Report Management - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 435

The UNC path should be in the form \\server name\share name . Although it is not usually recom-
mended, you can use an administrative user's credentials to write the subscription output file. In this
case, you could use an administrative share (such as c$ ) rather than create a new share. In any case, the
system administrator should be involved in this decision.
Pocket PC Report File Updates
If you would like to have a subscription that updates file-based reports for a Pocket PC device, you can
output report files across the network to the synchronization folder for a device. When a mobile device
partnership is created using Microsoft ActiveSync on a user's personal computer, a folder is designated for
automatic file synchronization. Any files that are modified or written to this folder will be automatically
synchronized with the Pocket PC device. This folder is found under the user's My Documents folder and
is typically named (mobile device name) My Documents. For example, if your device name were Freds
Pocket PC, the synchronization folder would be named Freds Pocket PC My Documents. Any subfolders
are also synchronized, so you could create a subfolder called Reports and write report files to this location.
When creating file shares for machines across the network, the My Documents folder location can be
remapped by the user and is profile-specific. The default location for My Documents is C:\Documents
and Settings\(user profile name)\My Documents . Make sure that the user writing to the remote
computer from the Report Server has been granted write access to the output folder.
Report Subscriptions
As a manager, you may need to do a biweekly status report for your people. When you travel, you might
like to have a current, up-to-date employee directory on your PDA at all times. As new items are added to
your product line or pricing changes, you'd like the updated product catalog in front of your people, so
they're never working with outdated information. Using subscriptions makes all of this possible, simply
and easily.
Using a combination of the Reporting Services Windows service and SQL Server Agent, the subscription
engine renders a report anytime you want it. It renders it in the format you need and delivers it using
the method you choose — either by e-mail or to a file in any folder. When delivering reports via e-mail,
you can specify that a link to the report be embedded in the e-mail or the entire rendered report.
A common subscription management task is to verify that subscriptions are running as scheduled. The
outcome of subscription events is recorded in the server's Application Log, and more specific details are
written to individual log files with the date/time stamp in each file name. Over time, hundreds of these
files may be produced and should be moved off to a backup machine and/or deleted.
Events in the Application Log are recorded with the Source property value of Report Server and SQL
Server Reporting Service. There is no method to directly read or consolidate the individual log files.
However, Reporting Services ships with SQL script files, which will enable you to import this data into
tables for analysis using SQL Server Integration Services. These files are contained on the product CD in
the Extras folder.
Simplified subscription log information is easy to obtain in the Report Manager. To get information for a
specific report, select the Subscription tab for that report. The status for the last execution is displayed
for each subscription and snapshot. A summary view of all reports accessible to the current user is also
available on the My Subscriptions tab. These execution summaries can be used to diagnose subscription
errors including service- and permission-related problems.