I have few existing SSRS reports here which are giving some inaccurate info. I want to fix those...where should I start? is it the data source in Report Builder? Where else should I look?
Thanks
You should be able to find the query that is being run or the stored procedure in the datasets. Then you can open those and see what datasource it is using. Some could be shared so you might have to look a bit to find them but that tells you the server. So then you can troubleshoot.
I am having troubles finding the views settings section using sql server. What filtered views would I query to find these settings. I was told briefly to try looking in FilteredUserQuery but did not find all of the columns I am looking for. I have attached a screenshot for more clarification on which settings I am looking for.
I am interested in these columns while using sql server. Please let me know if you have any questions or confusions with my questions.
Here is a link to all of the different filtered views I have access to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn531182.aspx
Thanks for the assitance!
You need to look into FilteredSavedQuery, the entity SavedQuery holds the system views.
I'm a programmer (mostly C++) who has moved into a non-software workplace. However, I don't have much experience with database stuff at all.
TL;DR: If we compare Crystal Reports to just writing scripts that execute SQL queries and parse the results, is there anything that CR can do that isn't possible via SQL queries & scripts? I'm talking purely in terms of extracting data - not making pretty documents.
Detail:
At my workplace they have a process where you run a bunch of Crystal Reports, modify the date range to the current month, manually export each to excel, delete the rows and columns that aren't needed, and then cut and paste into a summary excel document that is used by management.
To me, this is pretty crazy and stupid. I'd like to automate/script most of it.
So I have two options:
Learn Crystal Reports and try to modify the existing reports to be more automated.
Dump CR and just learn SQL and do the whole thing programmatically with scripts working with CSV files or something.
I'd much rather learn SQL since it's more general and useful. But I need to be assured that I can get the data output that I need (without writing a million lines of code to reproduce CR myself.)
So yeah, I'm looking for an answer like, "The two are equivalent. Anything you can do in CR you can do easily via scripts and SQL," or "If you need to group records into categories based on a parameter and then sum their one of their fields, then CR will do it much more easily than raw code," to push me in one direction or another.
Edit:
Some additional detail. At the moment my crystal reports run a database query, and then crystal does things like, "don't display the records that are returned, instead group the records by Field A and then display the count of how many records in each group."
Is functionality like this difficult to reproduce via SQL coding? I wouldnt want to have to write a python (or whatever) script to parse and manipulate the data from plaintext CSV, for example.
You can't just compare SQL and CR - they have different purpose. SQL (in this context) is data source, CR is pretty output formatter. For excel you would need data, not formatted output. Excel combined with SQL can give you all CR options (dynamic crosstab reports, charts etc) what you can't get directly from SQL data.
BTW, creating SQL views or procedures is often needed to overcome CR limitations; from this standpoint SQL has lot of more options than CR.
I personally would go with SQL+Excel route. In our company we're using simply SQL+CR without postprocessing, sometimes SQL+Excel. Our customers are using different approaches.
But like said by other people, choice of tools depends on more things. Who has to redesign reports? Who will maintain these reports? How often requirements change? Are there more uses for CR reports besides sourcing Excel tables? Who will be waked up at night, if reports do not work?
Management perpective:
In many I will say mostly cases management does not know SQL. So if a manager for E.g.HR wants to know staus about something then how he will get that status?? This is where Crystal reports come into picture, Using crystal reports they do not have to worry about SQL; they will just enter required fields and get their data.
Programmer perspective:
Simple data outputs can be achieved through SQL but consider a scenario where you need to pull details as well as summary. I agree it can be done via SQL but consider the overhead of time and proficiency required to develop such output using sql. I bet it wont be that easy to develop such output using sql as compared to crystal. So I will say learn both SQL and crystal, you will get to choose the tool to apply for your requirement.
You can write SQL and drop it into the Crystal Report. Best of both worlds, and possibly faster performance than the drag-and-drop Crystal functionality.
You will see some response time lag when the report runs.
There are actually a few things that Crystal Reports can do that are very tricky using plain SQL Queries as Crystal Reports can access the entire dataset in a single formula and can do things at runtime.
However unless you have some really crazy complex Crystal Reports I would recommend building a tool in Excel that can one click the info straight into a new sheet.
I did this and it got me a promotion, not kidding :P
I have a custom Excel Addin I can give you code to that basically does this:
On open, connects to the database and downloads a list of menu options connected to views and procedures
Adds these menu options into a new Ribbon tab within Excel
When one is clicked, runs the view and dumps the entire dataset (properly formatted) into a new sheet
Advantage of this is you can update the main menu list and each view it references without making any changes to the file or re-issuing anything to everyone.
Crystal could be helpful if you want to create a document with a specific layout , logos etc. and show some data on it. Export to excel from Crystal repot is not easy - usually there are a lot of empty columns and rows and each report should be tweaked to avoid that.
If you need to export some data from a SQLServer database to excel your best option will be SSIS ( I guess you have a license for SQL Server). If you don't have license for SSIS or you are using for example Access database there are also some inexpensive tools, which can retrieve data from any database ( not just SQLServer) and export it to excel. I would suggest you to check this one: http://www.r-tag.com. It can run Crystal reports and SQL reports so you can start using your crystal reports immediately and start transforming them to SQL reports whenever you have time for that. Both reports could be exported to excel.
i fixed this by editing excel sql, Left(Column_maxLength, 250)
this resolved my issue
in my case if even if i read left 250 character is enough
I am a newbie in Cognos. I am trying to create a report using report studio, I have the required package, and I want to create a report using a complex SQL query which has joins between three tables. Can anyone please give a suggestion to start building the report? Thanks!
How to write SQL for Cognos reports
FM is to create complex models. If you need a quick-and-dirty report you can specify custom SQL as the tutorial shows.
It would depend on how the data you see in Report Studio is modelled, typically a tool called Framework Manager is used connect to and model the source tables and views. Framework Manager creates the packages that you see in Report Studio, it can define relationships between entities like tables (if they're not already defined in the source database).
Not sure how to tell from Report Studio if the relationship has been defined properly other than trying to pull over fields from each table into the same Report Studio Query. It is best to talk to whoever designed the Framework Manager model or look at the model itself.
I have a dynamic pivot request I would like to present in a report of Reporting Services.
As it is dynamic, the number of columns of the result is variable (as is the name of the columns). How could I create a report showing a table handling this variable number of columns ?
You can also use the Matrix control to pivot the results in the report instead of in the query. This way you don't have to use any custom solution.
You will need to implement a dynamic report definition file. Here is a link that will help you get started. It is a VS Project that dynamically creates a RDLC file with a table, via a datatable. I used it as the base of my current report system.
C# Version
VB.NET Version
If you have any questions about this, let me know. I've been generating RDLC files for quite a while now, and encountered pretty much every issue you could think of :)