Reporting Services

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a server-based reporting platform that provides comprehensive reporting functionality for a variety of data sources. Reporting Services includes a complete set of tools for you to create, manage, and deliver reports, and APIs that enable developers to integrate or extend data and report processing in custom applications. Reporting Services tools work within the Microsoft Visual Studio environment and are fully integrated with SQL Server tools and components.

With Reporting Services, you can create interactive, tabular, graphical, or free-form reports from relational, multidimensional, or XML-based data sources. You can publish reports, schedule report processing, or access reports on-demand. Reporting Services also enables you to create ad hoc reports based on predefined models, and to interactively explore data within the model. You can select from a variety of viewing formats, export reports to other applications, and subscribe to published reports. The reports that you create can be viewed over a Web-based connection or as part of a Microsoft Windows application or SharePoint site. Reporting Services provides the key to your business data.

Although the ReportViewer control is built on the same Microsoft reporting technology as Reporting Services, it is distributed as a data control in Visual Studio. You can use the control with Reporting Services, or as an embedded data control that provides rich reporting functionality.