SSRS Mobile Reports Tutorial Outline

By: Siddharth Mehta

Overview

Reporting data on mobile devices is an increasing trend in organizations considering modernization and accessibility of information. The primary challenge in reporting data on mobile devices is the variety of platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, etc. and the variety of devices like tablets and phones of varying sizes. When it comes to reporting data on mobile, another challenge is using appropriate visualization that can be used on a limited screen size of the mobiles devices. Visual analytics remains a priority for mobile reporting as analyzing a lot of detailed transactional data on a mobile screen is neither feasible nor convenient.

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2016 introduced Mobile Report Publisher which is intended to develop reports for mobile devices, tablets as well as desktops. It ships with 30 different visualizations that can be used to develop rich mobile dashboards. Built-in simulators can be used to test reports for different layouts, which eliminates the need for external third-party device specific simulators. Integration of the Power BI application with SSRS addresses the complexity of rendering reports on a variety of devices and platforms. In summary, a set of SSRS Tools and Technologies enables report developers to focus on reporting and eliminates the complexity of rendering reports on different devices. In this tutorial we will learn the different aspects of developing mobile dashboards for iOS, Android and Windows platforms.

Below is the structure of the tutorial:

1. Basics
• Considerations for Mobile Reporting
• SSRS Architecture and Mobile Reporting Tools
• Introduction to Mobile Report Publisher
2. Reporting Controls
• Reporting details with Data Grids
• Data Analysis with Charts
• KPI reporting with Gauges
• Geospatial reporting with Maps
• Interactivity with Navigators
3. Power BI Integration
• Power BI vs. Mobile Report Publisher
• Power BI Mobile App Installation
• Integrating Power BI Mobile App with SSRS
4. Deployment and Testing
• Deploying a sample dashboard
• Testing dashboard on iOS and Android devices

In this tutorial we will step through each of the above mentioned topics with examples. So let's get started with the basic considerations for mobile reporting.