Building Reporting Services and Excel Reports with Analysis Services Cubes

April 25, 2010

Jen Underwood MCITP, MCDBA, MCSD [email protected]

Session Agenda
Reporting Solution Architecture Options Excel*
Excel OLAP features and limitations Pivot tables, charts, conditional formatting, cube formulas and online/offline cubes

Demo: Excel with Analysis Services Cubes Reporting Services with Analysis Services Cubes
Reporting Services OLAP features and limitations BIDS and Report Builder 2.0 (and 3.0) Analysis Services and OLE DB providers MDX Query Designer Filters, parameters, groups, sorts, charts, aggregates and KPIs

Demo: Using BIDS Reporting Services Projects Resources

*Note the new Excel 2010 and PowerPivot is not covered in this session.
2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Reporting Solution Architecture Options

Native Reporting Services (Default Mode)

Reporting Services provides
Managed enterprise reporting Ad-hoc reporting Web-based reporting

Report Authoring with BIDS and greatly improved Report Builder 2.0 and 3.0
Enhanced report design controls such as Matrix Ad-hoc reporting control through Report Models Expanded data visualization controls (Dundas) SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata, DB2, SAP NetWeaver BI, Hyperion Essbase, web service, XML and others Report Manager and Configuration Manager My Reports personalization feature Custom Application and Web Service Extensions Caching Snapshots Subscriptions

Supports a wide range of data sources

Manages and Delivers Reports

High-Performance Report Processing

SOURCE: Microsoft MSDN

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Reporting Services
Report management Manage report categorization, data sources, security, subscriptions via the Report Manager Report authoring Visually design reports & layout via the Report Designer

Model design Design semantic models that map to real business entities via the Model Designer

End user report creation Enable end users to create their own Adhoc reports via the Report Builder

SOURCE: January 2007 presentation by Tom Casey, Microsoft Source: January 2007 presentation by Tom Casey, Microsoft
2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

SharePoint Options
Reporting Services can be configured with SharePoint
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 MOSS SharePoint 2007 and 2010 Create dashboards with varied data sources and common filtering of web parts

Report Center BI Portal and/or Report Explorer and Report Viewer web parts Integration requires SQL Server and Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Two modes Full Integrated Mode and Partial
Full Integrated Mode offers shared storage, security and centralized access to reports; report server still performs processing, rendering, and delivery Partial Integrated allows Reporting Services Server to stay in Native Mode Report, Report Model and Data Source content types in Document Library Report Viewer web part can be connected to SharePoint filters Report Builder accessible via right click on a report Version Control, check in/check out Manage subscriptions Alerts

Full integrated mode

SOURCE: Microsoft MSDN

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

SharePoint Options
Review integration feature limitations
Integration is not supported if SharePoint is enabled for Anonymous access URL addressing is different Linked reports are not supported Security extension issues My Reports feature is not supported Batching is not supported

Endpoint referencing can be used to leverage features from both modes

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Report Viewer Controls

.NET Windows Form Controls and ASP.NET Controls
Remote (Server) Mode and Local Mode
Remote Mode
Reporting Services parameter controls All export formats supported Easier than Local Mode when working with Analysis Services cubes

Local Mode
Requires creation of parameter controls and passing of parameter values Only exports to Excel and PDF Challenging when working with Analysis Services cubes

New Report Viewer features in 2008

Templates create a blank report and a form bound to a ReportViewer control Report wizard and improved Expression Editor with code samples ReportViewer controls now compress PDF exports

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Reporting Services with PerformancePoint*

*MOSS 2010 PerformancePoint M&A is now included with SharePoint Server Enterprise In 2009, Microsoft announced that SharePoint enterprise clients can use PerformancePoint at no additional cost PerformancePoint Server Dashboards
Combine SharePoint, Reporting Services, Excel Services and PerformancePoint content into single page views Link Reporting Services parameters to PerformancePoint filters PerformancePoint Add-in for Excel PerformancePoint SharePoint Web Parts

Side notes

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Excel and Excel Services

Excel stand-alone, interactive workbook reports more later on this option!
Connect to cubes using Data tab using Other Sources>Analysis Services Excel Web Access Web Part enables display, edit, computation and interaction with a live workbook Also programmatic access and custom Excel Calculation Services using user-defined functions (UDFs)
Excel Services 2007 doesn't support Excel workbooks with macros/code

Excel Services is a SharePoint service

Analysis Services 2008 uses MSOLAP.4 it does not ship with Excel Services Install the client access components of SQL Server 2008 on each SharePoint server Connect to cubes using an trusted data providers in Excel Services Publish Excel Workbook to Excel Services

SOURCE: Microsoft TechNet

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Excel
Data connection library Conditional formatting Spot trends and exceptions in your data to better inform your decisions Quickly access the most common data sources in your enterprise for data analysis

Rich interactivity Excel Services Enhanced Sorting and Filtering Sort by cell color or filter data to work with only the data you need Analyze data with new PivotTable tools and enhanced support for SQL Server Analysis Services

SOURCE: January 2007 presentation by Tom Casey, Microsoft

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

11

Excel

Excel OLAP Features and Limitations

OLAP@Work Excel 97 Add-In Excel Add-In Pivot Table Services Office Web Components Excel 2007 Gemini PowerPivot

Excel 2007

Online/Offline cubes Allows multiple Fact tables Named sets, filters and visual totals KPIs, Conditional formatting and server defined formatting Drill throughs and custom actions Cube formulas and convert to formulas Charts Data mining add-ins More columns and rows
16,384 columns 1,048,576++ rows limited by memory

Warning!
Excel pivot tables are inflexible but can be extended using VBA and convert to formulas features To see MDX use a Profiler trace or CodePlex PivotTableExtender add-in Excel applies different MDX syntax and Pivot Table versions, some older features do not work in 2007 unless specified as an older version Be prepared for challenging issues and research known issues Do a proof-of-concept BEFORE committing to requirements

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Analysis Services Provider Connection

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Analysis Services Provider Connection

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Excel with Analysis Services Cubes

OLAP and Pivot Features

Measures, Dimensions, KPIs

Pivot Chart Filters

Pivot Table Fields

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Report Design
Report pivot table design theme templates Pivot table dimensions, named sets, KPIs and measures fields Interactively expand or collapse hierarchies Multiple selection, custom label and value filters with and optional Visual Totals
Excel issues derived MDX queries SELECT FROM (SELECT) for filters Some calculated members do not work with filters and non-visual totals in 2007 versions

Show or hide selected dimension fields Optional hover over Property display in tooltips Charts and chart layout templates Conditional formatting Default and custom sorting and grouping VBA can be used to extend features

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Conditional Formatting
Advanced Conditional Formatting and Icons No longer limited to 3 conditions Able to choose icons Analysis Services defined icons are not transferred; redefine in Excel Can also filter by conditional format

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Drill Through Actions and Show Details

Drill through is a cube defined Action
Actions access is new in Excel 2007 Returned data can be customized Max detail rows to return can be controlled Other cube Actions also supported

Show Details is an Excel feature

Displays lowest level of row granularity in the cube Different than Drill to Detail cube Action

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Cube Formulas
7 new cube formula functions Escape the pivot table restrictions Can use anywhere in workbook outside of the pivot table Nice intellisense prompting

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Convert to Formulas Techniques

Allows OLAP pivot table data to be converted to linked tabular data Additional custom columns and functions can be created, can re-pivot but no longer have the nice cube OLAP pivot table data controls VBA or macros can be made to automate the workaround tasks

Cells now reference OLAP Cube Formulas

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Online and Offline Cubes

Offline OLAP stores OLAP pivot table view data locally in cube (.cub) files
Select Offline OLAP and step through the Create Offline Cube Data File wizard Pivot table defined filter settings are pre-applied to wizard Only fields used in the pivot table will be shown in the field list while offline Skipped dimension levels, KPIs and distinct count measures not supported

Online/Offline connection can be toggled Offline cubes allow advanced filtering not enabled with Online Requires the OLE DB Analysis Services Provider connection

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Demo: Excel with Analysis Services Cubes

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Fabulous Excel 2007 OLAP Add-In on CodePlex at http://www.codeplex.com/OlapPivotTableExtend
View MDX Private calculated members Settings options Searching calculations

Not in the Add-Ins tab, accessed via right-click in Pivot Table

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Check all of the Excel 2007 PivotTable Option Settings
Show calculated members not under Measures set Show Calculated Members to True PivotTable Options>Display Tab>Show Calculated Members from OLAP Server Parent-Child Dimensions using Role Security change Show Properties in ToolTips to False PivotTable Options>Display Tab> Show Properties in ToolTips

Windows Firewall
Need to open 2 tcp ports 2382 and 2383 or it may block connections

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Define security within the cube Test security views of data on the cube by toggling between users Test security views of data when in Excel using the Roles property of the connection string or logging in under that user

Click Users Icon

Define Cube Role Security Select Role to Test Set Role to Test in Connection

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Reporting Services with Analysis Services Cubes

Reporting Services with Analysis Services Cubes

SSRS 2005 MDX Query Designer, Date Picker and Multiple Value Parameters SSRS 2000 SSRS 2008R2 Maps, Indicators, Report Builder 3.0, Shared Data Sets, Report Parts Gallery

SSRS 2008 Tablix, Report Builder 2.0 and Data Visualization

2008 new architecture improves performance and scalability Ability to use multiple OLAP report parameters and cascading parameters Flexible report design layout with Tablix Enhanced data visualization (Dundas) Analysis Server aggregates, custom aggregates, calculated measures, extended properties Cell set and row set (flattened) format results with different OLAP providers

Warning!
More flexible than Excel - still clunky Toggling between MDX query design views might clear custom MDX Measures do need to be on columns but there are workarounds Research known issues and consider hybrid workarounds Do a proof-of-concept BEFORE committing to requirements Test report scalability

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

BIDS and Report Builder 2.0 (and 3.0)

Typically BIDS for developers and Report Builder for business users BIDS only report design features
Custom report controls, .NET assemblies Source code control integration

Report Builder 2.0 and 3.0

Blows away 1.0 with a much more usable interface Improved, flexible report design capabilities that previously were BIDS only features New optional Report Model use Shared and multiple data sources Query designer is available for SQL Server data sources Click-Once user deployment after manually configuring server settings from 1.0 to 2.0 (3.0 pointer should be resolved)

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Report Builder 3.0

Report Builder 3.0 New Features
Getting so much better with each release! Improved overall usability Ad-hoc reporting tool for non-technical business users or power users Publish new reports to SharePoint or edit existing reports New reusable Report Parts and the Gallery New shared datasets offer a way to share a query for multiple reports
Dataset query can include dataset parameters Query results can be cached for specific parameter combinations

SharePoint List Data Extension Sparklines, indicators and basic thematic mapping

Improved visualizations

Rendering Reports to Data Feeds Cube reporting appears to be almost identical to 2.0 with the exception of the new general features previously noted

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/seanboon/archive/2008/10/10/how-to-build-sparkline-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-services.aspx 2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Analysis Services and OLE DB Provider

Analysis Services Data Provider
Supports query parameters Includes Analysis Server aggregates and extended properties Limited to row set (flattened) result formats with static columns and dimension placement on rows* Parent-child hierarchies merged into one column requiring use of a SSRS Recursive Parent Group property Less coding to build reports

OLE Provider for Analysis Services

Does not support query parameters, requires expression queries Cell set result format allows dynamic columns and dimensions on rows Keeps parent-child hierarchy formats but is inflexible with grouping layout Requires extra coding to build reports

* Third-party Intelligencia Query can mitigate some provider issues

SOURCE: Applied Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services2008 by Teo Lachev and MSDN

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Analysis Services and OLE DB Provider

Row set format flattened

SOURCE: MSDN

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

MDX Query Designer

Filters and Parameters

Measures, KPIs, Dimensions and Named Sets

Calculated Members

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

MDX Query Designer

MDX editor

Warning! Toggling between MDX query design views might clear custom MDX. Save custom MDX outside of the designer.

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Develop and Debug with MDX Studio

Developed by Mosha Pasumansky MDX query testing MDX query performance statistics Analyze and debugging MDX formatting Clear cache Nice visuals for seeing what is really happening

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Filters, Parameters, Grouping and Sorting

Query filters and dataset filters
Query filters preferred; MDX Query Designer has a filter feature Keep in mind dataset filters are applied after the data is retrieved from data source OLAP sources require cube UniqueMember name parameter values i.e. [Date].[Date].[Date].&[20090106] Date picker requires parameters as Date data type Multiple data sets can be used from different data sources Prune data sets that will be used as parameters Show hidden data sets wizards create Nice cascading parameters features Query filter Multiple level row and column groups Advanced recursive parent option for displaying parent child hierarchies Basic sort at the group level Interactive sort at the cell level

Parameters
Data set filter

Parameter

Groups

Sorting

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Charts
New gauges, funnels and other analytic charts for improved data visualization Scale breaks improve visual display of wide value ranges Trendline charts can be created using calculated series formulas Multiple axes and chart areas Drill actions can be used for interactive navigation
Report sections using bookmarks Another report URL

Miscellaneous new features

Missing values indicators Custom colors

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Subreports, Linked Reports and Document Maps

Subreports
Master report passes subreport parameter via the subreport properties Parameter names on master and subreport should match

Linked Reports
Another report URL Bookmark

Document maps provide quick navigation to a specific report section

Configured as an Advanced Group property

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Aggregates and KPIs

Server Aggregates
Server based aggregates are defined by the data provider Aggregate Do not confuse with Reporting Services aggregate scope based functions like Sum Server aggregates can only be used in simple group expressions To display server aggregates with detail rows, change dataset Subtotal options

KPIs
Displayed in MDX Query Designer below Measures Three types of values: KPI Value, Goal and Status

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Demo: Using BIDS Reporting Services Projects

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Date Range Parameters with Calendar Control

Parameter expression in UniqueName format

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Default Values also need to be formatted in the unique member format
Expression formula ="[Date].[Calendar Date].[Year].&["+CSTR(Year(Today))+"] Reference other data set queries using HEAD and TAIL in MDX <<TAIL|HEAD>> (FILTER([Date].[Date].[Date].members, Not IsEmpty ([Measures].[STP Volume])), 1)

Map Default

Expression Formulas

HEAD and TAIL in Queries

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Recursive parent group property for displaying Parent-Child hierarchies with the Analysis Services provider

Row Group Properties

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Tips
Use OLE DB provider when you need Measures on Rows or use Teos trick to bypass SSRS validation and edit MDX query in the report definition xml Single Sign On Security when Analysis Services hosted on a different server
Kerberos used to delegate user identity from Reporting Services to Analysis Services Trusted Account approach with EffectiveUsername connection string setting Custom security application development

For reports with custom, parameterized MDX, first hard code parameter values, then lay out the report and finally go back to create real parameters in MDX Consider a hybrid approach of mixing OLTP data sets and OLAP data sets to work around issues that may be impossible with an OLAP only approach Use MDX query filters for returning a subset of data for report parameters Evaluate third-party MDX design tools if you will be building a lot of OLAP reports

SOURCE: Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, Teo Lachev
2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

Resources

Resources
http://sqlserver2008jumpstart.microsofttraining.com http://www.ssas2008-info.com Applied Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services2008 by Teo Lachev http://www.prologika.com and Teos blogs Excel 2007 Advanced Report Development by Timothy Zapawa Excel 2007 PivotTables and PivotCharts by Paul McFedries Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting by Turley, Silva, Smith, Withee Allan Folting, Microsoft Excel team program manager, blogs http://davefackler.blogspot.com and Daves webcast videos http://cwebbbi.spaces.live.com and Chris Webbs blogs http://www.sqljunkies.com/WebLog/mosha/archive/2006/11/05/non_empty_behavior.aspx http://www.codeplex.com/bidshelper/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=16707 http:// www.jumpstarttv.com http://msdn.microsoft.com/ http://www.databasejournal.com articles by William Pearson http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd433177.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlrsteamblog
2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

SharePoint Feature Matrix

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

SharePoint Feature Matrix

2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.

 2009 by Jen Underwood. All rights reserved.