I am splitting this article in 2 parts. In the first part, I want to talk about all the tools you need to create your first report. Before reading the 2nd part of this post, make sure you have:
1.) Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Development Studio
2.) Report Builder 3.0 (I am going to use Report Builder 2.0)
3.) SQL Server or Oracle.
4.) Revised SQL queries.
All the 4 items listed above are extremely important in creating your reports. SSRS is a pretty user friendly tool and if an analyst can write SQL queries, he/she can start creating attractive SSRS reports in no time.
I am going to use the table given below in all my posts on SSRS. We will be querying this table and creating different types of reports.
Consider this table to be a sales table for a store such as Bath and Body works. This table has the following information:
| Fields | Description | Data Type |
| ID | Identifier (Primary Key) | Number |
| Product _Type | Candles, hand sanitizers, perfumes, etc | Varchar2 |
| Product Detail | Fragrance of the product such as Strawberry, Vanilla, Eucalyptus, etc | Varchar2 |
| In Store | Timestamp of the product arrival in store | Date |
| Sold | Timestamp of product sold | Date |
Please dedicate sometime in installing all the software listed above and creating SQL table on your machine before we dive into the second part of this article
