In last article Managing the Report Content Using Report Manager: Caching we looked at caching and maintaining the history of the SSRS report. In this article we will be focusing on subscriptions. Reporting services comes with two methods of subscriptions:

• Windows File Share : Using this method you can place your report in the shared folder  of your network drive with appropriate permissions on the shared folder
• Email Delivery : You need to have a dedicated smtp server for delivering your report into the Inbox of your intended recipients.

Report Delivery using Windows File Share

Follow the below steps to subscribe for the report in the windows file share mode

1. Click on the dropdown on the report name and click subscribe.

2. Select Windows File Share in the dropdown. Provide a share folder’s path with credentials which have access rights on that folder. Select the rendering format. Select a schedule when you want the report to be placed  in the shared folder.

3. You can either check the status of the report delivery by clicking on the MySubscription link

or by clicking on the dropdown Mange->Subscriptions.

4. After checking the status of the report delivery you can now see the report placed in the shared location.

Data Driven Subscription

Follow the steps below for creating a data driven subscription.

1. Click on the drop down on the report menu and click manage.

2. Click on the subscriptions on the left pane and  click on the New Data-driven Subscriptions link.

This will open the wizard based dialog box which will guide you as shown below:

1. Specify the name of the subscription and the data source and click Next.

2. If the shared data source is specified then select it by browsing to the shared data source folder and click Next.

3. Specify the query which is to be run against the data source. Click Next.

4. You can make your Data driven subscription dynamic by specifying the values from the database or you can specify the static values. Click Next.

5. If there are any parameters the wizard  ask for the default values with which this subscription will run. Since I don’t have any parameters in my query the wizard states so. Click Next.

6. Specify a schedule for the report delivery.

7. The report is generated on the schedule and placed in the shared folder.

Report Delivery Using Email Subscription

When we need a report delivered into our inbox we need to subscribe to that particular report. The report subscription can be either with or without data driven options. In order to subscribe to a  report the report server needs to be configured with relevant email settings. We need to configure an email account with an SMTP server address as this account will be used as the default email account to send the report to the intended recipients address.

To configure the email settings:

1. Click on start->All programs->Microsoft SQL Server
2. Click on Configuration Tools->Reporting Services Configuration Manager
3. Click connect to connect to the either default or named instance.
4. Click on Email Settings.
5. Specify the email id and SMTP server address on which you have an access to log on to.
6. For more information on how to configure the report click here

*Note:Report Server can work with Local as well as remote SMTP server’s for which the link has been provided above.You will need to follow the steps to make changes in the rsreportserver.config  file  in order to setup the email delivery in to your respective inboxes using either local or remote as your smtp server . Please  don’t forget to backup your Rsreportserver.config file before making changes to it.

To implement the email subscription follow the steps below:

· Click on the dropdown menu for the report which needs to be subscribed.

· You will see two options email delivery or windows files share.If the email settings are not configured in the report server then only the windows files share will be made available.Select the email option in the dropdown.

· Specify the recipients address for delivery. You can specify multiple recipients separated by semicolons. You can specify the report priority or comments if any which needs to be conveyed to the intended recipients.

8. You can check the report delivery status by clicking the Mysubscription link.

Conclusion

Thus we can use the report manager to either store a copy of report on the shared drive or  send the reports to the intended recipient’s using the  email configuration.

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