Advanced Report Design - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 260

Summary
We have covered a lot of ground in this chapter, building on the report design fundamentals you learned
in the previous two chapters. You've learned to design several styles of reports using data sources and
filtering techniques that exposed different design strategies.

❑ Data regions let you repeat and group data in a section of the report. The table organizes

repeated data into specific rows and columns and provides inherent grouping capabilities with
headers and footers. Using a list, you can achieve similar results with a little more formatting
flexibility. With a subreport, you can essentially use a separately defined report as a data region
and filter the data it contains with parameters and filters.

❑ Drill-down and drill-through reports use techniques that optimize screen space and allow the

user to interact with the report. This is accomplished by expanding the groupings of a table or
list or by using links to jump to an item, a bookmark, or another report. The document map pro-
vides a mini-drill-down report in a separate frame that may be used to easily find headings and
category labels and navigate to them in the report. Recursive relationships are easy to manage
and will produce multilevel groups using a single source or data.

❑ Charts are a powerful tool used to express aggregated values in a series and in multiple dimen-

sions. Several chart types are available for different types of data and presentation formats.

❑ Reports utilize the power of the Visual Basic .NET programming language. Advanced format-

ting and calculations may be performed by adding programming code to your reports. This
may be done by simply adding code in the report designer or by creating a compiled .NET
assembly and adding a reference to the assembly in the report. Report properties may be set
using expressions and program code to achieve conditional formatting.

❑ Developing reports for mobile users is a relatively simple task, keeping in mind the limits and

capabilities of devices. Reports must be designed to fit smaller screen sizes and may be opti-
mized for online or disconnected scenarios. Mobile reporting opens vast opportunities for trav-
eling information workers using convenient wireless and synchronized devices.