Reporting Services Overview

Reporting Services is a Microsoft platform for managed reporting: designing, generating, and distributing organized views of database data to decision makers who need them on an ongoing basis. A simplified view of Reporting Services and its major components is shown here.

The heart of the system is one or more report servers (center) that handle authentication, data processing, and rendering and delivery operations and host report definitions (in Microsoft’s Report Definition Language [RDL]) that are stored with configuration information, cached reports, and other data in a Reporting Services database. Report servers can be deployed in native mode, which means Reporting Services hosts its own Web service portal for management of reports, or in SharePoint mode whereby Reporting Services is integrated with an existing SharePoint Server that provides report hosting and management services.

Report types can be basic reports, containing tables of data, or more complex reports that include graphical elements, such as charts, maps, and sparklines. Reports can include interactive features, enabling users to drill down, roll up, or filter items (such as a particular date range or sales region) to narrow the amount of data displayed. Reports can also relate to and embed other reports within their viewing area to provide multiple views of information (such as a tabular and graphical view) in the same report.