Creating SSRS Report

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Hi experts,
I have Visual Studio 2022 installed on my laptop. I admit I'm a bit intimidated by the complexity of this tool so I'm looking for another way to build an RS report.

If I install SQL Server Data Tools (2019), will that give me the ability to create a Reporting Services report and run it as an agent job?

Thanks!

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SSDT has nothing to do with reporting services as it is a tool. Reporting services is as the name implies a service like Analysis services etc. Nor does it have anything to do with with agent job.

I think you are getting lost in the weeds?

If you want to build reports in an easier way try

Install Report Builder - SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) | Microsoft Docs.

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I agree that I may be getting lost in the weeds :slight_smile: I need to build the report, then email it on a schedule. Would this version be compatible with our SQL 2019 back-end? Thanks for your replies.

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try it :laughing:
you should really have a development/sandbox server identical to your production server

Then you can try it out to your heart's delight. Then when you are happy and tested it well, you deploy it to production.

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there are many ways of emailing a report . One of the simplest ways is SSRS subscriptions. This subject of subscriptions has already been answered for you in other threads

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To answer your specific question - Visual Studio 2022 doesn't yet (afaik) have the SSIS/SSRS/SSAS components available. If those are now available, then yes - it can be used to create SSRS reports and deploy them.

If those are not available, then you need Visual Studio 2019. You can install the community edition if you don't have a license for Visual Studio.

For both version - you need to add the SSRS/SSIS/SSAS components. These are not included when you install Visual Studio. Once added, you can then create your reports.

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Thank you, jeffw8713. So this server has SQL Server 2019 Standard.
SSRS, SSIS and Visual Studio are NOT installed.
I will install SSRS and SSIS soon.

As for developing SSRS Reports and SSIS packages, assuming I will develop on the server....
I need to install Visual Studio 2019 and then SSDT-BI is that correct?
Thanks for your detailed reply.

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I would not install the tools on a server - those tools are meant to be installed on a workstation (desktop). With that said, yes - you need to install Visual Studio 2019.

There is no SSDT-BI for VS 2019 - to get those you add them as extensions. During the installation of VS 2019 - make sure you select the 'Data storage and processing' tools under the heading 'Other Toolsets'.

After installation - use the option in VS to manage extensions. In that dialog - select Online and find the extension for Reporting Services and download. Then find and select the extension for Integration Services. The Integration Services extension will be placed in your downloads folder - and must be run separately. The Reporting Services extension will be installed when you close VS.

The order of operations is:

  1. Install Visual Studio 2019
  2. Manage Extensions - selecting those you want
  3. Close VS - extensions will be applied that can be
  4. Once the extensions have been installed - run the Integration Services extension install

Once you have that done - you can launch VS, create a new project from a template - select the Reporting Services template and start developing the report.

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Thank you Jeff. And the above steps will ensure that I have the providers for SQL Server, correct, or will I need to install a light-weight edition of SQL Server such as Express to get those?

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Yes - you should have the necessary drivers to access SQL Server from your workstation. If you already have SSMS installed on the workstation - that also provides the necessary drivers.

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@jeffw8713 Of course I will develop the package from my laptop which has Visual studio and Excel.
Then deploy to a Test SQL Server which does not have VS nor Excel.

  1. Will the deployed package contain the required Excel drivers to enable the package to run on the test SQL Server?
  2. If I have to use the Community Edition of VS, is that acceptable in a corporate environment (license-wise)?
  3. If I choose the Community Edition, will I be able to deploy to a Production server?

Thanks.

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@jeffw8713 Wow Visual Studio 2019 has really "matured". So many options to install. Various Workloads and Individual components for .NET.

All II need to do is create IS packages and RS reports. If my backend is SQL 2019, can I just install SSDT 2017 to be able to create packages and reports? That's what I used for SQL 2016 and it was streamlined and easy to use.

What do you think? Thanks again.

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I think you can deploy - but not sure. If you go to Extensions - and search for 'Reporting' it will bring up the extension for reporting services. Install that and you can start using it...

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