Report Server Administration - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 459

Reporting Services Components
Reporting Services is a Web service application that exposes functionality through a number of programmatic
interfaces. Because it's a Web service, it runs as an ASP.NET web application hosted by IIS. Reporting
Services also includes Windows services components to help with report scheduling and delivery.

Installed components include tools you can use to manage a Report Server instance right out of the box.
However, because of the programming interfaces provided, you can replace the stock tools with custom
applications that work better for you. You can create applications to view, design, and manage reports
by working against the provided APIs. Create new data-bound controls to add impact and functionality
to reports. Build a new processing extension to render reports in Rich text. There are many ways to take
advantage of the open architecture Microsoft has provided in the product, and several are demonstrated
in this topic.

At a high level, Reporting Services can be viewed as three main components: the Report Server, the
Report Server database, and the client tools. Figure 11-1 shows the relationship between these major
components.

Databases Report Server Client Tools

Report
Server DB

Report Manager Browser

Report Manager

Source DB

Report Designer

Figure 11-1

To get a better handle on the tools that are provided, let's look at the main server components that they
work against.

Server Components
In addition to these, Books Online for Reporting Services is installed. Those are your local help files.
Remember that help is also available on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) site; you'll just need
to dig a bit more for the information you're looking for. A helpful site for keeping track of Knowledge
Base articles and other Microsoft support info on a particular technology is KBAlertz.com. The automated
e-mail notifications of new content posted on Microsoft's web site can be helpful even if you have an
MSDN subscription.