SSAS opinion needed

Question

SSAS opinion needed

Jako de Wet

Hall of Fame

Points: 3123
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January 23, 2012 at 5:10 am

#255335

Hi everyone
I am looking at creating an online reporting platform, but just want some input to see if cubes etc are going to be overkill.
below follows a very basic idea of how it will work, and would like to know if such a setup grants the use of SSAS Cubes, or
should I just use SSRS and ASP.Net to create a online platform.
basic table structure
salesdata
soldYear
soldWeek
itemno
soldqty
soldvalue
productdata
itemno
productcountry
productcategory
Most common reports:
Top 100 for current Year + Week
Top 100 for current Year + Week per Country, Category etc
Top n for whole Year, Year on Year comparisons etc plus other breakdowns
So would you use Cubes to achieve something similair to the above, or just create the platform in ASP.net and
run the queries as needed?

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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Franky Leeuwerck SSCrazy Points: 2036 More actions · Answer 1

Dear,

If you want to provide a few fixed reports that don't require many updates or will not evolve over time, you may not need a cube.

However, many users will likely ask more and more related reports, in different visualisations.

Report maintenance will become hard to maintain and time consuming.

That is where a cube can be handy : to fulfil ad hoc reporting needs on large quantities of data.

Your type of data is excellent for setting up in a data warehouse with a cube on top of that.

Of course, when you decide to go for a cube, you will need the proper tools to access and display the data.

And there is an initial learning curve involved as well.

FL.

Franky L.

Scott Murray-240410 SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4649 More actions · Answer 2

Using SSRS with Report Builder gives you much flexibility

Jako de Wet Hall of Fame Points: 3123 More actions · Answer 3

Thanks Scott

But is it easy to access the reports created with SSRS via a .Net website?

My guess is it would be? Starting this project on Monday.

Scott Murray-240410 SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4649 More actions · Answer 4

Yes it is... SSRS creates a Report Server / Report Manger sites for you.

Jako de Wet Hall of Fame Points: 3123 More actions · Answer 5

ok, so I have setup my first SSRS project with one report. I have deployed this and can access it via a URL to my reporting server (Report Manager) This works 100%

I would now want to transfer/access this report via a seperate ASP.Net website I have created.

The idea is to have a website for external clients where they can log in and view reports, sending it parameters etc.

But when I try and add the .rdl file to the existing website, it seems that I can't. But there is another report option that creates a .rdlc file. But in this case I have to basically recreate the report.

Is this the way to do it? In my eyes I'm seeing it as two fold:

.rdl -> design in BIDS and publish to a server that everyone in the office can access and view reports -> SSRS

.rdlc -> use this option when I want to publish reports to a website for clients from outside the office, so they have the functionality of the website + reports even though the reports seem to be running seperate from SSRS?

Sam Vanga SSCommitted Points: 1742 More actions · Answer 6

Did you look at the below link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms153586(v=sql.105).aspx

SSRS reports can be called from a ASP.net application.

Sam Vanga
http://SamuelVanga.com