is the ssrs auto refresh without its faults

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is the ssrs auto refresh without its faults

stan

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November 4, 2024 at 10:16 pm

#4477443

Hi, i considered power bi with embedded for this. Not a big fan of that plumbing.
a peer of mine showed me this today for an automatically refreshed ssrs report
https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/5916/sql-server-reporting-services-ssrs-auto-refresh-report/
is there a downside to this approach for automatically refreshing dashboards on dedicated screens? i can see lost connections could be one where the user might have to intervene now and then. and maybe the ssrs banner info could be a limitation in space available for visuals. Originally i was thinking asp and javascript to automatically refresh certain kpi's etc whose background info i refresh with a near real time ssis pkg that wakes up every so often.

. Is

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004343 More actions · Answer 1

Since the author of that article hasn't answered the latest question there in over 4 years, why not just try it and see? Then, you can answer poor Jose's question and let us know, as well. I'd answer this but I don't use SSRS at all.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jason A. Long SSC-Insane Points: 23786 More actions · Answer 2

The only “downside” is that the entire report and the underlying queries get executed with every refresh.

There are two things I’d change.

1) Use a permanent table, not a temp table. Note: You can create semipermanent tables in tempdb, that will last until they are explicitly dropped or the sql service restarts.

2) Use stored procedures, not ad-hoc sql in ssrs.

stan SSC Eights! Points: 980 More actions · Answer 3

thx jason and jeff. I should have mentioned also that someone in this forum suggested power point waking up a pbi dashboard every so often.

i'm reluctant on pbi and ssrs auto refresh for the following reasons...

ppt seems a bit corny, maybe "bargain basement" to me with ZERO control when something goes wrong. i dont doubt that poster has seen it work but it feels sloppy and not so robust.
similar argument on auto refresh in that sql server is the critical point of failure with ZERO control if/when it goes south. i'm not saying asp is fool proof but i suspect problems can be handled more elegantly in asp or even windows forms.
if i evolve my app to more than 1 page and want to flash say page 1 , then page 2 , then page 1 etc, auto refresh doesnt sound like it would do the trick.
i'm not sure i want an open connection all day. But maybe i'm mistaken and that's not how auto refresh works.
i looked at ssrs's dedicated banner (SQL Server Reporting Services) , path, param area and navigation controls again and feel like they not only occupy too much space for a dashboard but they detract attention as well, even if the param area can be suppressed.

On the other hand i hate writing code. But have no choice. Hoping some day MS with put an auto refresh capability into pbi with some sort of elegant error handling. I think they already allow streaming datasets.

This reply was modified 2 weeks, 5 days ago by stan.