Lesson 2: Modify the report data source properties

In this Reporting Services tutorial lesson, you use web portal to select a report for delivery to recipients. The data-driven subscription that you define distributes the Sales Order report created in the tutorial Create a basic table report (SSRS tutorial). In the steps that follow, you modify the data source connection information used by the report to get data. Only reports that use stored credentials to access a report data source can be distributed through a data-driven subscription. Stored credentials are necessary for unattended report processing.

You also modify the dataset and report to use a parameter to filter the report on the [Order] so the subscription can output different instances of the report for specific orders and rendering formats.

Modify the data source to use stored credentials

1. Browse to the Reporting Services web portal with administrator privileges, for example, right-click the icon for Internet Explorer and select Run as administrator.

2. Browse to the web portal URL. For example:
   https://<server name>/reports.
   https://localhost/reports Note: The web portal URL is "Reports", not the Report Server URL of "Reportserver".

3. Browse to the folder containing the Sales Orders report and in the context menu of the report, select Manage.

   

4. Select Data Sources in the left pane.

5. Verify the Connection Type is Microsoft SQL Server.

6. Verify the connection string is the following and it assumes that the sample database is on a local database server:

   Data source=localhost; initial catalog=AdventureWorks2022  
   

7. Select Use the following credentials.

8. In the Type of credentials, select Windows user name and password

9. Type your user name (use the format domain\user) and password. If you don't have permission to access the AdventureWorks2022 database, specify a sign-in that does.

10. Select Test Connection to verify you can connect to the data source.

11. Select Save.

12. Select Cancel.

13. View the report to verify that the report runs with the credentials you specified.

Modify the AdventureWorksDataset

In the following steps, you modify the dataset to use a parameter to filter the data set based an order number.

1. Open the Sales Orders report in SQL Server Data Tools.

2. Right-click the dataset AdventureWorksDataset and select Dataset Properties.

   

3. Add the statement WHERE (UPPER(SalesOrderNumber) =UPPER(@OrderNumber) or @OrderNumber IS NULL) before the Group By statement. The following example is the full query syntax:

   SELECT soh.OrderDate AS Date, soh.SalesOrderNumber AS [Order], pps.Name AS Subcat, pp.Name AS Product, SUM(sd.OrderQty) AS Qty, SUM(sd.LineTotal)  AS LineTotal  
   FROM Sales.SalesPerson AS sp INNER JOIN  
     Sales.SalesOrderHeader AS soh ON sp.BusinessEntityID = soh.SalesPersonID INNER JOIN  
      Sales.SalesOrderDetail AS sd ON sd.SalesOrderID = soh.SalesOrderID INNER JOIN  
      Production.Product AS pp ON sd.ProductID = pp.ProductID  
   INNER JOIN  
      Production.ProductSubcategory AS pps ON pp.ProductSubcategoryID = pps.ProductSubcategoryID   
   INNER JOIN  
       Production.ProductCategory AS ppc ON ppc.ProductCategoryID = pps.ProductCategoryID  
   
   WHERE (UPPER(SalesOrderNumber) =UPPER(@OrderNumber) or  @OrderNumber IS NULL)  
   
   GROUP BY ppc.Name, soh.OrderDate, soh.SalesOrderNumber, pps.Name, pp.Name, soh.SalesPersonID  
   HAVING (ppc.Name = 'Clothing')  
   

4. Select OK
   In the following steps you add a parameter to the report. The report parameter feeds the dataset parameter.

Add a report parameter and republish the report

1. In the Report Data pane, expand the parameters folder and double-click the Ordernumber parameter. It was created automatically as part of the previous steps when you added the parameter to the dataset. Select New and then choose Parameter...

   

2. Verify the Name is OrderNumber.

3. Verify the Prompt is OrderNumber.

4. Select Allow blank value ("").

5. Select Allow null value.

6. Select OK.

7. Select the Preview tab to run the report. Note the parameter input box at the top of the report. You can either:

   • Select View Report to see the full report without using a parameter.

   • Unselect the Null option and type an order number, for example so71949, then select View Report to view only the one order in the report.

   

Redeploy the report

1. Redeploy the report so the subscription configuration in the next lesson can utilize the changes you made in this lesson. For more information on the project properties used in the table tutorial, see section 'To Publish the Report to the Report Server (Optional)' of Lesson 6: Adding grouping and totals (Reporting Services).

2. On the toolbar, select Build and then choose Deploy tutorial.

Next step

• You successfully configured the report to get data using stored credentials and the data can be filtered with a parameter.
• In the next lesson, you configure the subscription using the web portal Data-Driven Subscription pages. See Lesson 3: Defining a data-driven subscription.

Related content

• Manage report data sources
• Specify credential and connection information for report data sources
• Create a data-driven subscription (SSRS tutorial)
• Create a basic table report (SSRS tutorial)