News combit Dev Blog

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

A complete documentation can be found here. (PDF)

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.

RSS

RSS

What’s this blog for?

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

Archive

December 2018 (1)
November 2018 (2)
October 2018 (4)
September 2018 (4)
August 2018 (2)
July 2018 (2)
June 2018 (2)
May 2018 (1)
April 2018 (1)
March 2018 (1)
February 2018 (2)
January 2018 (1)
December 2017 (1)
November 2017 (2)
October 2017 (3)
September 2017 (3)
August 2017 (2)
July 2017 (2)
June 2017 (1)
May 2017 (2)
April 2017 (1)
March 2017 (1)
February 2017 (1)
January 2017 (2)
December 2016 (1)
November 2016 (1)
October 2016 (4)
September 2016 (5)
August 2016 (2)
July 2016 (2)
June 2016 (3)
May 2016 (2)
April 2016 (3)
March 2016 (3)
February 2016 (1)
January 2016 (2)
December 2015 (2)
November 2015 (1)
October 2015 (4)
September 2015 (5)
August 2015 (2)
July 2015 (2)
June 2015 (2)
May 2015 (1)
April 2015 (2)
March 2015 (1)
February 2015 (1)
January 2015 (1)
December 2014 (2)
November 2014 (1)
October 2014 (1)
September 2014 (2)
August 2014 (1)
July 2014 (2)
June 2014 (1)
May 2014 (2)
April 2014 (1)
March 2014 (2)

REST API for combit Report Server

Author: Alexander Horak Head of Development combit Report Server

Author: Alexander Horak
Head of Development combit Report Server