• IntroSQLServer2008R2Samples project
• Sales Analysis workbook

Here’s a recap of the business intelligence chapters and the samples I used to generate the screen shots by chapter:

Chapter 6: Scalable Data Warehousing covers a new edition of SQL Server, Parallel Data Warehouse. Understandably, Microsoft did not ship me the software and hardware to set up my own Parallel Data Warehouse environment for testing purposes and consequently you won’t see any screenshots in this chapter. I received a lot of information and a lot of help from the product team during the development of this chapter to ensure its technical accuracy.

Chapter 7: Master Data Services is a new component in SQL Server. After you install Master Data Services (MDS), which is a separate installation from SQL Server although it’s found on the same media, you can install sample models to explore (which is what I did to create screenshots for the book). To do this, you deploying packages found at \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Master Data Services\Samples\Packages. You will first need to use the Configuration Manager (in the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2\Master Data Services program group) to create a database and a Web application for MDS. Then when you launch the application, you’ll see a Getting Started page which has a Deploy Sample Data link that you can use to deploy any of the sample packages.

Chapter 8: Complex Event Processing is an introduction to another new component, StreamInsight. This topic was way too large to cover in-depth in a single chapter, so I focused on information such as architecture, development models, and an overview of the key sections of code you’ll need to develop for your own applications. StreamInsight is an engine that operates on data in-flight and as such has no user interface that I could include in the book as screenshots. The November CTP version of SQL Server 2008 R2 included code samples as part of the installation, but these are not the official samples that will eventually be available in Codeplex. At the time of this writing, the samples are not yet published.

Chapter 9: Reporting Services Enhancements provides an overview of all the changes to Reporting Services in SQL Server 2008 R2, and there are many! In previous posts, I shared more details than you’ll find in the book about new functions (Lookup, MultiLookup, and LookupSet), properties for page numbering, and the new global variable RenderFormat. I will confess that I didn’t use actual data in the book for my discussion on the Lookup functions, but I did create real reports for the blog posts and will upload those separately. For the other screenshots and examples in the book, I have created the IntroSQLServer2008R2Samples project for you to download. To preview these reports in Business Intelligence Development Studio, you must have the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database installed, and you must download and install SQL Server 2008 R2. For the map report, you must execute the PopulationData.sql script that I included in the samples file to add a table to the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database. The IntroSQLServer2008R2Samples project includes the following files:

• 01_AggregateOfAggregates.rdl to illustrate the use of embedded aggregate functions
• 02_RenderFormatAndPaging.rdl to illustrate the use of page break properties (Disabled, ResetPageNumber), the PageName property, and the RenderFormat global variable
• 03_DataSynchronization.rdl to illustrate the use of the DomainScope property
• 04_TextboxOrientation.rdl to illustrate the use of the WritingMode property
• 05_DataBar.rdl
• 06_Sparklines.rdl
• 07_Indicators.rdl
• 08_Map.rdl to illustrate a simple analytical map that uses color to show population counts by state
• PopulationData.sql to provide the data necessary for the map report

Chapter 10: Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot introduces two new components to the Microsoft BI stack, PowerPivot for Excel  and PowerPivot for SharePoint, which you can learn more about at the PowerPivot site. To produce the screenshots for this chapter, I created the Sales Analysis workbook which you can download (although you must have Excel 2010 and the PowerPivot for Excel add-in installed to explore it fully). It’s a rather simple workbook because space in the book did not permit a complete exploration of all the wonderful things you can do with PowerPivot. I used a tutorial that was available with the CTP version as a basis for the report so it might look familiar if you’ve already started learning about PowerPivot.

In future posts, I’ll continue exploring the new features in greater detail. If there’s any special requests, please let me know!

Because most people that I’ve talked to are not implementing Kerberos yet (although I highly recommend you reconsider it as it makes security implementation easier!), I’ve written these instructions under the assumption that NTLM authentication is being used and hard-coded credentials in Excel and/or SSRS are being used to authenticate the user for the reports’ data sources.

This particular example I’ve developed assumes one Analysis Services source – for Excel reporting – and one SQL Server source – for SSRS, but you shouldn’t assume this means that you can’t use SQL Server as a source for Excel reports or SSAS as a source for SSRS. You just need to create the Business Data Catalog (BDC) as appropriate for your source and associate it with Web part pages as an action. The key difference between the two sources for the BDC is how you pass parameter values to the Web part page.

Here are thumbnails linked to the full images…

First, the results of a search with the two links that I show later highlighted here in red:

Link to full-size image

Here is the link to an Excel Web part page:

Link to full-size image

And finally the link to an SSRS Web part page:

Link to full-size image