Aras Innovator 11

Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

For use with Microsoft SQL Server 2016

Document #: 11.0.02016093001
Last Modified: 1/10/2018
 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Copyright Information
Copyright © 2018 Aras Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Aras Corporation
300 Brickstone Square
Suite 700
Andover, MA 01810

Phone: 978-691-8900
Fax: 978-794-9826

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://www.aras.com

Notice of Rights
Copyright © 2018 by Aras Corporation. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the
Open Publication License, V1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).
Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
Distribution of the work or derivative of the work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless
prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder.
Aras Innovator, Aras, and the Aras Corp "A" logo are registered trademarks of Aras Corporation in the United States and other
countries.
All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Notice of Liability
The information contained in this document is distributed on an "As Is" basis, without warranty of any kind, express or implied,
including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose or a warranty of non-
infringement. Aras shall have no liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused
directly or indirectly by the information contained in this document or by the software or hardware products described herein.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 2

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Table of Contents
Send Us Your Comments ............................................................................................. 5
Document Conventions ................................................................................................ 6
1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 7
2 Installing Reporting Services ................................................................................. 8
2.1 Installation is a component of SQL Server 2016.......................................................................... 8
2.1.1 Default Instance ............................................................................................................. 9
2.1.2 Service account Setup ................................................................................................. 10
2.1.3 Database Engine Configuration and Authentication Mode ......................................... 11
2.1.4 Analysis Services Configuration .................................................................................. 12
2.1.5 Reporting Services Options ......................................................................................... 13
2.1.6 Remaining Selections .................................................................................................. 13

3 Configuring Reporting Services ........................................................................... 14

3.1 Installing Reporting Services ...................................................................................................... 14
3.2 Setting Up the Report Folder ..................................................................................................... 16
3.3 Adding a Shared Data Source ................................................................................................... 18
3.4 Adding Reporting Services User and Role ................................................................................ 21
3.4.1 Add local User Account for Reporting ......................................................................... 21
3.4.2 Add the Reporting Role ............................................................................................... 21

4 Using Visual Studio for Report Design ................................................................ 27

4.1 Create a New Report Project ..................................................................................................... 27
4.2 Configure Project Properties ...................................................................................................... 28
4.3 Add New Shared Data Source ................................................................................................... 28
4.3.1 Connection Properties ................................................................................................. 28
4.3.2 Deploy the Shared Data Source .................................................................................. 30

5 Creating your First Report .................................................................................... 31

5.1 Start a New Report using the Wizard ......................................................................................... 31
5.2 Select the Data Source .............................................................................................................. 32
5.3 Design the Query ....................................................................................................................... 33
5.4 Select the Report Type .............................................................................................................. 34
5.5 Design the Table ........................................................................................................................ 35
5.6 Choose the Table Style .............................................................................................................. 36
5.7 Name the Report ........................................................................................................................ 37
5.8 Wizard Report Results ............................................................................................................... 38
5.9 Visual Studio Layout .................................................................................................................. 38
5.10 Deploying the Report ................................................................................................................. 39
5.11 Confirm Deployment .................................................................................................................. 39
5.12 Running the Report from within Aras Innovator ......................................................................... 40
5.12.1 Adding Aras Innovator Report Item ............................................................................. 40

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 3

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.12.2 Passing Named Parameters to the ReportServer ....................................................... 41

6 Report Server query_string Parameters .............................................................. 42

6.1 Named Parameters .................................................................................................................... 42
6.2 Format Parameter ...................................................................................................................... 42
6.3 Report Toolbar ........................................................................................................................... 42
6.4 Parameters Form ....................................................................................................................... 42
6.5 Zoom .......................................................................................................................................... 42
6.6 Reports Folder............................................................................................................................ 43
6.7 Report Name .............................................................................................................................. 43

7 Report Manager...................................................................................................... 44
7.1 Opening the Report Manager page ........................................................................................... 44
7.2 Export the RDL ........................................................................................................................... 45
7.3 Import the RDL ........................................................................................................................... 46
7.4 Select the Shared Data Source.................................................................................................. 49

8 Date Related SQL Queries .................................................................................... 51

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 4

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Send Us Your Comments

Aras Corporation welcomes your comments and suggestions on the quality and usefulness of this
document. Your input is an important part of the information used for future revisions.
o Did you find any errors?
o Is the information clearly presented?
o Do you need more information? If so, where and what level of detail?
o Are the examples correct? Do you need more examples?
o What features did you like most?

If you find any errors or have any other suggestions for improvement, indicate the document title, and the
chapter, section, and page number (if available).

You can send comments to us in the following ways:

Email:
[email protected]
Subject: Aras Innovator Documentation
Or,
Postal service:
Aras Corporation
300 Brickstone Square
Suite 700
Andover, MA 01810
Attention: Aras Innovator Documentation
Or,
FAX:
978-794-9826
Attn: Aras Innovator Documentation

If you would like a reply, provide your name, email address, address, and telephone number.

If you have usage issues with the software, visit http://www.aras.com/support/

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 5

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Document Conventions
The following table highlights the document conventions used in the document:

Document Conventions

Convention Description

This shows the names of menu items, dialog boxes, dialog

Bold box elements, and commands.
Example: Click OK.

Code examples appear in courier text. It may represent

Code
text you type or data you read.

Code with yellow highlight is used to draw attention to the

Yellow highlight
code that is being indicated in the content.

Yellow highlight Red color text with yellow highlight is used to indicate the
with red text code parameter that needs to be changed or replaced.

Italics Reference to other documents.

Note: Notes contain additional useful information.

Warning contains important information. Pay special

Warning attention to information highlighted this way.

Successive menu Successive menu choices may appear with a greater than
choices sign (-->) between the items that you will select
consecutively.
Example: Navigate to File --> Save --> OK.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 6

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

1 Introduction
Aras Innovator’s Report ItemType includes support for Microsoft’s ‘Reporting Services’ in addition to
supporting the existing XSLT based reports.
Reporting Services is an integral component of SQL Server 2016, and any customer with a SQL Server
2016 license can install Reporting Services. (See installation instructions below).
Usage of this release is recommended only for those with advanced Aras Innovator and SQL training.
Primary benefits to switching from stylesheet driven reports to Report Server:
 Query building is in SQL, and is graphical (same as in Enterprise Manager).
 Report definitions are transportable, you can develop on your laptop, and then deploy to a
production server.
 Report layout is more drag-n-drop and has more powerful formatting tools.
 The resulting reports are paginated.
 The end-user can easily print, PDF, or export to Excel the report output.
 Excel like Charts and graphs can be produced
Planned enhancements are a tighter integration of the authentication / permissions model, and finding an
alternative to Visual Studio for end-use report layout.
To learn more about Microsoft Reporting Services visit: Microsoft SQL Server: Reporting

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 7

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

2 Installing Reporting Services

Reporting Services is a component of Microsoft SQL server 2016 and can be installed by selecting the
‘Reporting Services’ option during the SQL server installation.

Figure 1.
In addition to selecting the Reporting Services option, you can select ‘Analysis Services’ which provides
graphing and charting functionality.

2.1 Installation is a component of SQL Server 2016

The following is a summary of dialogs to be used when installing SQL server 2016.
Note: If you view dialog boxes not listed here, use the default selections.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 8

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

2.1.1 Default Instance

Figure 2.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 9

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

2.1.2 Service account Setup

Figure 3.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 10

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

2.1.3 Database Engine Configuration and Authentication Mode

Figure 4.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 11

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

2.1.4 Analysis Services Configuration

Figure 5.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 12

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

2.1.5 Reporting Services Options

Figure 6.

2.1.6 Remaining Selections

The default selections can be used from this point forward.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 13

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

3 Configuring Reporting Services

The Reporting Services use Folders to organize Reports. The Aras Innovator integration with Reporting
Services uses as a default the Folder named ‘Innovator Reports’.
In this section, we configure the Reporting Services using the Report Manager by adding the ‘Innovator
Reports’ Folder and a Shared Data Source, which the Reports use to connect to the database.

3.1 Installing Reporting Services

The Reporting Services ReportServer comes with a Report Manager page used to configure the Reports,
Folders, Data Sources, and so on. This page has been integrated into Innovator client via an Innovator
Report that opens the Report Manager page.
Open your browser with the URL http://localhost:80/Reports (on a default install).
To set up Reporting Services:
1. Open the Reporting Services Configuration Manager
2. Set up a Service Account

Figure 7.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 14

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

3. Set up a Web Service URL

Figure 8.
4. Set up the Database

Figure 9.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 15

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5. Set up the Web Portal URL

Figure 10.

3.2 Setting Up the Report Folder

1. Open the Report Manager page (defined above) in a new window:

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 16

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 11.
2. Click +, then Folder.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 17

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

3. Enter ‘Innovator Reports’ for the name and click Create.

Figure 12.

Note: If you use a folder named something other than ‘Innovator Reports’, you need to change the
‘Report Server Folder’ variable in the database as well in Administration\Variables in the TOC.
The default value for this is ‘Innovator Reports’ but can be customized for each database. For the
purposes of these instructions, we assume the default value is used.

3.3 Adding a Shared Data Source

Once you add the ‘Innovator Reports’ Folder, navigate into it by clicking on the link. Now, you add a
Shared Data Source for the Reports to use to connect to the database.
1. Click + then Data Source inside the Innovator Reports folder.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 18

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 13.
The New Data Source dialog appears.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 19

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 14.
2. Enter innovator_regular for the Data Source Name.

Note: By using this same name for both the development and production servers,
exporting/importing Reports becomes simpler because there is no need to reassign the
Data Source for the Reports you import.

3. Enter the following for the ‘Connection String’ replacing the values for the two parameters with the
actual server name where SQL Server is installed as well as the actual database name.
data source=<SQLServerName>;initial catalog=<InnovatorDatabase>
e.g.
data source=MyServer\MSSQLSERVER2016;initial catalog=InnovatorSolutions
4. Select the Using the following credential choice for the Connect Using Field and enter the DB
Client Login credentials for your database.
5. Click Create to deploy the shared Data Source.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 20

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

3.4 Adding Reporting Services User and Role

The entry point for the Microsoft Reporting Services is the ReportServer.asmx file. The same Web
Service is used to request Reports and administer the Report Server.
The Web Service is configured by default to use Windows Authentication. You can't simply open the
security for anonymous Web users because that would open the Report Manager as well.
This security model requires the User be authenticated when they request Reports. A dialog opens
requesting the user's login credentials the first time they request a Report each time the browser is
opened again. When requesting the Report from within Aras Innovator this would not be desirable. Users
would not only have to constantly provide login credentials to access reports, but each Innovator user
would also have to have either a domain or local user access on the server.
To handle this problem, Aras provides the Innovator Reporting Services Gateway that processes
requests to Reporting Services. This gateway uses one shared User Account for all Report requests. The
Gateway submits the actual Report request using this shared User Account and propagates the results
back to the client. The Report renders without the authentication dialog appearing.
If the user attempts to view the Report directly outside Aras Innovator, they still see the authentication
dialog as normal. So users can only view the Reports through Aras Innovator.
The local User Account on the server by default is named ‘Reporting’ with a default password is
‘reporting’ and must be mapped as a Role in the Report Server.

3.4.1 Add local User Account for Reporting

The administrator for the server where Microsoft Reporting Services is installed must add a new Windows
User Account named ‘Reporting’. Once the User Account is created you can configure Aras Innovator by
setting the user name and password in the InnovatorServerConfig.xml configuration file:
<ReportingServices>
<ReportServer>http://localhost/ReportServer/</ReportServer>
<User>Reporting</User>
<Password>reporting</Password>
<Domain>Domain for the above User</Domain>
</ReportingServices>

Optional node, <Domain>, should contain the domain name you want to use to connect to Reporting
services.

3.4.2 Add the Reporting Role

The Reporting User Account must next be mapped as a Role in Reporting Services enabling this account
Browser privileges.
1. Create a user on the Server named “Reporting”
2. Click on the ‘Site Settings’ link in the upper right hand corner of the Report Manager page.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 21

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 15.
3. Click on the ‘Security’ tab.

Figure 16.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 22

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

4. Click ‘Add group or user’ to map the Reporting User Account as a Reporting Services Role.

Figure 17.
5. Enter the User Account name Reporting and check the System checkbox and click OK to create
the new Role.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 23

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 18.
6. Click on the Browse link in the upper left corner on the page

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 24

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 19.
7. Click on Manage Folder link

Figure 20.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 25

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

8. In the settings tab, click Add group or user.

Figure 21.
9. Enter Reporting in the Group or User field and check the Browser checkbox. Click OK to create
a new Role Assignment for the Innovator Reports folder.

Figure 22.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 26

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

4 Using Visual Studio for Report Design

Once the Reporting Services is installed you need to configure Visual Studio to create a Project to hold
the Reports. Plus configure a Shared Data Source, which is the database connection information for the
Reports.
Note: It is required that you follow the exact naming conventions as shown here to ensure that the Aras
Innovator integration with the Reporting Services works correctly.

4.1 Create a New Report Project

Start SQL Server Data Tools and create a new project named ‘Innovator Reports’. This becomes the
Reporting Services Folder to hold the Reports for Aras Innovator.

Figure 23.

Figure 24.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 27

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

4.2 Configure Project Properties

Open the ‘Solutions Explorer’ panel from the menu View  Solutions Explorer if it is not already
opened.
Right-click the ‘Innovator Reports’ folder and select the Properties context menu choice.
On the Properties dialog set the TargetServerURL field to the URL of the Report Server. For example,
http://localhost:80/ReportServer where the actual name of the server host name is entered in place of
localhost.
Also set the OverwriteDateSources flag to True.

Figure 25.

4.3 Add New Shared Data Source

In the same ‘Solutions Explorer’ panel, right-click on the ‘Shared Data Sources’ folder and select ‘Add
New Data Source’ context menu choice. Click Edit to configure the new datasource.

4.3.1 Connection Properties

1. Select or enter the ‘Sever name’ for the machine SQL Server is installed.
2. Select the ‘Use a specific user name and password’ option and enter the login credentials for
the database and check the Save My password option.
3. Select or enter the ‘Database name’.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 28

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 26.

Figure 27.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 29

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

4.3.2 Deploy the Shared Data Source

By default, the name of the Shared Data Source is the name of the Database you selected above. You
can rename this if you want. Finally, you need to deploy this new Shared Data Source.

Figure 28.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 30

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5 Creating your First Report

The following illustrates using the Report Wizard to create a new Report. For this Report we create a
simple User Directory Report showing the Users First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number, and
Company Name. The following is a screen shot of the Report that we will be creating:

5.1 Start a New Report using the Wizard

From the ‘Solution Explorer’ panel right mouse click on the ‘Reports’ folder and select the context menu
choice ‘Add New Report’.

Figure 29.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 31

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.2 Select the Data Source

You can create a unique Data Source for this Report but it typical that you use the default Shared Data
Source that you created.

Figure 30.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 32

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.3 Design the Query

You need to provide the SQL Select query that fetches the data for the Report. In many cases you can
enter the simple select clause in the dialog directly.

Figure 31.

Note: It is possible to pass Named Parameters into the query such as:
SELECT * FROM [PROJECT] WHERE id=@ID
The ‘Edit…’ button opens a Query Builder interface, which is covered later in more detail.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 33

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.4 Select the Report Type

There are two choices for the Report Type: Tabular (column layout) and Matrix (rows and columns
layout). Select the Tabular type:

Figure 32.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 34

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.5 Design the Table

Select the fields that you want to show on the Report. In this case, we were selective about which fields to
return from the query select clause so we want all the fields.

Figure 33.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 35

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.6 Choose the Table Style

Select the style for the table for the Report. This example simply uses the default State style.

Figure 34.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 36

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.7 Name the Report

The final step in the Report wizard is to name the Report.
Note: The Report Name must be chosen to be meaningful and should be the same name you set as
the name of the Report Item in Aras Innovator.

Figure 35.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 37

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.8 Wizard Report Results

The Report wizard builds the report, which looks similar to following screen shot:

Figure 36.
Once the Report is opened in the Layout Tab you can make further changes as required.

5.9 Visual Studio Layout

The Report pane has three Tabs:
 Data: For editing the query for the Report. Look at the appendix in this document to see a more
complex Report query example, using the graphical query builder instead of the wizard.
 Layout: For visually designing the Report with drag and drop functionality.
 Preview: For viewing the finished report with real data.
The ‘Properties’ panel on the right is used for setting fonts, color, and other visual properties.
The ‘Fields’ panel on the left is used to drag database fields onto the report.
The ‘Toolbox’ panel also on the left is for dragging Report controls onto the Report layout. This is how
you can add tables, labels, images, and charts to the Report layout.
Note:
Use the View  Fields menu, pick to open the Fields panel when in Layout mode.
Use the View  Toolbox menu, pick to open the Toolbox panel.
To open the Header and Footer, right-click to open the context menu in the pink field in the
Report layout.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 38

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.10 Deploying the Report

Once you are satisfied with the Report query and layout as viewed from the Preview Tab you need to
deploy the Report to the Reporting Service. From the ‘Solution Explorer’ panel right mouse click on the
‘User Directory’ Report item and select the context menu choice Deploy. Watch for error messages in the
output window at the bottom of the frame.

Figure 37.

5.11 Confirm Deployment

To confirm the new report has been deployed, open IE Browser and navigate to
http://localhost:80/Reports. You should see the ‘Innovator Reports’ folder. Click on that link and you
should see the report you created.
Select the hyperlink for the new Report and after it opens, run the Report.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 39

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.12 Running the Report from within Aras Innovator

In order for users to run the new Reporting Services Report from within Aras Innovator you need to create
an Innovator Report Item. The important settings to enable the Innovator/Reporting Services interface
are:
 The Innovator Report Item name must be exactly the same as the Reporting Services Report
name.
 The Location Field choice must be set to the new ‘Service’ option.
 The Report Query Field specifies the parameters that are passed to the Report Server.

5.12.1 Adding Aras Innovator Report Item

1. Log into Aras Innovator as administrator.

2. In the TOC, navigate to Administration --> Reports.
3. Click New on the main Toolbar.
4. When the new Report Form opens enter the name of the Report (again this is the name you
specified when you created the Report in Visual Studio).
5. Select the Report Type, which in this case is ‘Generic’ meaning this Report, is available always.
6. Select the Report Location, which in this case is ‘Service’.
7. Select the Report Target, which in the case we want ‘Window’.
8. Because this sample Report is of type ItemType there is no Report query Value.

Figure 38.

Note: If you are using Firefox, you have to manually enter a stylesheet under the Stylesheet tab.

9. Test the Report by clicking on the Reports main menu bar choice and you should see the new
‘User Report’ choice. Click on the menu choice and you should see a new window open with the
‘User Directory’ Report.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 40

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

5.12.2 Passing Named Parameters to the ReportServer

As step 4 describes in the section 3.1, Report Server Variable, the value of the Innovator Report Item
Property report_query is appended to the ReportServer URL providing additional parameters to
control the ReportServer.
For example, the ID of the Item can be passed as the Named Parameter @ID for the SQL Select for
the Reporting Services Report as in this example:
SELECT * FROM [PROJECT] WHERE id=@ID

To pass the ID for the context Item (the selected Item) on the URL to the ReportServer, the Innovator
Report Item report_query Property would look like this:
np:id=<xsl:value-of select="@id"/>

This is actually an XSLT stylesheet fragment and is the directive for Innovator to add the string
&id=ACBDEF0123456789ACBDEF0123456789 to the end of the ReportServer URL (but the actual
ID value is used).
In this case the Innovator Report is of type Generic so no ID is required but perhaps we want the
Reporting Services Report to be returned in PDF or Excel format. We can control the ReportServer
by adding the following parameter as the report_query value for the ‘User Directory’ Report:
rs:Format=PDF

Figure 39.

Note: If you need to include more than one parameter for the report_query value, you need to use the
Entity &amp; rather than the actual & symbol to delimit the parameters. Recall that the
report_query value is eventually part of the query_string for the URL to the ReportServer but is
actually an XSLT stylesheet fragment and so the special symbols like <, >, and & need to be
protected in XML need to be entered as Entities &lt; &gt; and &amp; respectively.

For example, to pass the Named Parameter ID and also the Format PDF in the same report_query the
value would look like this:
np:id=<xsl:value-of select=”@id”/>&amp;rs:Format=PDF

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 41

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

6 Report Server query_string Parameters

There are several parameters that you can use to control how the Reporting Services run your Report
requests. You include these in the Innovator Report Item's report_query property, which the client then
uses to form the query_string for the ReportServer request:

6.1 Named Parameters

Named Parameters passed onto the SQL Select query. For example,
np:last_name=Kohl
Would map the value Kohl to the Named Parameter @last_name in the SQL Select:
SELECT * FROM [USER] WHERE last_name=@last_name

6.2 Format Parameter

Format parameter to control the format the Report is rendered:
rs:Format=XML
rs:Format=PDF
rs:Format=HTML4.0
rs:Format=MHTML
rs:Format=EXCEL
rs:Format=Word

6.3 Report Toolbar

Turn off the Report Toolbar:
rc:Toolbar=false

6.4 Parameters Form

Turn off the Parameter Collection area above the Report, which is a simple dynamically created Form
with Fields to allow the user to enter input for the Named Parameters for the SQL Select query. The
Named Parameters passed on the ReportServer URL query_string are shown and the user fills in the
rest:
rc:Parameters=false
rc:Parameters=Collapsed

6.5 Zoom
Control the zoom:
rc:Zoom=100
rc:Zoom=% zoom as integer
rc:Zoom=Page Width

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 42

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

rc:Zoom=Whole Page

6.6 Reports Folder

The default Folder where Reporting Services Reports are deployed is in ‘Innovator Reports’ however, you
may deploy the Reports in other Folders and you specify this using this Parameter:
irs:Folder=Your Folder Name

6.7 Report Name

The Aras Innovator client automatically appends the Parameter to specify the Report to run on the
query_string, which is the name of the Innovator Report Item. However, if run reports programmatically
you may need to set this directly yourself:
irs:Report=Your Report Name

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 43

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

7 Report Manager
The Reporting Services ReportServer comes with a Report Manager page to administer the Reports,
Folders, Data Sources, and so on. This page has been integrated into Aras Innovator client via an
Innovator Report that opens the Report Manager page (see section 2 Configuring Aras Innovator for more
information about this Report Item).
Reports that are created and tested on the development machine can be moved to a production
ReportServer by exporting the RDL file for the Report from your local development machine and then
importing it into the production machine.
The process of exporting a Report and importing it into another ReportServer and enabling the Report in
Aras Innovator is a four step process:
1. Export the RDL file via the Report Manager page.
2. Import the RDL file via the Report Manager page.
3. Reassign the Data Source to the imported Report.
4. Add an Innovator Report Item to call the Reporting Services Report.

7.1 Opening the Report Manager page

1. In the TOC, navigate to Administration  Reports.
2. Click Reports on the main menu and the ‘Report Manager’ choice.
3. The Report Manager page opens in a new window as shown here:

Figure 40.

Note: This same page can be opened from your browser with the URL http://localhost:80/Reports

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 44

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

7.2 Export the RDL

To export a RDL file for a Report, click on the ‘Innovator Reports’ Folder. You see a list of Reports and
Shared Data Sources.
Select ‘Manage’ from the Report Context menu, and then select ‘Download’ from the User Report page.
This opens a dialog asking for confirmation that you want to save the RDL file.

Figure 41.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 45

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 42.

7.3 Import the RDL

Log into the target Aras Innovator Server:
1. In the TOC, navigate to Administration  Reports.
2. Click Reports on the main menu and the ‘Report Manager’ choice.
3. The Report Manager page opens in a new window as shown below:
Note: This same page can be opened from your browser with the URL http://localhost:80/Reports

Figure 43.
Click on the ‘Innovator Reports’ Folder and you see a list of Reports and Shared Data Sources. Click
‘Upload’ in the middle of the screen.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 46

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 44.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 47

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 45.
This opens the File Selection dialog for you to select the RDL file to upload.
Select the RDL file and click Open. The RDL file is uploaded to the target ReportServer and deployed.
You should see the new Report in the Folder now.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 48

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

7.4 Select the Shared Data Source

The Data Source for the Report may need to be changed if the name of the Shared Data Source is
different on the target ReportServer. Select ‘Manage’ from the Report Context menu; this opens the
Properties page for the Report where you can select its Shared Data Source.

Figure 46.
Select the ‘Data Sources’ navigation link. The first choice ‘A shared data source’ should be selected.

Figure 47.
If the named Shared Data Source is incorrect for this ReportServer click ‘…’ to open the Shared Data
Source page. Navigate the Folders to locate the desired Shared Data Source, select it, and click ‘OK’.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 49

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

Figure 48.

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 50

 Aras Innovator 11
Microsoft Reporting Services Guide

8 Date Related SQL Queries

AML is the language of Aras Innovator, but some external add-ons do connect to Aras Innovator on a
direct SQL level. Because Aras Innovator stores DateTimes in SQL Server as UTC, we have provided an
add-on function for Microsoft SQL Server that allows the easy conversion of DateTime to and from UTC.
To convert DateTime values from UTC to a specific time zone, use the function ConvertToLocal
({value},{Time Zone}). The time zone should be specified according to the registry key name of the time
zone desired. (Refer to Aras Innovator - Configuring Internationalization). To use the DEFAULT
parameter for the {Time Zone}, it is required that a value be set for CorporateTimeZone.
Example:
select item_number, created_on

from innovator.Document
Would be written as
select item_number, innovator.ConvertToLocal(created_on,DEFAULT) as
CreadtedOn

from innovator.Document
Or
select item_number, innovator.ConvertToLocal(created_on,'Eastern Standard
Time') as CreadtedOn

from innovator.Document
To convert DateTime values from a specific time zone to UTC, use the function
ConvertFromLocal({value},{Time Zone}). The time zone should be specified according to the registry key
name of the time zone desired. (Refer to Aras Innovator - Configuring Internationalization) To use the
DEFAULT parameter for {Time Zone}, it is required that a value be set for CorporateTimeZone.
Example:
update innovator.Documnet

set effective_date = '1/1/2007 00:00:00.00'

Would be written as
update innovator.Documnet

set effective_date = innovator.ConvertFromLocal('1/1/2007

00:00:00.00',DEFAULT)
Or
update innovator.Documnet

set effective_date = innovator.ConvertFromLocal('1/1/2007

00:00:00.00','Eastern Standard Time')
This allows users to write queries in a familiar time zone context.
select item_number, innovator.ConvertToLocal(release_date,DEFAULT) as
ReleaseDate

from innovator.Document

where created_on >= innovator.ConvertFromLocal('1/1/2007

00:00:00.00',DEFAULT)

2018 Aras Corporation All Copyrights Reserved. 51