Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Standard Subscriptions

A standard subscription is one that is created by individual users who want to have a report delivered through e-mail or to a shared folder. A standard subscription is always defined through the report on which it is based. You can use SQL Server Management Studio or Report Manager to work with subscriptions. After you define a subscription, you can access it in Report Manager through the My Subscriptions page or the Subscriptions tab (or node if you are using Management Studio) of a specific report.

A user who creates a subscription owns that subscription. Each user can modify or delete the subscriptions that he or she owns. Ownership cannot be changed or transferred among users. Depending on RSReportServer configuration file settings, users may be able to add additional users to a subscription (for example, a manager adds the e-mail addresses of his or her direct reports so that they each receive a copy of the report). Whether this is supported depends on whether the To: field is visible when defining individual subscriptions. For more information, see Configuring a Report Server for E-Mail Delivery.

This topic provides information about standard subscriptions that are created and managed by individual users. Data-driven subscriptions have different requirements and steps, and are discussed in a separate topic. For more information, see Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Data-Driven Subscriptions.

Security Requirements

Before you can create a subscription to a report, the following prerequisites must be met:

  • You must have access to the report. Before you can subscribe to a report, you must have permission to view it.
  • Your role assignment must support the ability to create a subscription for the report. Specifically, the role assignment must include the "Manage individual subscriptions" task. For more information about tasks, see Tasks and Permissions in Reporting Services.
  • The report must use stored credentials or no credentials to retrieve data at run time. You cannot subscribe to a report that uses impersonated or delegrated credentials to connect to an external data source; the credentials of the user who creates or owns the subscription will not be available when the subscription is processed. The stored credentials can be a Windows account or a database user account. For more information, see Specifying Credential and Connection Information.

User Identity and Subscription Requirements

For standard subscriptions only, you can create subscriptions to reports that incorporate user account information in a filter or as text that appears on the report. In the report, the user account name is specified through a User!UserID expression that resolves to the current user. When you create a subscription, the user who creates the subscription is the considered the current user.

Report Builder Model Requirements

You cannot subscribe to a Report Builder report that uses a model as a data source if the model contains model item security settings. Only reports that use model item security are included in this restriction.

Parameter Value Requirements

If the report uses parameters, a parameter value must be specified with the report itself, or in the subscription you define. If default values have been defined in the report, you can set the parameter value to use the default. For more information, see Setting Parameters in a Subscription.

Creating Subscriptions

You can create multiple subscriptions for a single report to vary the subscription options; for example, you can specify different parameter values to produce two versions of a report, such as a Western region sales report and an Eastern region sales report. However, the reverse is not true; you cannot use a single standard subscription to produce multiple versions of a report. If you want to generate multiple versions of a report from the same subscription, you must use a data-driven subscription.

For each subscription that you create, you must specify delivery options. Delivery options are determined by the delivery extension you choose. A delivery extension is a module that supports some manner of distribution. Reporting Services includes two delivery extensions: e-mail and file share. Additional delivery extension may be available through third-party vendors. For more information, see Choosing Report Presentation Formats in a Subscription.

Modifying a Subscription

You can modify a subscription at any time. If you modify a subscription while it is being processed, the updated settings are used if they are saved to the report server database before the delivery extension receives the subscription data. Otherwise, the existing settings are used.

To locate a subscription, use the My Subscriptions page or view the subscription definitions that are associated with a report. You cannot search for subscriptions directly, nor can you search for a subscription based on owner name, trigger information, status information, and so forth.

Subscriptions can also be modified or deleted by report server administrators.

Note

A report server administrator cannot manage from one place all the individual subscriptions that are in use on a given report server. However, report server administrators can access each individual subscription to modify or delete it.

Deleting a Subscription

If you want to end a subscription and you cannot locate the subscription easily, make a note of the report you are receiving and search for it by name. Once you access the report, you can remove yourself from the subscription. If you cannot locate the subscription, the subscription may be a data-driven subscription. For more information, see your report server administrator.

A subscription is deleted automatically if the underlying report is deleted. If you delete a subscription while it is being processed, the subscription stops if the delete operation occurs before the delivery extension receives subscription data. Otherwise, the subscription continues to be processed.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create and Manage Subscriptions (SharePoint Integrated Mode)
How to: Subscribe to a Report (Management Studio)
How to: Subscribe to a Report (Report Manager)
How to: Delete or Modify a Subscription (Management Studio)
How to: Delete or Modify a Subscription (Report Manager)

Concepts

Data-Driven Subscriptions
Report Manager
Subscription Overview
Using My Subscriptions

Other Resources

Managing Subscriptions
Delivering Reports Through Subscriptions

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance