How to: Subscribe to a Report (Management Studio)

This topic provides instructions for creating an e-mail subscription and a file share delivery subscription.

To subscribe to a report, the report data source must be configured to use stored credentials or no credentials. For more information, see How to: Specify Stored Credentials for a Data Source (Management Studio).

For e-mail delivery, the report server must be configured for an SMTP gateway connection before you create the subscription. To use file share delivery, you must have target folder already defined. For more information, see Configuring a Report Server for E-Mail Delivery and How to: Create a Shared Folder for Report Server File Share Delivery.

To create a file share subscription

  1. In Object Explorer, navigate to the report you want to subscribe to. Expand the report item.

  2. Right-click the Subscriptions folder and click New Subscription. The Properties page of the Report Subscription dialog box displays.

  3. Select Report Server File Share from the Notify by list box.

  4. Click in the text box after File name, and type a file name for the report.

  5. If you want the file extension automatically appended to the report file name, select True from the File Extension list box. Otherwise, select False.

  6. In the Path text box, type a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to an existing folder where you want to deliver the reports (for example, \\<servername>\<myreports>). Include double backslash characters at the beginning of the path. Do not specify a trailing backslash.

  7. Select a format from the Render Format list box. Choose a format that corresponds to the desktop application that will be used to open the report. Avoid formats that do not render a report in a single stream or that introduce interactivity that cannot be supported in a static file (that is, HTML 3.2, HTML 4.0, or HTML with Office Web Components).

  8. In the User name and Password text boxes, specify the credentials required to access the file share, using the format <domain>\<user name> for the user name.

  9. Specify overwrite options. If you click Do not overwrite the file if a previous version exists, the delivery will not occur if an existing file is detected. If you click AutoIncrement, the report server appends a number to the file name to distinguish it from existing files of the same name.

  10. Click Scheduling to specify when you want the report delivered.

  11. Specify the schedule or event used to trigger report processing.

    • Choose Deliver when the report is updated on the report server if you want to deliver a report snapshot each time it is refreshed. This option is available only for snapshots that retrieve data at scheduled intervals.
    • Choose On a shared schedule to select a predefined schedule. This option is only available if shared schedules are already defined.
    • Choose On a custom schedule to pick the dates and times when the subscription is processed. Click the Set Schedule button to create the schedule.
  12. For parameterized reports, specify parameters to use for the report for this subscription. The parameters can be different from those used to run the report on demand or in other scheduled operations.

  13. Click OK.

The report is delivered as a static file. If the report includes interactive features (for example, links to additional rows and columns), those features are not available.

To create an e-mail subscription

  1. In Object Explorer, navigate to the report you want to subscribe to. Expand the report item.

  2. Right-click the Subscriptions folder, and click New Subscription. The Properties page of the Report Subscription dialog box displays.

  3. For Notify by, click Report Server E-Mail.

  4. In the To text box, type the e-mail address to deliver the report to. To specify multiple e-mail addresses, separate them with a semicolon (;). You can type additional e-mail addresses in Cc, Bcc, and Reply-To text boxes.

    Note

    This requires that you have permission to manage all subscriptions.

  5. Choose report delivery options as follows:

    • Select Include Report to embed or attach a copy of the report. The rendering format you select in a later step determines how the report is included.
    • Select Include Link to include a URL link to the report in the body of the e-mail message.

    Note

    If you clear these check boxes, only the text in the subject line is sent.

  6. Choose a rendering format from the Render Format list box. This option is available if you include the report with the e-mail.

    • To embed the report in the body of the e-mail, select Web archive. Do not choose this option if you think the report size will exceed the maximum limit defined for your e-mail system.
    • All other rendering formats send the report as an attachment.
  7. Select an importance level for the e-mail message from the Priority list box. These settings are obtained from your e-mail server.

  8. Optionally type comments to include in the e-mail message in the Comment text box.

  9. Click Scheduling to specify when you want the report delivered.

  10. Specify the schedule or event used to trigger report processing.

    • Choose Deliver when the report is updated on the report server if you want to deliver a report snapshot each time it is refreshed. This option is available only for snapshots that retrieve data at scheduled intervals.
    • Choose On a shared schedule to select a predefined schedule. This option is only available if shared schedules are already defined.
    • Choose On a custom schedule to pick the dates and times when the subscription is processed. Click the Set Schedule button to create the schedule.
  11. For parameterized reports, specify parameters to use for the report for this subscription. The parameters that you specify can be different from those used to run the report on demand or in other scheduled operations.

  12. Click OK.

See Also

Concepts

Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Subscriptions
E-Mail Delivery in Reporting Services
Report Server How-to Topics
Specifying Credential and Connection Information

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance