Connecting SQL Reporting Services to a SharePoint List

Jennifer Lewis
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Overview
Sometimes people such as executives or managers would like to see reports of the data that
appears in SharePoint without having to look in SharePoint and creating the information “from
scratch”. Here are a few examples of the types of reports that interest managers or executives:
• A report containing summary averages of all the surveys that have been taken by the
users
• A report containing a list of overdue outstanding issues
• A project status report

Assumptions
Although the document contains a small demonstration on using the SQL Reporting Extensions
designer, the reader should have general working knowledge on how to create reports using the
SQL Reporting Extensions (SQL Reporting Services). A good tutorial that can get you started on
creating reports using Reporting Services can be found at Emad Yazdanpanah’s blog:
http://www.csharpcourses.com/2008/05/create-report-with-reporting-services.html.

Requirements
In order to create reports:
• Visual Studio 2005 or later
• SQL Reporting Extensions, which are installed by default if you installed the SQL Server
2000 or SQL Server 2005 Client tools
• A SharePoint list exposed Anonymously or via Windows Integrated Authentication

Directions
The demonstration is using Visual Studio 2005.
1. Open Visual Studio
2. Start a new project by selecting File-New Project-Business Intelligence Projects-
Report Server Project. In this illustration, the project will be named SampleSPReport.

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3. In the Solutions Explorer, right-click on Shared Data Sources and select Add New Data
Source

4. Add the following information:

Under the General Tab
a. In the Name field, name the data source. In this example, the name of the data
source will be SharePointSite.
b. In the Type drop-down field, select XML
c. In the Connection string, enter
http://<server>/<path>/_vti_bin/lists.asmx, where <server> is
your server name, and <path> is the path where to get the list. For example, if
your server is called Bogus, and the path is Site1, enter
http://Bogus/Site1/_vti_bin/lists.asmx.

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Under the Credentials Tab
a. Select Use Windows
Authentication (Integrated
Security) or No Credentials. In
this example, we will Use
Windows Authentication
(Integrated Security)
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The other authentication types are not
supported by the designer. If you
need any of the other authentication
types, you can change the
authentication type when you publish
the data source on the SQL Report
Server. You will need the correct
access on the Report Server to do this.
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5. Click OK
6. Right click on the Reports folder and select Add – New Item

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7. When the Add New Item dialog box appears, select the Report template. You may
leave the default name for the report, or you may rename it. For this illustration, I will
rename it FavoritePythons.

8. Click Add
The report designer should open by default.

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9. If it is not currently selected, select the Data tab.

10. From the Dataset drop-down field, select <New Dataset>

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This illustration will demonstrate creating a simple report without any filtering or manipulation.
11. In the dialog box enter the following information:
From the Query Tab
• In the Name field, enter the name of the dataset. In this illustration, I will call it
Pythons.
• In the Data source drop-down, make sure that the data source that you created
earlier is selected
• In the Command type drop-down, select text.
• In the Query string box, enter the following:
<Query>
<Method Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/"
Name="GetListItems" />
<SoapAction>http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/GetListItem
s</SoapAction>
</Query>
• You may leave the value in the Timeout field blank.

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In the Parameters Tab

• Enter the following parameters:
listName The GUID for your list
rowLimit 9999 (or any number you like)
viewName The GUID for the view on your list

You can get the List GUID and the View GUID using the Stramit
CAML Viewer (http://www.codeplex.com/SPCamlViewer) or
the GUID Picker
(http://blogs.msdn.com/ronalus/archive/2007/09/08/a-little-
guid-picker.aspx)

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12. Click OK
You should now see your data set information appear in the left hand side of your workspace.
The field names start with the ows_ prefix.

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Troubleshooting Tips
• If you initially get an error message when you click OK, close the error dialog

and click the refresh button in the toolbar. If you are still getting an error,
check your parameters.
• If you don’t see any fields with the prefix of ows_, it means that your list has no
entries.

If you are already familiar with working with the SQL Reporting Extensions designer, you should
be able to create a report using the SharePoint data. However, I will include an example
instruction on designing a simple report using the Table report items and my data.
1. Select the Layout tab

2. From the Toolbox, select the Table object.

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3. Click and drag the object to the work area.

4. Set the following properties on the table:
a. In the DataSetName, select the data set that you created. In this example, the
data set is Pythons.
b. You can also set other properties such as the font format and page breaks. For
this illustration, only the DataSetName property will be set.

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5. From the Datasets section, click on the fields that you would like to appear on the report
and drag the fields the Detail row in the table.

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Drag the fields

from this
section to the
“Detail” row on
the table.

6. To test your report, click the Preview Tab

You should see an example of your report:

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Again, if you are familiar with creating reports using the SQL Reporting Extensions and SQL
Reporting Services, you can “jazz up” the report by adding formatting such as:
• Alternating colors for the rows
• Different titles and footers
• Different fonts and colors
• Headers and footers on the report.
• Any custom code on the report.

Once you create the report, you are ready to publish to a SQL Report Server.
1. In the Solution Explorer, right click on the project name and select Properties.

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2. Enter the following information in the fields:

a. In the TargetDataSourceFolder, enter the folder name exactly as it appears on
the SQL Report Server where your data source will be stored. For example, if
the folder is called Bogus Reports, enter Bogus Reports.
b. In the TargetReportFolder, enter the folder name exactly as it appears on the
SQL Report Server where your reports will be stored. For example, if the folder
is called Bogus Reports, enter Bogus Reports.
c. In the TargetServerURL, enter the URL where the SQL Report Server is
located. In your configuration, you may have SQL Report Server running on the
same box as your URL, or may be running SQL Report Server on a separate
machine.

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3. In Solution Explorer, right click on the object you want to publish and click Deploy

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Sources

David Wise’s Blog: Connecting SQL Reporting Services to a SharePoint List.

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/dwise/archive/2007/11/28/connecting-sql-reporting-services-to-a-
sharepoint-list-redux.aspx. Retrieved 8/27/2008.

TechNet. How to: Publish a Report to a SharePoint Library from Report Designer.
Retrieved 9/11/2008.

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