By: Ray Barley
Overview
The Report Editor provides the designer experience for creating, editing and viewing reports. The user interface has the Microsoft Office look and feel. This topic will provide an overview of the various parts of the report editor.
Explanation
To begin launch Report Builder from the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Report Builder 3.0 program group. By default the Getting Started dialog is displayed; close it if that is the case. You will now see the Report Editor:
Ribbon
The Ribbon has become a standard part of the user interface in Microsoft Office products. It provides three tabs: Home, Insert and View. The Home tab has the Run button which is used to execute your report and some formatting controls that you can use to customize the elements in your report layout.
The Insert tab contains the various elements that you can add to your report:
When you are designing a report, you can drag and drop elements from the ribbon onto the report layout section. You can click the glyph under an element to launch its wizard; e.g. Table, Matrix, Chart, or Map.
The View tab contains checkboxes to indicate whether to show or hide the various sections of the Report Editor:
Report Data
The Report Data section contains the following:
- Built-In Fields - data elements that are available automatically in every report; e.g. add the Page Number to the report header
- Parameters - values that the user enters when running a report; the parameter values may be used to filter the data on the report or used in expressions that set report properties
- Images - images to be rendered in your report
- Data Sources - provide the necessary details to connect to your data; e.g. a SQL Server database, a SQL Server Analysis Services cube, etc.
- Datasets - define the query to be executed to retrieve data to be rendered on your report; a dataset is associated with a data source
Report Layout
The Report Layout section is used to design your report. It is a WSYISYG designer; you drag and drop elements from the ribbon's Insert tab and arrange them to build your report layout.
Properties
The Properties window is used to customize the selected element in the report layout.
Row Groups
The Row Groups contain the groupings on the rows.
Column Groups
The Column Groups contain the groupings on the columns.
