Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Primary components of a report
Before diving into all the cool features and functionalities offered by SSRS, it is
important to have a basic understanding of the primary components that make up
an SSRS report as well as a mental model of how these components work together
to deliver information to the business; which is, after all, the entire purpose of
standard reporting.
The primary components of an SSRS report are as follows:
•
Data source
•
Dataset
•
Report item
The following diagram shows how data flows from the source system through these
components and out to the end user:
Data source
Dataset
Report item
Flow of data through primary report components
Data source
A data source is typically the first object created while building an SSRS report and
contains all the information necessary to make a connection to a source system. The
source system could be a SQL Server database, Analysis Services cube, a SharePoint
list, or some other type of business application database such as Oracle.
While most reports typically pull data from a single data source, it is possible to pull
data from multiple sources. In fact, a single report can be based on multiple data
sources and multiple datasets. The following screenshot shows the full list of data
sources that can be used with SSRS 2012 right out of the box:
