Ideas For Next Version ...

To Whom It Concerns - MS Product Design - SQL Server Reporting Services:

I've been working with an ASP.NET web based project utilizing SQL Server Reporting Services for a while and have some things that I think need to be addressed in the next version:

1) I finally got security working utilizing the form based authentication of my Web based app and passing that to SSRS through the ReportViewer control. Not that it was easy. From what I see, a lot of people are having problems with this and so I didn't feel like I was alone. That said, instructions on how to do it need to be easier. Ultimately, it would be better if on the ReportViewer control, you could add properties as follows:


* Impersonate SSRS User

* Impersonization Password
2) Maybe I'm missing something, but in the web app the system logs in to different production databases based on the user id. The only way that I can figure out how to make the same reports available to each database (all on the same SQL Server DB) is to copy the reports and change the data source in the copied directory to copy to the new DB in SQL Server. Could ReportViewer contain a property that allows you to override the connection sring?
3) You have the ability to create PDF's. This is a very nice feature. However, I would like to extend the capabilities that you have. I want to be able to embed a PDF inside the report and have it generated in-line with the report. As an example, I have meta data concerning the PDF kept in the database. When the report prints, I want the meta data printed and the full PDF referenced by the meta data to print. I actually posted a message concerning this to find that there is no solution - I've seen that many people have looked at the message indicating that they are interested in the same feature.
4) It would be nice to have additional controls available - panel, calendar , checkbox, checkboxlist, radiobutton, radiobuttonlist and hyperlink in particular.
5) Dashboard widgets that we can use. Your promoting SSRS as a way to build data decision front ends. It would be nice if out of the box SSRS included several widgets that we could use as indicators to metrics being tracked by the system. As it stands, I can do simple bar, line and pie charts and that is about it. No progress bar, no guages. It would be nice to have some sexier graphing components.
All in all, I do like the product. It was a pain to get setup due to the authentication issues, but I do like it.
David L. Collison
Any day above ground is a good day!