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REST API for combit Report Server

Posted: Wednesday, December 2, 2015 | 0 comment(s)

In our very first blogpost we announced to share updates about the ongoing development of all our products. Until now we put an emphasis on the development of our reporting tool List & Label. But now the time has come to open that focus and give insights on other product news right out of our dev department. That’s why we proudly present our first blogpost on our BI solution combit Report Server:

Some weeks after releasing combit Report Server 1.0 (RS), a few customers asked us: Why is there no API in that product?
Well, in the beginning, the combit Report Server was mainly designed for end users to fulfill the requirements of a self-service Business Intelligence solution. It took some time to think about it and to collect some ideas provided by our customers. Finally combit Report Server 2.0 started with a REST API that was able to create reports in a specific format.

Why REST?
The combit Report Server is a web based product using the recent Microsoft technology. A lot of programming environments and languages have the ability to make simple HTTP calls to a REST API. To prove the concept of our new REST API, we started developing a Windows client app using WinJS (Javascript + HTML5). Later, we transformed this app into a Universal app, if you are interested, just have a closer look at it:

Windows App of the BI solution

We added even more functionality in the Service Pack 2.002 to fit all the requirements of our App. The API has now following features:

Create a report based on a template and export it
Trigger the execution of a scheduled report
Query all the available report templates
Query all the available export templates

Requirements

Beside the system requirements of combit Report Server, you need to have the Enterprise Edition.
You have to activate the API in the “Advanced Setttings” of the product.
We suggest using HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) for your Report Server for maximum security
Use Domain Authentication or an API account to access your server.

Examples

To create a report based on a template, you need to know the TemplateID of it:

HTTP-GET    https://<your server>/api/v1/report/{TemplateID}/export/{ExportProfileID}

The export format is specified by the ExportProfileID which is optional.

HTTP-GET    https://<your server>/api/v1/report/{TemplateID}

The default format will be used here. If you want to trigger a scheduled report, just do it like that:

HTTP-POST   https://<your server>/api/v1/task/{TaskID}/run

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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A place to share updates about the ongoing development of our products. General musings on the software industry included.

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REST API for combit Report Server

Author: Alexander Horak Head of Development combit Report Server

Author: Alexander Horak
Head of Development combit Report Server