Reporting Services:
There really isn’t much to say about Reporting Services within SharePoint 2010. This is due to the fact that SSRS is already prolific within MOSS 2007, however, there are a few very important facts that should be pointed out.
- At least for now, SSRS cannot be setup and configured with SharePoint 2010 unless it is installed and configured on SQL Server 2008 R2 (Kilimanjaro). I was very surprised by this since many existing customers will be forced to upgrade to 2008 R2 in order to maintain their existing configuration of Reporting Services setup in SharePoint Integrated Mode.
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A major improvement for Reporting Services exists due to a much easier, simplified, and straight-forward setup. Part of this is due to the fact that there is no longer a separate install for integration, all that needs to be done is the simple configuration within Central Administration (this CA setup is similar to what is currently done within MOSS 2007). After the CA setup is done, simply create a document library for the reports (and if necessary another for the data connections), publish the reports to the site, and run them!! The CA screen is shown below:
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SharePoint Integrated functionality seems to be the same (very similar, exists as a web part).
Chart Web Parts:
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Totally separate from PerformancePoint, there is another option for developers and SharePoint administrators which can be used to display graphical information to end users. There is another web part that exists called a "Chart Web Part". The web part can be found in the "Miscellaneous" web part section which is the same place where the SQL Server Reporting Services web parts exists. The Chart Web Part is shown below:
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The Chart Web Part is very simple to use and configure since it uses wizards to customize the web part and to connect the web part to data. The two wizards that exist are shown below, "Customize Your Chart" and "Connect Chart To Data":
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This web part does have the ability to connect to a couple different data sources including other web parts, SharePoint Lists, the BDC, and Excel Services. It does not appear that this web part will be able to connect to SQL tables or a cube, however, you could use Business Connectivity Services to populate a list with some external data and then display this data with the Chart Web Part. The data sources are shown below:
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The only downside that I can foresee to the Charts is that they are not interactive. The charts will however offer yet another way for users to graphically view data within SharePoint 2010. Some examples of the Chart Web Parts are shown below. Even though they are not interactive they can still look pretty sharp with some formatting!
Conclusion:
- Chart Web Parts give end users more BI tools that can easily be configured
- Reporting Services seems to be easier to configure (any improvement here is huge!)
Open Questions:
- Are chart web parts only for Enterprise licenses (it can connect to Excel Services)?
- What is the deal with requiring SQL 2008 R2 for SSRS?
