What's New in Report Server 24, Part 1

Posted: Friday, May 18, 2018 | 0 comment(s)

One of the new features we have already shown in the blogpost about parametrized data sources. The use of report parameters, which are normally defined in the Designer, has probably become widely known. Up to now, however, the selection of a specific report parameter only affected the data source directly for SQL databases or ODATA data sources, for example. However, especially with REST web services, there are some scenarios in which the data itself must already be determined via the URL (address) used. This can now be done using the data source parameters. Our own Redmine bug tracking system also supports REST API control. Here is a description of this API.

In this example, the project ID is defined as a data source parameter.

This parameter behaves exactly like a report parameter and thus allows some new application scenarios in connection with REST data sources. This feature is also supported by JSON data sources.

You can see the parameter here in more detail:

http://redmine/redmine/projects/{{id=16|format=number|multiselect=false|choicesfield=projects.id}}.json?include=trackers,issue_categories

For authentication, for example, some REST web services require a way to set values using HTTP headers, which can then be evaluated by the API. Again, we can use Redmine for demonstrations. This optionally uses the HTTP header "X-Redmine API-Key" as a replacement for a login.





This means that some previously unusable web services can now also be controlled.

With the increasing use of the Report Server, the number of demands has also increased over the years. Meanwhile, many of our customers use more than 10 data sources, which increasingly led to the desire to introduce a folder structure for better organization.

We were happy to comply with this request and have thus implemented one of the most frequent customer requests.



Of course, that's not all Report Server 24 has to offer. You can look forward to the second part! :-)

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Author: Alexander Horak
Head of Development combit Report Server

For over 20 years Alexander Horak is engaged in software development and has already worked at combit during his computer science studies. Nowadays, he is Head of Development of the combit Report Server, an ASP.NET MVC based Enterprise Reporting solution. In his spare time he loves soccer and is an active supporter of FC Bayern Munich.

 

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