Can SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and the Scribe Console come together?

As of this writing, it is a late-summer Saturday afternoon here in New Hampshire, Red Sox leading the Yankees 12-0 in the bottom of the 6^th, raining outside, Bill being downgraded to a category 1 hurricane, Danny on the horizon, and I figure that now would be a good time to post some comments on the Scribe "Integrator" blog.

Being in a relaxed state of mind, with my thoughts flowing somewhat freely, please allow me to begin by introducing myself. My name is Rich Radaci and I am a pre-sales engineer here at Scribe Software. I have been with Scribe for 2+ years and have had a grand old time thus far. Don't get me wrong, at times it can be a very demanding position but I always make it a point to remember who our customers are! If it were not for our customers, I probably would not be writing this blog entry! With that very important point always in mind, I often ask myself "What Scribe Insight tips-n-tricks have I come across, that I could share which may be of value to you - our customers?" Well I do have one in mind that I believe has some potential!

However, before going any further, it's important that I first make this disclaimer.

<Disclaimer On>

This is unsupported functionality by Scribe Software should you have questions or issues regarding its usage. Don't get me wrong; this works and is really more of a Microsoft OS customization than a Scribe customization however support is still not available. Nothing ventured, nothing gained…right? If you're still interested in reading on, my recommendation is that any testing or experimentation be completed within a non-production environment.

<Disclaimer Off>

So are you still interested??

If so, let's continue on…

If not…for some reason I would wager that you are still reading. Sorry if I am being too presumptuous.

Quite often, I am asked… "What are your report generation capabilities within Scribe Insight?" Well… if you are familiar with Scribe Insight and the Console application, you probably already know that you can create "Data Views" that will present informational reporting results either in row/column format or 3-D perspective format, from which you can make appropriate business decisions upon. As we all know, what you may currently have as product functionality is never quite good enough. Sound familiar? It is this notion that I decided to delve into the abyss to see what else there may exist which could potentially provide complimentary reporting robustness within the Scribe Console.

So, what did I find?

Well it's the combination of MMC, Taskpad, and SSRS. As you may already be familiar, MMC is Microsoft Management Console (the Microsoft app that the Scribe Console snap-in currently runs within), Taskpad is a feature within the MMC which allows for customizations, and SSRS is the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.

Hold on…sports update – Boston beats the Yankees 14-1! A needed comeback from the pounding taken from them on Friday. Sorry about that. So where was I? Oh…

The leveraging of these technologies allow for the creation and launching of unique and powerful reporting capabilities directly from within the Scribe Console. Not only can you launch formatted reports based on the robust features inherent within SSRS, but also launch other 3^rd party applications that may be of strategic value within your existing business processes. From a high level, the steps involved in this setup include:

1. Configuration of the SQL Reporting Server
2. Creating your SQL Report template and format
3. Configure the Scribe Console to run your custom SQL Report using Taskpad

With the above steps in place, you are good to go. For me to do a deep dive into the detail of these steps would take more time than I would want to consume on this blog. Should you be interested in the specific detail, post a comment on this blog entry or drop me an email at (rich.radaci@scribesoft.com) referencing this blog entry and I will forward you my detailed steps.

Let me close by saying the goal of my blog entry is to engage and embrace with you - our customers, in bi-directional 'substantive' dialog which not only brings value but also serves as a catalyst to stimulate the creative thought processes from which the entire Scribe community may benefit.

I look forward to our continued conversations.

Rich

Comments

[me.yahoo.com/a/YleDUz4DqpIjokiyH3_6e1c6BoyHpPs-]

I'm definitely interested in learning the details of this! It sounds intriguing!

[Rich Radaci]

Hello and thank you for your follow-up comment. If you can provide me with your name, company, and email address, I would be happy to forward the detail of my findings to you. My email address is rich.radaci@scribesoft.com. Best Regards.