Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services

Chapter 11

OLAP Reporting Advanced Techniques

What's in this chapter?

Dynamically changing report content and navigating hierarchies by changing report parameters

Restricting the number of rows with a parameter

Displaying and allowing users to explore cube metadata

Creating your own OLAP browser in Reporting Services

Years ago, when I attended Tech Ed (Microsoft's annual conference for developers and IT professionals) in Boston, I noticed that the Blue Man Group was in town. I just had to see them; they are compelling on stage. This reminds me that when you see blue text in a browser (or report), you are compelled to click it. This chapter discusses how you can use this “blue clicking compulsion” to create dynamic and flexible reports that can be navigated simply by clicking blue content.

This chapter describes a series of reports that demonstrate the techniques behind building an OLAP client in SSRS. Along the way you will learn about the following:

• Using self-calling drill-through reports to navigate content
• Using other reports to collect parameters
• Formatting reports to make them easy to navigate
• Using cube metadata to drive report content (this will work on any cube)

Cube Dynamic Rows

I have often observed when I'm creating reports for clients that the reports they want are very similar. The columns stay fairly static, with values such as Amount, Amount Last Year, Growth, Growth Percentage, and Gross Profit. The only difference is the data shown on rows. So two reports could ...