Partial answer to an ASPNET forum question on Report Generation

The ASPNET forum user wanted to display the following using Reporting Services.

 

Well the answer found was to put the data into an XML Document and using Report Builder 2.0 you can fashion a Matrix report. This would give the report to look like the above but the 'Aggregation' part fails. The report generated (I have used only two rows, but it can be made towork for more) is shown in the next figure.

 

I am now looking at why aggregation failed.

Improved Report Builder 2.0

One of the GUI related problem in my previous post has been rectified and a new version (10/21/2008) of Report Builder has been released.

The New Table and Matrix wizard had this problem:

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2008/09/some-observations-on-new-table-or.html

There was a work around but in some cases it could have caused a confusion. This has been rectified and the latest version is available for download according to Microsoft's Connect.

"Thank you for using Report Builder 2.0. The Arrange page of the wizard and the wizard overall was cleaned up between the RC build and the now released final version. Specific to your comments, you can remove a field by dragging it from one of the field group boxes to the white space in the middle. The final released version can be downloaded from the following location. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en "

If you are into SSRS download the new version.

Some observations on the New Table or Matrix Wizard in Report Builder 2.0

It is an excellent tool that makes it easy to rapidly develop cross-tab like reports. However there are a few problems using it.

#1. It is not like what the Report Builder 2.0 documents says it is.

Copied from documentation

Copied from the Report Builder's Wizard

#2. You can only make a cross-tab report using this (of course you can edit the report later to make a Table report).

#3. Once you move a field into the three others (ROW GROUPS, COLUMN GROUPS, VALUES) you cannot remove it. You can however move it around the three.

#4. If you cancel this step you have to start the wizard all over again

#5. Even if you start with Insert | Table Wizard you end up with the same Arrange Fields page of the wizard.

This was my experience, What is yours?