Beginning SQL Server Reporting Services Part 3

Ref: Steve Joubert

This is Part 3 of a four-part article series on SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS). Part 1 provided a step-by-step guide to basic report creation and Part 2 took a tour of some of the core SSRS features and functions that you'll need to develop dynamic reports. Here, we turn our attention to the chart control that ships with SSRS.
Microsoft's chart control is, in fact, a scaled-down version of the Dundas Chart Control. Scaled down or not, as far as built-in controls go, I have to say that this one is pretty impressive and feature-rich. For many people, this feature alone constitutes a pretty good reason to adopt SSRS.
In this article we will set the chart control on a report and populate it. We will also cover the different charting display options and I'll demonstrate some rather cool formatting techniques.

Getting Started

Now that we have reached Part 3, I'm going to assume that you've installed all the software you need to follow through the examples, that you have created the ReportingDemo database in SQL Server and have also mastered the basics of creating basic reports, data sources and datasets. If any of these assumptions make you feel nervous, please work your way through Part 1 (at least) and then come back.
NOTE:
You can download the code file for this article from the Code Download link in the speech bubble to the right of the article title. The code file contains a sample Visual Studio project with all the reports from this article, along with a .bak file (or, alternatively, a SQL Script) for creating the ReportingDemo database.
Ed.Note:
The BAK file provided with part 1 of this series accidentally omitted the Purchase table. If you created the ReportingDemo database from that BAK file (as I did) then you will need to run the provided ReportingDemo_Update script to create and populate the Purchase table.

Creating a basic chart

Start by creating a new report server project (called ChartProject, or similar) and add a shared data source that points to your ReportingDemo database. Add a new report called MyChart.rdl to the project. Set up a data set for the report using the following query, which fetches various bits of information pertaining to customer purchases:

SELECT
  Purchase.PurchaseID,
  Purchase.CustomerID,
  Purchase.PurchaseDate,
  Purchase.PurchaseType,
  Purchase.PurchaseAmount,
  Customer.FirstName + ' ' + Customer.LastName AS CustomerName

FROM Purchase INNER JOIN
  Customer
  ON Purchase.CustomerID = Customer.CustomerID

On your new report, drag the open content area out so that we have room to work and then drag a chart control onto the content area. It should look like this:

From the Dataset fly-out window expand the dataset you created. Drag the PurchaseAmount field into the area above the chart labeled Drop data fields here. Drag the PurchaseDate field into the area below the chart labeled Drop category fields here.

We have now designed a report that will display the total value of customer purchases on a given date. Save the report and navigate to the Preview tab to run the report. It should look like this:

If your requirements are fairly basic, then charting can be this easy.

Chart types

Before we delve deeper into the chart control, it's worth noting that this control can produce a variety of the different chart types. Simply right-click on the chart (in the Layout tab) and use the Chart Type option to select a new chart type. For the time being, switch to a Smooth Line chart.

Add a series

The Data fields and the Category fields make up the horizontal and vertical settings on the chart. The chart control can also layer multiple sets of data onto the same chart. Each layer is called a series. In this case the purchase data we are looking at pertains to two different customers. Drag the CustomerName field into the area to the right of the grid called Drop series fields here. Switch to the Preview tab and view the report, which displays each customer's spending patterns over the various dates:

Setting report properties

Before we get started, change the chart type back to Simple Bar. Then, right-click on the chart again and select Properties. Here you can set all of the properties of the grid and you can also control nearly every aspect of how your data is displayed. Note that you can also manually set up Data, Categories and Series data, which we did via drag and drop previously. We are going to look at each tab of the Properties dialog.
Please notice that as we look through the various options, you will see the 'fx' button nearly everywhere. This is used to set a property value with an expression rather than with a hard-coded value, as described in Part 2.

General tab

On this tab you can give your chart a Name. You can also set the chart type. When you click on Chart Area Style you can set the properties for the background of the chart. The Plot Area Style button allows you to modify basic properties for the chart itself. You can also add a Title to your chart. You can set the title properties such as Font and Color, using the button just to the right of the Title field. Another neat option is that you can apply a palette to the chart. Let's set the palette to Pastel. Click on Chart Area Style and select the Fill tab. Set the color to Thistle and the Gradient to TopBottom. The chart is easier on the eye already!

Data tab

The Data tab allows you to manually set up which data is displayed in the grid and how it is displayed. Just like on the chart, there are three areas for data: Values (called Data Fields in the drag and drop), Categories and Series. You can add and remove items in the different areas. Click on the Edit buttons to set the specific property for each group you created.
Now we are going to take a closer look at the Values properties in the Data tab. Click the Edit button next to the Values field. The dialog will open to the Edit Chart Value tab. On this tab you can set the field from the dataset the values of which will be displayed on the chart, and you can also give the series a name. The Appearance tab allows you to set point markers on your chart and control the style for the series. The Point Labels give you the ability to set a data field or other expression to label the points on your grid. The Action tab turns values into a hyperlink. You can jump to different places in the report or indeed to any valid URL. The URL can be hard-coded or set with an expression.
Let's open up the Point Labels tab so that we can display the values of the purchases being charted right on the bars in the chart. Set the Data Label to the expression =Fields!PurchaseAmount.Value and set the Format Code to C for currency. This will display the purchase amount directly on the grid bars in the $X.00 format. You can use the Label Style to manipulate the font and the color of the label.

X and Y axis tabs

These tabs allow you to set the values for the X and Y display. You can add a title which appears outside the chart area. You can also control the gridlines and the label formatting. Our X Axis is the purchase date. Let's get rid of the time in the purchase date by placing a 'd' into the Format code textbox. This tells the chart to format the date time value as mm/dd/yyyy. Let's check the Side Margins and Reversed checkboxes. This will add some margin space to the chart and place the values on the top. On the Y Axis tab check the Interlaced strips option to break up the chart's background.

Legend tab

This tab allows you to control the legend on the chart. The first option you have is whether or not to show the legend at all. The layout option allows you to display the legend in either a single column, single row, or in a table of columns and rows. The position you use for your legend will likely determine which layout is best. For example, if you move the legend to the bottom position, you might want to use the Row layout. Give it a go. The Legend Style button opens a dialog that allows you to control the style of the legend itself.

3D effect tab

This tab allows you to turn your flat chart into an exciting 3D experience.
I love this tab! I could play around with these settings for hours. For the most part the default settings for each chart type look great. The four values that control the 3-D aspects of the chart are Horizontal Rotation, Perspective, Wall Thickness and Vertical Rotation. While it is fun to work with these to see what you can do, I suggest that you start with the defaults and use the slider for each value to see if you make the values on the chart readable. They work particularly well when you are working with a multi-layered 3-D chart like the one in this example.
For this example set the following values:

Horizontal Rotation	65º
Perspective	0%
Wall Thickness	5%
Vertical Rotation	-5º

Set the Shading to Realistic. Check the Clustered option to display each series on a different plane. Check the Cylinder option to change the square bar on the chart into cylinders.
After you've had a chance to preview these settings, come back and play with the various settings. Believe me, you can make some incredible looking charts with the 3D settings.

Filter tab

This screen allows you to use the columns in your datasets, or expressions, to filter the data that is displayed on the grid. This could be applicable if you were displaying multiple charts on a single report. The important thing about the filter is that it allows you to show a subset of data from an existing dataset. For example, you could have multiple charts report off the same dataset, but each shows the purchases of a different purchase type.
Let’s display two charts in our report. One will report on Internet Sales and the other on In Store Sales. First copy the chart and paste the copy below the existing chart.
For the top chart, open the properties tab and on the General tab set the Title to 'Internet Sales'. Now go to the Filters tab and set the filter:

Expression	Operator	Value
=Fields!PurchaseType.Value	=	Internet

Click Ok and close the properties window.
For the bottom chart, open the properties tab and on the General tab set the Title to 'In Store Sales'. Now go to the Filters tab and set the filter:

Expression	Operator	Value
=Fields!PurchaseType.Value	=	In Store

The Report

Navigate to the Preview tab and let's take a look at the final reports. As you can see, we create a report with two 3-D Charts displaying subsets of data from a single dataset. While the data for this article was kept necessarily simple to allow us to focus on the chart control itself, imagine what you can accomplish in your own reporting system.