May 28, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Hi, Is there a way to save "on-demand" (i.e. non-scheduled) report execution history? In other words, I have a parameterized report and would like to give the user a way to save the report history (much like a historical snapshot) after they supply the report parameter value. I can't seem to find a way to get this to work. I realize the user could simply export the report results and save the exported file but I'm hoping to be able to manage this within the Report Manager.
Thanks!
Chris.
June 1, 2010 at 9:55 am
While it may not be ideal for your purposes, you can check out the report history (snapshot history) options. These are available from the report properties on the history tab from within report manager. Check out the help and see if it will fit your needs.
-Luke.
June 1, 2010 at 11:31 am
Hi Luke, thanks for your response. I granted the end-user the privileges necessary to create new snapshots. I foolishly thought that would be the end of it. What I was hoping to do was enable the end-user to create the snapshot after they supply the report parameters (so the historical snapshot would be based on the parameters entered). This is where I'm struggling and it seems like I keep falling into a feedback loop. The default report parameters are used to create the snapshot (not the values supplied by the end-user). If I don't define the default values for the report parameters then Report Manager "complains" when I try to set some of the report options on the Execution and History tabs. It would help if I knew whether this can be achieved within the Report Manager or not? I could recommend the the user simply export their results after supplying the report parameters but it would be much "cleaner" if I can handle all of this within Report Manager.
Thanks!
Chris.
June 1, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Is this a report that takes a long time to render or something? Does it have a large number of params? Why can't the user just re-run the report when they need it again? Are you attempting to be able to show current data or data the way it occurred at a particular point in time? It's something I struggle with with my report consumers as well, that is, getting the point across that a report is only a snapshot in time, and the very next time that report is run with the same parameters it may return different data based on changes to the underlying data.
For example, if I want to know the number of pending (not shipped) orders in an order processing system, I can't expect that to be the same when I want the number currently pending, because "current" keeps changing. However if I want to know the number pending at a particular point in time (1:55 PM EDT on Jun 1, 2010) I need a way to use the entire date as part of my parameter. Something along these lines might work...
Declare @PendingDate datetime
Set @PendingDate = '2010-06-01 13:55:00.000'
Select My report items....
Where OrderDate =< @PendingDate AND (ShippedDate > @PendingDate OR ShippedDate IS NULL)
But even that may change based on orders being canceled for one reason or another.
Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for you other than exporting the reports and making the user store them, or at the very least understand that the data may change from one time to another, but that change might just be a good thing... You could perhaps look at writing some sort of custom front end which might make this a bit easier, but that seems like it would be a lot of work for not a lot of return unless this affects a large number of reports and users, or you have a number of billable hours available to burn on such a project.
One additional thought could be to better define the default parameters. Is there a way to specify the parameters the way the users use them most often by dynamically generating dates or other such things?
-Luke.
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