Sharepoint 2010 Integration with SSRS 2008R2

Sharepoint 2010 Integration with SSRS 2008R2:

As Sharepoint 2010 is one stop environment which can be useful for all enterprise needs, Sharepoint come up with a tight integration with SSRS 2008R2 which can host the SSRS reports directly in Sharepoint rather deploying them to reporting server.

Advantages of Sharepoint integrated mode for SSRS.

1. Publishing, Viewing Dashboards, Management and delivery of reports through Sharepoint user interface.
2. Leverage Sharepoint Collaboration and work flow capabilities with rich reporting experience.
3. Shared security principles across SSRS and Sharepoint.
4. Minimize the resource usage by eliminating separate reporting server.

Architecture:

Following image shows the integration between Sharepoint and SSRS.

When you open a report from a SharePoint site, the Report Server endpoint connects to a report server, creates a session, prepares the report for processing, retrieves data, merges the report into the report layout, and displays it in the Report Viewer Web part.

The report server synchronizes operations and data with SharePoint and tracks information about the files it processes. When you modify properties or settings for any report server item, the change is stored in a SharePoint database.

Components that provides the integration:

To combine the servers in a single deployment, you integrate an installation of SQL Server Reporting Services with an instance of SharePoint products.

On SharePoint side, it provides the Reporting Services Add-in provides the Report Server proxy endpoint, a Report Viewer Web part, and application pages so that you can view, store, and manage report server content on a SharePoint site or farm.

On Reporting Services side, it provides updated program files, a SOAP endpoint, and custom security and delivery extensions. The report server must be configured to run in SharePoint integrated mode, dedicated exclusively to supporting report access and delivery through your SharePoint site.

After you install the Reporting Services Add-in on SharePoint and configure the two servers for integration, you can upload or publish report server content types to a SharePoint library, and then view and manage those documents from a SharePoint site. Uploading or publishing report server content is an important first step; the Web Part and pages become available when you select report definitions (.rdl), report models (.smdl) and shared data sources (.rsds) on a SharePoint site.

Supported and unsupported features SharePoint add-in and Report Server :

Not all features are supported in all combinations of report server, Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint, and SharePoint Products. The recommended and most complete combination is to use SharePoint 2010 Products, the SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint 2010 Products, and SQL Server 2008 R2 report server in SharePoint Integrated mode.Here is the link which provides the supported ans un supported features of SharePoint add-in and Report Server.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326290.aspx

Top 10 FAQs for Admins about BCS

Thanks to Business Connectivity Services (BCS), it’s now easy to integrate external data into SharePoint 2010. If you’re a SharePoint administrator keen to know what BCS is, what it offers, and how to manage it in your SharePoint environment, this top 10 list is for you.

1. What is BCS? BCS enables SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 applications to read and write data from external systems, such as databases, web services, and custom-built applications. BCS provides tools that streamline development to deeply integrate external data and services. To learn more about BCS, see the MSDN article “Business Connectivity Services Overview.”

2. How different is BCS from the Business Data Catalog?The major difference between the Business Data Catalog that’s available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and BCS in SharePoint 2010 is that Business Data Catalog is a read-only service, but BCS enables create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations on the external system.

3. What is the BDC service in SharePoint 2010? Business Data Connectivity (BDC) is a shared service that lets users build declarative models, which expose the external data to SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 applications. BDC is the data connectivity to different external systems and the set of operations for BCS to interact with the external system.

4. How do I manage BCS? BCS is a service application. You manage service applications from SharePoint Central Administration. You manage BCS in the BDC service metadata store by using the BCS service application. Multiple instances of this service application can be created for different external systems if needed.

5. What are external content types? External content types are the building blocks of BCS. They describe the schema and data access capabilities of an external data source and its behavior within SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 applications, enabling interaction with the external data. To learn more about external content types, see the MSDN article “What Are External Content Types?”

6. What is the BDC service metadata store? The BDC service metadata store contains all the BDC models, external content types, and external systems available in the farm. You manage it from the BCS service application in the SharePoint Central Administration website.

7. How do I manage permissions, security, and access to the external data in BCS? Permissions can be applied to the metadata store and to every object in the metadata store, and they can be associated with an individual account or a group. You should be aware of two security principles: BDC service authentication, which deals with authenticating with the BDC model and the external system; and BDC service authorization, which deals with user access to the external data managed by BCS. These controls shouldn’t be confused with the permissions set in the external data system. Permissions set in the BDC service metadata store apply only to connections from SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 applications to the external system.

8. Is BCS available in SharePoint Foundation 2010? Yes, BCS is included in both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010. However, the BCS features available in SharePoint Foundation 2010 are limited when compared to the features available in SharePoint Server 2010.

9. Can I upgrade from Business Data Catalog to BCS?Yes, upgrading from Business Data Catalog to BCS is supported. To learn more about planning your upgrade to BCS, see the TechNet article “Plan to upgrade to Business Connectivity Services.”

10. Is SharePoint Search integrated with BCS? Yes, you can configure SharePoint Search to crawl external data. You can create a new content source of type Line of Business Data and configure search for your BDC service. To learn more about searching external data using BCS, see the blog post“Searching External Data in SharePoint 2010 Using Business Connectivity Services.”

Tags and Notes in Sharepoint MySites

Tags and Notes in MySites

Tags and notes is one of the key featuring in Sharepoint 2010 my sites. This shows the likes and tags of the users which let other users know more about them.

How it works?

When the user clicked on "I like it" or "Tags and Notes" links at the top right of the each page it will ask the name and notes about that tag.

This will be stored as tag to that page and displayed on the users MySite under "Tags and Content"

Removing the inappropriate tags

If the users post something which is inappropriate, Farm administrator has ability of managing those tags by navigating the following link.

SP Central Administration à Application Management à Manage service applications à Click on User Profile Service Application à Manage Social Tags and Notes

This provides a Search page as follows which shows the tags belong to particular page or users. Farm Admin can remove these tags if they are inappropriate.

 

Please find the following TechNet article to know more about Privacy and security implications of social tagging.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff608006.aspx#sectionHidden