Report Management - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 416

This view is from SQL Server Management Studio. To view it yourself in the Management Studio, first
ensure that SQL Server Management Studio is connected to your Report Server instance. Once you're
viewing the Reporting Services component, right-click the My Reports role in the Object Explorer win-
dow and select Properties. This option may not be available if My Reports has not been enabled on your
server, or if your permission set does not allow access to that folder.
One My Reports folder is created for each user. Users don't have access to the My Reports folders of
other users; only Report Server administrators can do that. Using My Reports, you can upload reports
and other resources as well as publish reports you've created using the report designer or other tool.
Anonymous users do not have access to a My Reports folder.
To access My Reports, the user simply clicks the My Reports folder or link in Report Manager. Alternately,
they can navigate their browser to http(s)://<server_name>/My Reports . The users identity is
checked, and the browser is then redirected to /users/<username>/My Reports .
/My Reports is redirected to http://localhost/Reports/Pages/Folder.aspx?ItemPath=
%2fMy+Reports&ViewMode=List .
It's important to keep in mind that there's a My Reports folder and a My Reports role. The My Reports
role defines permissions the user has in their My Reports folder. System administrators can change the
permission set for all roles including My Reports. Because of that, your capabilities may be different
from those just described. It's a good practice to reserve a specific role for accessing My Reports to help
ensure a consistent user experience when using it. It's easy to create a shortcut to your My Reports
folder, creating a portal to the reports you frequently need to work with. Functionally, the My Reports
folder provides a secure area for users who need to manage and view reports as part of their regular
work responsibilities.
If you're not careful, creating folders and modifying their security settings can degrade into an ad hoc
combination of configuration settings for different folders and users. That type of unplanned structure
can be difficult to manage and maintain. Making the My Reports folder available to users allows them to
manage settings in the context of their own My Reports folder rather than modifying individual folder
properties to grant the required permissions for different users.
Securing My Reports
Let's say that access rights have been granted to a user for My Reports. The user creates folders to orga-
nize their content and places their commonly accessed reports within them. If rights to the My Reports
folder is then revoked, you might think that the user no longer has access to the folders and their con-
tent. In fact, that may or may not be the case.
Consider the possible ways to prevent users from accessing their My Reports folder. First, you can clear
the Enable My Reports check box under Site Settings. That removes the My Reports folder from the
Home folder contents.
It's important to note that although clearing the check box removes the My Reports folder from the dis-
play, it doesn't actually prevent access to the My Reports folder content. If a user knows the content
structure and the path to a folder, he or she can still navigate to the location directly.