Manage Report Designer

About the APM Report Designer

You can create new report and save it in the Catalog folder or edit an already existing report in the Catalog folder by using the APM Report Designer in Microsoft Visual Studio.

The APM Report Designer is divided into three sections:
  • APM Report Browser pane: This pane displays the Catalog folder structure. This pane contains buttons that allow you to perform basic operations such as, Login, Logout, Open, New and Deploy.
  • Solution Explorer pane: This pane contains the details of the report that you have created.
  • Design workspace: This workspace displays the report. This workspace contains two sections: Design and Preview. The Design section allows you to define the report layout. When the report layout is complete, you can view the report in the Preview section.

Access the APM Report Designer

The APM Report Designer allows you to create a new report and modify the report.

Before You Begin

Install the APM Reports Designer.

Procedure

  1. On the APM Server, open SQL Server Data Tools.
  2. On the Tools menu, select APM Report Designer.

    -or-

    On the View menu, select Other Window, and then select APM Reports Browser in the list.
    The APM Reports Browser pane appears.

  3. Select Login.
  4. Enter the Username and Password, and then in the DataSource list, select the datasource.

    Note: The Login button is enabled after you enter the User Name and Password.
  5. Select Login.
    The Catalog folder structure appears in the APM Reports Browser pane.

Create a Report

Procedure

  1. Access the APM Report Designer.
  2. In the APM Reports Browser pane, navigate to the Catalog folder where you want to save the report. 

  3. Select New.
    The Create new report window appears. The window contains two sections - The left side displays the Catalog folder structure and the right side displays the fields.

  4. In the Create new report window, provide the following values:
    • ID: Identification name of the report. The field must be unique.
    • Default Caption: The caption of the report.
    • Description: The description of the report.
    • Datasource (Query/Dataset): Datasource for this report. You can assign a datasource by adding a query or dataset from the Catalog folder. You can add a query or dataset through the drag-and-drop method.
    • Subreports: the sub reports that you want to assign to this report. To assign sub reports, navigate the location that contains the report and drag and drop the report.
    Note: You cannot save a report in a folder, if the folder name or the parent folder name contains the special characters such as ; ? : @ & = + , $ / * < > |. In addition, you cannot save a report in a personal folder if the user id contains the special characters. For more information, consult MSDN documentation regarding creating, deleting or modifying a folder.
  5. Select OK.
    The new report appears in the Solution Explorer pane.

What To Do Next

Define the Report Layout

Before You Begin

Procedure

  1. In the Solution Explorer pane, select the report that you created.
    The report layout appears in the Design workspace.

  2. As needed, in the Design workspace, modify the report layout.
  3. If you want display the Units of Measure (UOM) or formatted values in the SSRS Report, enter the following expression in the APM Report Designer:
    Fields!<nameofthefield>.FormattedValue, where <nameofthefield> is the name of the field contained in the query.
    Note: If the query used to create the reports is in formatted mode, then only the UOM will appear in the Reports. For detailed information on formatted mode, refer to the Queries documentation.
  4. If you do not want display the UOM or formatted values in the SSRS Report, enter the following expression in the APM Report Designer:
    Fields!<nameofthefield>.value, where <nameofthefield> is the name of the field contained in the query.
  5. Select the Preview section to view the report layout.
    Note: Enter the Login name and Password that were used to access the APM Report Designer.
  6. Select .
    The report layout is defined.

What To Do Next

Deploy the Report

About This Task

Note: You can deploy the report after previewing. The report is then added to the Catalog folder.

Procedure

  1. In the APM Reports Browser pane, select Deploy. 

    The Deploy Reports dialog box appears, displaying the list of reports and the sub reports.

  2. Select OK.
    The Deploy Reports dialog box closes and the new report appears in the Catalog folder.

Modify an Existing Report

Before You Begin

  • The report is already created and appears in the Catalog folder in the APM Reports Browser workspace.

Procedure

  1. In the APM Reports Browser pane, in the Catalog folder, navigate and select the report that you want to modify.
  2. Select Open.
    The Create new report dialog box appears.
  3. As needed, modify the following values to the fields:
    • Datasource: The datasource for this report. To assign a datasource, drag and drop the query from the Catalog folder.
    • Subreports: The subreports that you want to assign to this report. To assign subreports, navigate the location that contains the report and drag and drop the report.
    Note: The ID and the Default Caption field are unique and should not be modified.
  4. Select OK.
    The updated report appears in the Design workspace.
  5. In the APM Reports Browser pane, select Deploy to publish the changes to the Catalog folder in the APM.