Reporting Services Architecture - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 67

This method provides the most flexibility in creating a user interface but also requires the greatest
degree of skill. Many implementations of Reporting Services will incorporate some combination of the
User Interface choices identified above. In Chapter 12, you take a close look at implementing each of the
User Interface options, and we discuss what you need to consider when designing your own solutions.

Summary
This chapter covered the basics of Reporting Services. It started with a look at the different reporting
phases: authoring, management, and delivery. The authoring phase dealt with developing the reports. In
the management phase, you set individual properties of the reports such as data sources and security
rules. In the delivery phase, you looked at the different methods to giving access to end users.

After the discussion of these phases, you saw the features of Reporting Services that support them. Visual
Studio 2005, Report Builder, and third-party tools can be used to create report definitions. Once reports are
created, they can be published to the Report Server. Using Report Manager or SQL Management Studio,
you can update and maintain report information. If users need to view reports, they can use the Report
Manager, SharePoint Web Parts, Visual Studio controls, or custom code.

Finally, you looked at the specific components of Reporting Services. You started by looking at the
Reporting Services XML Web service and seeing how the Reporting Services interface is exposed. Next,
you looked at the Report Server and learned about report processing and scheduled delivery. The last
component dealt with the storage of metadata in the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB databases.

After reading this chapter, you should understand the following:

❑ Authoring, management, and delivery in the reporting lifecycle.

❑ The major components of Reporting Services.

❑ Tools available to create Reporting Services reports.

❑ Methods for delivering reports to end users.

In the next chapter, you see techniques and concepts that can be used to build your first reports.