Report Builder - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 371

Figure 9-1

In the next section, you look at building Reporting Services reports using the Report Builder.

Building a Report
Once you launch the Report Builder, you will be presented with a dialog to select a Report Model. As
was discussed in the previous chapter, Report Models are the key component for creating ad hoc reports.
They represent an easy-to-use representation of your data.

The list of Report Models presented represents all Report Models that you have access to on the given
Report Server. You might also notice a + next to some of the Report Models. You can expand the Report
Model node to view any perspectives associated with the model. Perspectives are views of the Report
Model that present a subset of information to the user.

To start designing reports, select the Adventure Works DW Report Model. In the previous chapter, you
created a small Report Model from the AdventureWorksDW database. You will use this model through-
out the rest of this chapter. If you have not deployed the Report Model, please walk through the Report
Model chapter.

After selecting a Report Model, the Report Builder will present four main windows:

❑ Explorer

❑ Fields

❑ Report Layout

❑ Designer

The Explorer window displays a list of Entity collections from the Report Model. As you select items
in the Explorer window, you will notice that the Fields window updates to display all of the available
Attributes for the selected Entity. You will use the Explorer and Fields windows to construct your first
report.