Microsoft Reporting Services and CSV files

Question

I manage a data warehouse type application and one of the databases it connects to is about to be managed by an external organisation. The external organisation is setting up Microsoft Reporting Services to allow us to generate reports for our users to be able to view the data.

The database is hosted on an external server. I have setup a test form in Microsoft Reporting Services in a test environment.

I don't have any other experience with this technology. My question is: does this technology enable you to generate CSV files or does the information have to be viewed in a web browser? I can't see how this can be done without web services.

Answer 1

Yes SSRS (Reporting services) has a build in capability to export reports to these types of files

• XML
• Word
• CSV
• MHTNK
• Excel
• PDF
• Tiff

I am also managing a data warehouse which accessible for customers. We also providing the reporting services hosting service

But to your question if you have reporting services installed, you can connect to any database you wish (of course if you have permissions)

To create a report you will need:

1. A data source - tells the report that it's going to connect to some server and some DB
2. Dataset- holds information most of the times which comes from a query against a database
3. Design the report

So when you create a data source you can provide ant server name / IP and any database name. (of course you will have to have permissions)

This is a picture which shows you how to create a data source

Answer 2

You seem to be asking two related but different things:

Q1: Can you generate in format X (in your question: X = CSV).
A: Yes, you can export to CSV, XML, XLS, PDF, Word, Html, and Tiff (MSDN). Note that the report has to be tailored towards your preferred export method, e.g. if you want to get CSV it's best to stick to just a simple report with merely a table, or with XML it's rather important to name all controls as they turn into element names.

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Q2: How do you view/get a report? Does it have to be viewed in a browser?
A: There are several ways to deliver reports to end users and other systems, including:

• Subscriptions, delivered through e-mail or FTP
• Through the ReportViewer (either in a web app or in a native app)
• A specific case of the "web app", being via a Sharepoint setup
• Via the web service provided with SSRS
• Directly, using (pre)views in the Report Manager