SSRS - SQL Server Reporting Service - reports in NAV 6

davmac1

I hope Microsoft is still monitoring this forum.
How is SSRS going to handle the table naming convention where all tables unique to a company have a company$ preif to the table name.

Will they be using SQL Server synonyms for the table names, so a report generated for one company in the dtabase will work for another company in the database?
This would also allow us to distribute report packages without worrying about company names.

azerty74

I'm also interested to see if this will be changed in the 6.0 version.
SIFT tables will be replaced by indexed views on Sql, maybe they will also create views for tables used in SSRS ?

Anyway, you could solve this manually by creating a stored procedure that takes the company and/or table name as a parameter and then retrieves the data. If you then use this sp as the basis for your dataset in ssrs, problem solved.

kine

There will be no direct access to the SQL tables when running the Reporting services client component. All is based on XML generated by the service tier. It means no naming problems... but we will see, if there will be no other "problems" ;-)

davmac1

I remember them mentioning xml now - I wonder what the overhead is like for systems with lots of simultaneous users....

Kerem_Kiziltunc

You will be able to distribute your report packages as before.

The report designer will not access to the SQL database directly, it will connect to the Service Tier, so you will be using the NAV's table concepts when designing reports. As part of this, company logic will be handled by NAV automatically as before.

DenSter

You have to separate NAV reports from 'normal' SSRS reports.

NAV reports will be generated from the NAV IDE, regular report objects. The object will generate the datasource, and if you want you can also do the layout itself inside NAV (but why do a B&W report when you can have colors and graphs and stuff). Attached to the report object will be an RDL file that holds the layout. You will be able to use any external reporting tool to modify the RDL and create your own layout. This will be stored as part of the report object inside NAV. So in short: put your dataitems together in NAV, modify the layout in an external tool like Visual Studio. Table naming will all be taken care of by the NAV IDE. You run the reports just like you do now, they can just look pretty instead .

On to 'normal' SSRS reports. The last time I saw a demo (at Directions US), reports that are created in SSRS directly will not be available in the new NAV client, and you will have to manually take care of table names. This to me means that if you want the same report in 10 different companies, you will have to create 10 reports, all looking into the right tables, or find some way to have dynamic table names. I'm sure it's possible, just don't know how. For sure though, you will not be able to run such a report within the NAV client. Possibly start it with some sort of shortcut, but not run it within the context of the NAV client.

garak

but you can run ssrs reports with parameters from Navision. you must only design the report on ssrs so, that it run with defined parameters, like company. Then you call from navision the url of ssrs Report with the needes parameters. Its the same why like SSIS Packadges call from navision

DenSter

Yes so the difference is that NAV reports will run within the context of the application, and a url to SSRS will open another application. With the multiwindow client it could be almost seamless, but it's an important distinction to make.

armelson

Good days,
I'm working on Dynamics nav 5.0 option sql server and I want to use Visual studio to design my reports ( sales quote, order confirmation, sale invoise, purchase order, etc).
I read what DenSter wrote:

Attached to the report object will be an RDL file that holds the layout. You will be able to use any external reporting tool to modify the RDL and create your own layout. This will be stored as part of the report object inside NAV. So in short: put your dataitems together in NAV, modify the layout in an external tool like Visual Studio.

Please can you tell me where and how can I extract RDL file and export it in visual studio.
Are there any document which describe in details, the designing of nav's reports with visual studio?
Thanks for your help

ara3n

You can export the report as text and you'll see the RDL section at the end.

You can copy and paste it into a txt file. rename it to .rdlc.

start copying from
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

till
</Report>

And open it in visual studio.

DenSter

armelson wrote:

I'm working on Dynamics nav 5.0 option sql server

This is the forum for NAV 2009. NAV 5.0 does not have a link to SSRS, and NAV reports do not have RDL definitions in this version.

armelson

thanks for your replies and sorry for posting my request on nav 2009 forum :oops: