Power Who ? …. Launching Power View

Power View is the new whiz bang reporting tool by Microsoft that is part of the next generation of easy to use yet powerful data visualisation tools. For a start if you don’t have at least Excel 2010 (with at least the Power Pivot add-in 2012 RTM installed), Sharepoint Server 2010, SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence, Developer or Enterprise editions, then forget it. But if you do have all of the above, and you havn’t using Power View previously, you are in for a visual treat.

To embark on a quick guide to launching Power View read on…

Unlike Report Builder, launching a Power View report begins with creating one of the data sources that Power View supports. These data sources include a Power Pivot database, a BISM Connection file or a Shared (Tabular) Data Source. To create a Power View report from Power Pivot, click the Create Power View report icon from the upper right hand corner of the Power Pivot xlsx file. Yes you must have Excel 2010 to run the free to install Power Pivot 2012 RTM add-in. To create a Power View report within Sharepoint, click the down arrow next to the Shared Data Source or BISM Connection File and select Create Power View Report. The Power View design environment then opens and you will be able to start creating exciting visuals using this exciting new reporting tool.

If you are unable to launch Power View or cannot create a BISM Connection file from within your document library, you will need to make some adjustments to the features for your site. For a start we assume you have correctly integrated Reporting Services and Power Pivot to your Sharepoint Server 2010 environment (only basic Reporting Services integration under Sharepoint Foundation 2010). Now go to the site that contains the document library you will be storing your Power View reports, select Site Actions, Site Settings, Site Collection Features then ensure the Power View and Power Pivot Integration Features are Active. The BISM Content Type must be specifically enabled for your document library which you can access under Library Settings, Advanced Settings, and Add from Existing Content Types.

Further material available here.

Sharepoint 2010 Report Server File Sync Feature

If your users will frequently upload published Report Server items directly to SharePoint document libraries, you may want to consider enabling the Sharepoint 2010 File Sync feature as a best practice.

The Report Server File Sync Feature synchronizes Report Server files (.rdl, .rsds, .smdl, .rsd, .rsc) from a SharePoint document library to the report server when files are added or updated in the document library.

But what does this mean ? I have already integrated Reporting Services with Sharepoint, I thought this would already be the case!   Yes and No.  The File Sync features utilises Sharepoint event handlers to synchronize the report server catalog with items in document libraries more frequently. The reality is that in an integrated Reporting Services environment you have a Report Server database and a seperate Sharepoint Content databases that share information.   If the File Sync feature is not activated, content will still be synchronized but not as frequently, so why take the risk.

A classic example is if you are utilising third party products to build scheduled solution documentation snapshots such as Pragmatic Works BI Documenter.   This tool reads the Report Server catalog (as well as the database, SSIS and SSAS components) to build an exact as built snapshot of your current Microsoft B.I. content and solutions.  This gives you the ability to find out what has changed between any two snapshots, hence an excellent example of why you would want the Report Server catalog kept strictly up to date.

and Setup is mindless….

1. From the main page of your site, click the Site Actions menu and click Site Settings

2. In the Site Actions click Manage Site Features

3. Find Report Server File Sync in the list

4. Click Activate

 

B.I. with Sharepoint 2010 Budgie (Foundation) edition

Before you jump into Sharepoint 2010, have you considered running the budget no frills Foundation 2010 edition for starters ?  Check out Compare Editions for a feature comparison.  You may be surprised about what you get in Foundation.  Its free to download and you just need to be licensed for Windows. Check out the official license info here and more basic and insightful license coverage here.

Asides from Reporting Services 2012 integration, Foundation edition has loads of other features to bring to life fully functional and professional looking portals and comes with Business Connectivity Services.  This feature is handy for businesses who want to maintain their own reference data and need writeback to an external datasource.  On the SQL Server 2012 Standard edition side, you still get these great features and hence can still run your Analysis Services and Integration services packages demanded by an end to end Business Intelligence solution.   In this integrated combination you don’t get Reporting Services Data Alerts nor Power View, however for most organisations starting down the Business Intelligence road where baby steps are usually taken,  Reporting Services 2012 Sharepoint Foundation 2010 integration might do just nicely for minimal dollars.

Lets do it !  Where can I download !?

PerformancePoint Unexpected Error Occurred 11861 Creating Report

You have launched Performance Point Dashboard Designer in Sharepoint 2010, created a Data Source connection to your cube, then attempted to create an Analytical Chart Report.  You get an Unexpected Error 11861 popup message.

You just need to right click on your new connection and select Save, then you will be able to create your Analytical Chart.

Reference PerformancePoint Unexpected Error Occurred 11861

Performance Point 2010 Security Primer

Sooner or later you will either start using or be dragged into an architectural discussion about Performance Point Services 2010.

The following reference introduces the Sharepoint Security Authorisation Model and contrasts the various server roles in Performance Point 2007 with predefined Sharepoint roles 2010.

Finally, the reference outlines the Sharepoint 2010 permissions that are required to perform the various tasks involved in using Performance Point dashboards and the Dashboard Designer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748591.aspx

Reporting Services (Native) vs Sharepoint 2010 Integrated

If you are not yet running SSRS in integrated Sharepoint 2010 mode, you might like to know what you are up for (other than some dollars to fund).  The following reference highlights what your world might look like as a developer or admin when running SSRS in Sharepoint integrated mode.   The reference includes a feature comparison between Native and Integrated  modes and some discussion around SSRS Sharepoint 2010 plugins (including running plain old SQL 2008 in Sharepoint 2010 integrated mode).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326290.aspx (SQL 2012 edition of this article TBA).

 

 

Creating Time Intelligence Filters in Performance Point 2010 – Quick Ref

Those of you new to Performance Point 2010 or who are starting to want more from your dashboards using Time Intelligence, the following link provides a succinct reference for applying Time Intelligence formulas see Performance Point TI Shortcuts.

Those turning their hand at MDX filter queries and doing custom member rollups filters …..(exhale) be aware the Performance Point 2010 MDX editor has a strict requirement on formatting which excludes the use of WITH statements before your SELECT as identified here MSDN Reference.

Ron Davis provides a good You Tube clip demonstrating the use of the MDX Filter feature Ron Davis MDX Filter Clip.

Rds and Rsds files – There is an error in XML document (2,2) (System.Xml)

When you create a shared data source in the BIDS tool, the file gets the .rds extension.  When the shared data source is deployed to Sharepoint 2010, it gets the .rsds extension.

Hence, lets say your source control went belly up, and you had to recreate a blank SSRS solution from scratch, you could in theory download a copy of the rsds files from Sharepoint 2010 into the new solution framework.   However you may get an error “There is an error in XML document (2,2) (System.Xml)”.

This is due to the schema differences between the RDS and RSDS files as outlined here Create and Manage Data Sources in Int Mode.

Workaround is to recreate the data sources manually ensuring the same name and properties are set.  The reason is outlined in the reference below which can be summarised as “When you publish a shared data source (.rds) file to a SharePoint site, this changes the data source file to an .rsds file name extension. The .rsds file cannot be saved locally from a SharePoint site and imported into an existing Reporting Services project. Shared data sources with file name extensions .rds and .rsds are not interchangeable”.

Sorry guys – don’t shoot the messenger – see here for further details Deploying Models and Shared Data Sources to Sharepoint.

If you cannot remember the specific names and details of the data sources and don’t have access to trawl through the Sharepoint Site for them, then you could refer to your Pragmatic Works BI Documenter end to end solution documentation (if you are lucky enough to have it installed, and have daily solution snapshots running).