.

The Call Center site application template, which can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/mrl3du, allows users to track service requests. When a service request is created, the template tracks several things, such as the average resolution time and knowledge base articles that help resolve open issues.

The Call Center application also comes with role-based dashboards. It includes a dashboard for the Service Rep, one for the Knowledge Manager, and one for the Service Rep Manager. The Service Rep Manager dashboard, shown in Figure 12-17, tracks the performance of service representatives by displaying the Overall Service Request Status chart and the Average Resolution Time KPI.

In the next walkthrough, you will enhance the look and feel of the Service Rep Manager dashboard by using gauges. First, create a gauge that will replace the Average Resolution Time Web Part, shown in Figure 12-17.

Figure 12-17. Figure 12-17

The following steps walk you through creating a gauge that ...