Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 - Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services - page 31

Importing Data/Exchanging Data
Not all “reports” may be intended to be read or printed. Reporting Services provides two report render-
ing formats that can be used for export/import and data exchange. Using either the Comma-Separated
Values (CSV) or XML formats, Reporting Services provides a very convenient mechanism for intersystem
data exchange or pushing data out to a trading partner. Imagine that your system automatically sends
invoices and shipping manifests to your order-fulfillment vendor at the end of the day via XML file
attachments to e-mail.

Ad Hoc Reporting
Another important component of a reporting platform is the ability for users to easily create their own
reports. The major new feature of Reporting Services 2005 is the introduction of Report Builder. Report
Builder is comprised of two major components: Report Models and the Report Builder client. Report
Models allow you to create a semantic layer on top of SQL Server or Analysis Services data. The seman-
tic layer provides an easy-to-understand model for the user to navigate. Users will not have to under-
stand how to query the underlying database to create reports. The Report Builder gives users an
easy-to-use interface for building reports. The Report Builder client leverages information from the
Report Model to easily build structured reports. Chapters 8 and 9 will discuss how to create Report
Models and how to access this data using Report Builder.

System Requirements
The hardware system requirements for Reporting Services are very similar to those for SQL Server. The
default installation will place the Report Manager, Reporting Services, and the Report Server database
on the same physical server, but this configuration is not a requirement. These components may be
installed on three separate servers.

The Report Server and the Report Manager servers must be running Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0
or higher with ASP.NET, and the .NET Framework 1.1 or higher. The Report Server Database requires
any edition of SQL Server 2005.

Editions of Reporting Services correspond to editions of SQL Server 2005 and include Enterprise,
Standard, Workgroup, Developer, and Express editions. Like SQL Server 2005, Standard Edition is a
good solution for a single-server environment with a moderate number of users.

The following table shows the features for each edition of SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (from
www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/rsfeatures.mspx ).

Report Server

Feature Express Workgroup Standard Enterprise Comments

Data Express Workgroup SE and EE support all

Source(s) 1, 2 1, 2 data sources (OLAP and

Relational)

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