SQL Saturday 371

Ok, I admit it. This post is a bit of a cop-out to avoid not posting in February. This is the slide deck for anyone attending my session tomorrow morning at SQL Saturday Tampa 371.

Click Here to download it.

I will be adding a few updates to it based on some work I’ve been doing recently, as soon as it’s ready for prime time, I’ll re-post. Thanks to everyone who’s attending!

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Top 4 Quotes For Report Developers

Before I start into the quotes, I want to let you know about something I’m trying for 2015. I have committed myself to writing at least one blog post per month. As a personal incentive, if I fail to post, I will give away one copy of the new “Pro T-SQL Programmer’s Guide, 4th edition” –Miguel Cebollero to the first person to call me out on it by commenting on my previous month’s post. If I reach my goal and post at least once each month, I’ll give away one copy in a random drawing of those who have written at least one (relevant) comment to one of my 2015 posts.

Now, to the quotes. I am a big movie and book fan and often wonder if the quotes I cite to folks are lost on them or if they “get” my references. So I thought it might be fun to explain a few of my favorites. I’m sure if you’ve ever written a report once you read these, even if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you’ll get them.



Counting down from number 4:

As the saying goes, “If you had an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite number of typewriters, you could have the entire works of Shakespeare in no time.” I throw this one out there any time a question of data quality comes up. Sure, you just might have the entire works of Shakespeare, some unimaginable gems hiding in your data, but you also have so much junk that it would take you an eternity to find them. Still as report writers, we are expected to present that gem, and ONLY that gem in a report that has more exception criteria than results!

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SQL Saturday 318 Orlando 2014,
#sqlsatorlando, Thank You’s and PASS Summit 2014

SQL Saturday #318 Orlando 2014

So again, it’s been a while since I’ve posted a bolg. Right off the bat I need to tell you this is a non-technical post. I wanted to let everyone know that I will be presenting a session on SSRS at SQL Saturday 318 Orlando 2014 in a couple weeks, September 27th. This will be another great learning opportunity for all of us, so If you can make it out, be sure to register ASAP.

Next, I’d like to call out a couple of guys who have had a huge impact on my career and personal development over the last couple of years. I’ve been fortunate enough to work for both of them and have learned more from them and through them than I could have ever imagined.

First is Jose Chinchilla. (SQLJoe.com & AgileBay.com) I finished 2013 and started 2014 working for Jose in a consulting role. Jose is the owner of Agile Bay and runs the Tampa SQL BI Users group. (http://tampabaybi.sqlpass.org/) A couple weeks ago Jose presented me with an opportunity to go to this year’s PASS Summit in Seattle in November! I couldn’t be more excited to say I’ll be attending my first Summit! I can’t wait for this event, and am sincerely grateful to Jose for making this trip possible.

Next, but in no way to a lesser extent, I’d like to thank Miguel Cebollero (SQLMiguel.com) First for letting me take 3 days off to attend the Summit, and also for his ongoing encouragement. Miguel has been more than a great guy to work for. Beyond his top notch technical guidance, I like to say that he keeps me honest. He stays connected, not just with me but his entire team, consistently motivating us beyond our 9-5 jobs.

Both Miguel and Jose exemplify what I have found in the SQL Server community at large. A genuinely fun and supportive group that is always willing to help fellow professionals. So I’d like to also thank all of you, who have read my blog and attended my speaking engagements. I learn more writing and presenting than any of the folks who are listening.

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Querying Active Directory From SSRS

Thanks to everyone who stopped out to the Tampa SQL BI user’s group last night to hear my presentation on Querying Active Directory From SSRS. Here is the link to download the Power Point. Click Here to download. Be sure to join us next month for Bryan Bennett’s presentation of Service Broker.


If you haven’t already, visit the Tampa SQL BI User’s Group site and register for updates to learn about everything our chapter will be doing in the coming months. Click Here.

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Here is the Power Point from my Reporting Services Intro presentation on 10/26/2013.
I hope you found it useful.
Reporting Services Intro ppt

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ITProCamp 2013

Just a quick reminder before you set your weekend plans. This Saturday will be ITProCamp 2013, October 26, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM (EDT). At Keiser University 5002 West Waters Avenue
Tampa, FL 33634. This is a free event, but please register at: http://tampaitprocamp2013-eorg.eventbrite.com/

I will be presenting an introduction to SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

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Last week I explained how I came to use SSRS Reports as user interface. This week I’ll discuss how I was able to very quickly provide users with an administrative console to adjust the configuration of a web based application using only Reporting Services and SQL Server.

Before I begin, I should probably point out that what I’m about to describe is pretty far off the beaten path for Reporting Services. Security, usability and support are all legitimate concerns that would need to be justified before I would recommend anyone else taking this approach. However, given the right set of circumstances that I don’t believe are all that extraordinary, you might find this useful.

The first question you might have is, “Why would I want to do this? If I have SSRS installed in my environment, wouldn’t I also have IIS, ASP.Net, VB.Net and or C# available to create a proper UI?.” My answer is yes, you most likely would and those are far better tools. However, in my case the company did not allow anyone outside of the development group to make enhancements to the product and without a request from the business group, new features rarely saw the light of day, or even budget consideration.

Your next concern might be, “So you are telling me the connection I use for my reports is going to be inserting and updating data? You are crazy! Security would have my badge and laugh me out of the building.” Again, I would say you are probably correct. If your report users log into the Report Manager and have admin privileges, with this kind of access they have the potential to do some harm. In the cases I am about to describe though, I have exposed only read and execute SQL privileges to my report user connection and have complete control over stored procedures in the database. Yes, if a devious employee had access to upload an RDL AND knew the names and usage of stored procedures in the system, they could alter data in unintended ways.

The post SSRS Reports As User Interface Part II appeared first on SQL Wes.

Shortly after starting to work with SQL Server Reports (SSRS) and getting a feel for what they could do as singular presentations of summary and detailed information, I started to consider more elaborate systems presenting suites of reports and a customized user experience. Much of my experience with SSRS has been to present reports through the ASP.Net report viewer control, and that is what sparked my interest in using reports as a user interface.

At the onset of a typical assignment I would be presented with the existing work which would be a list of links to an ASP page that would render the report for a visitor. After proving my worth making some alterations and updates to the existing reports I’d be asked to add new reports to the list. This would go on for some time and became rather dry, creating one stand alone report at a time.

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Hi, my name is Wes Springob. SQLWes is a blog for discussing my interests in Microsoft’s SQL Server and its related products. I have a particular interest in Business Intelligence and database development. I hope you will share my enthusiasm for this technology and find this site useful.

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