Simplifying our SharePoint integration story

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Over the past year or so, we’ve connected with many customers to hear what you value about Reporting Services and what we could make better. We incorporated much of the valuable feedback we received into SSRS 2016, which we’re seeing customers adopt at an incredible rate. We've also received a good deal of feedback about Reporting Services’ two installation modes – “Native” mode and “SharePoint-integrated” mode. Today, we’d like to share how we’re addressing that feedback in SQL Server v.Next to make Reporting Services a fantastic BI solution you can deploy on its own – and more easily integrate with SharePoint if you so choose.

Your feedback

As we spoke with one customer after another, we heard the following loud and clear:

  • Native mode and SharePoint-integrated mode can present a difficult trade-off, as many customers wanted a standalone BI solution like Native mode but needed to deploy SharePoint to get features available only in SharePoint-integrated mode, such as Power View. (Conversely, some features are available only in Native mode. For us, developing features to support both modes comes at the expense of other features we’d love to deliver to you.)
  • Deploying SharePoint-integrated mode can be a challenge. Getting SharePoint administrators – usually different people from those who manage BI – to install and run Reporting Services on SharePoint application servers, manage Reporting Services in SharePoint Central Administration, and support reports stored across various SharePoint sites and libraries is difficult in practice.
  • More and more customers are migrating to SharePoint Online, which requires more lightweight integration approaches.

A simpler integration story going forward

Starting with SQL Server v.Next, there’ll be only one installation mode for Reporting Services: “Native” mode. It’s a standalone BI solution you can deploy, whether or not you have SharePoint, and it offers the full set of Reporting Services features: a modern web portal, paginated reports, mobile reports, KPIs, and more. With the Technical Preview of Power BI reports in Reporting Services, you can view and interact with Power BI reports in your web browser, and in time, we aim to support web-based viewing of Excel workbooks in Native mode as well.

If you do have SharePoint and want to integrate with it, it’ll be your choice and it’ll be simpler. We’ll enable you to integrate Reporting Services Native mode with SharePoint, focusing on the scenarios you’ve told us you value most:

  • Embedding reports in SharePoint pages. For many if not most customers, SharePoint integration really came down to this scenario. We’re making it as easy as possible to embed all report types in a Page Viewer web part using the rs:Embed=true URL parameter. Plus, we plan to update our Report Viewer web part as well.
  • Reporting on data in SharePoint lists. With a native connector for SharePoint list data in Report Builder as well as in Power BI Desktop, we’ll continue to make it easy to query SharePoint data and visualize it in your reports.
  • Delivering reports to SharePoint libraries. We plan to develop a SharePoint delivery extension for Native mode so you can schedule delivery of reports in various formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and more) to SharePoint libraries.

With these more lightweight approaches to SharePoint integration, SQL Server v.Next Reporting Services no longer includes the current “SharePoint-integrated” installation mode. We’ll continue to support SharePoint-integrated mode in previous versions through the product support lifecycle, and we’ll offer documentation and tools to help you migrate your reports to Native mode (today, check out this migration script as an example). We’ve evolved Power View into Power BI reports, which we’re working on enabling in Reporting Services (try the Technical Preview). You can already import your Excel workbooks with Power View sheets into Power BI Desktop and we plan to enable you to convert your standalone Power View (*.rdlx) reports as well.

We’re thrilled with the feedback we continue to receive about SSRS 2016 and the Technical Preview, and with the direction we’ve shared today, we’re excited about the enhancements we’ll be able to deliver to you.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2016
    Sounds fantastic.Does this mean we can embed a PowerBI report in SharePoint?Because as nice as SSRS is, it still doesn't have the polish that users demand. Additionally, very basic things like scrolling/locked headers require archaic trip through Visual Studio to accomplish.
    • Anonymous
      November 17, 2016
      Yes, today with the Technical Preview, you can embed a Power BI report in a Page Viewer web part using the rs:Embed=true URL parameter, and we're interested in hearing any feedback on additional embedding needs as well.
      • Anonymous
        November 18, 2016
        I have tried using the 2016 Report Viewer Webpart (preview) and it doesn't seem to support displaying PowerBI report. It doesn't display through report server. Is this true? If so, any updates?
        • Anonymous
          November 21, 2016
          The existing Report Viewer control is specifically for paginated reports. You can embed Power BI reports stored in the SSRS Technical Preview using a Page Viewer web part/iframe and the rs:Embed=true URL parameter.
  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2016
    Does this mean we can also embed on-prem SSRS reports in SPOnline as well? (using TMG/UAG/WAP/something to publish them out)In particular, what does it mean for External (outside our domain, but stored in our Azure AD) SPOnline users - does the authentication come together? Can we use the authenticated (External) user to filter content within the SSRS report?
    • Anonymous
      November 18, 2016
      The authentication piece for external scenarios is something we're looking to support more broadly within RS moving forward, and we've already stated we'll be supporting ADFS and Azure AD in RS vNext. So this would fall in the scope of that work.
  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2016
    Something we use a lot with the integrated version is the web part connections so that we can pass parameters from other parts of the page into the SSRS report. If you are going to embed the report into a iframe, does that mean the web part connections will no longer work?
    • Anonymous
      November 18, 2016
      An updated report viewer web part for SharePoint will be part of the new integration story, as mentioned in the blog, to allow for that type of functionality.
  • Anonymous
    November 18, 2016
    In the Tech-preview. Is it possible to consume a Power bi report from a SharePoint Environment that is already connected to a older ssrs service in integrated mode. Or are SharePoint going to complain?
    • Anonymous
      November 18, 2016
      You should be able to embed it in an iFrame, but only http is supported currently for the Technical Preview, and it isn't supported to domain join the VM (meant to be a sandboxed environment).
  • Anonymous
    November 18, 2016
    With the demand of mobile internet facing scenarios, I'd appreciate continued support with SharePoint Server/Online as the reporting delivery presentation layer against On-prem SSRS. Along with FBA type user scenarios. I believe you have touched upon this in previous questions, but just want to raise my hands on this. Keep up the good work and I am enjoying the current SSRS 2016 with PowerBI technical preview VM in Azure.
    • Anonymous
      November 21, 2016
      I hear you that authentication in these scenarios can be a challenge with Reporting Services Native mode today. We're working on offering support for additional authentication methods with mobile and Internet-facing scenarios specifically in mind.
  • Anonymous
    November 21, 2016
    Really interesting! Especially since the BI features are pretty much deprecated in SP2016."we aim to support web-based viewing of Excel workbooks" this sounds like Excel Web Services for SharePoint or like Excel Online from Office Online Server. I hope you are not re-inventing the wheel here?!
    • Anonymous
      November 21, 2016
      You're absolutely correct that Excel Online in Office Online Server is designed to support exactly this scenario and we certainly don't want to reinvent the wheel. Just as that "engine" can surface Excel workbooks through SharePoint and other "host" apps, we envision it surfacing them through Reporting Services as well.
  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2016
    The comment has been removed
    • Anonymous
      December 04, 2016
      We don't yet support this URL parameter, but we do aim to enhance our support for embedding Power BI reports, including an ability to pass filters.
      • Anonymous
        December 05, 2016
        Thanks Ricardo. Can we expect this for the GA release?
        • Anonymous
          December 05, 2016
          Initial "GA" is just a milestone when we first include a feature in a version you can buy and use in production; we're continuously developing new features and some could come before initial GA and others after.