Installing Share Point 2010 on Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Prerequisites

If you will be installing the SharePoint Server 2010 Public Beta on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows 7, then you will need to download and install an update from http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=23806  to resolve an issue that occurs in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 when provisioning Service Applications or when accessing pages that make service calls.  Without the hotfix, these operations will result in an error "System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Unrecognized attribute 'allowInsecureTransport'. Note that attribute names are case-sensitive. (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\WebClients\<Service Area>\client.config line <Line Number>)". 

If you have already installed Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 on a server running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 does not need to be reinstalled when the update becomes available; however, Service Applications that have been successfully provisioned without the update installed may need to be removed and re-provisioned once the update has been successfully applied

What’s New In Performance Point 2010

With the Release of the First Beta of Performance Point 2010 I came across an Article that Describes what’s new in PPS 2010 so I decided to Chare it here

Items that have been removed from PPS 2010:

• PPS repository – has now been transitioned into SharePoint (along with versioning)
• Preview site – items will simply be deployed to SharePoint now
• ODBC data source – will need to leverage SharePoint BDC (BCS in 2010) to get at this data (including Oracle now), create your own data source, or use Linked Server
• OWC – long over due, so this brings the end to the PivotChart, PivotTable, Trending Chart – replacement will be Excel Services and data mining functionality in Excel
• Planning – last update was the recent SP3 release for PPS 2007
• Preview button in analytic reports during design time – access this through the right-click menu now

Items that have been added in PPS 2010:

• PPS as a SharePoint Service just like Excel (and now Visio and Access)
• Leverage SharePoint security – no additional PPS security anymore, permissions have been removed from the properties tab and no more PPS roles
• SharePoint versioning – not separate anymore
• Authentication security for data sources – security not global anymore in PPS, this can be configured at the data source level – if Farm option was chosen for SharePoint and still single server install then you will need to configure Kerberos if you want to use Per-User security option
• Decomposition tree – this can be accessed through right-click in analytical reports and scorecards (goes from left to right instead of top to bottom) and this leverages SilverLight functionality, includes data bars, ability to send slices into analytical items to further analyze or export to PowerPoint or Excel, and more that can only be demoed. Unable to currently select this as an initial content type item and Performance Maps still not included (except for ProClarity)
• Analytical Pie Charts – no longer have to use ProClarity for this
• Select measures – within Analytical items you will now be able to add and select additional measure if you want to incorporate them into an existing analytical report that has already be deployed that you are using in a dashboard.  Unable to save this change outside the dashboard designer, but you have this new ability which is really nice
• Drilling capability on the bottom axis of analytical items – now able to right-click on the bottom access members and drill down, drill up, drill to
• SSAS conditional formatting support (color and font aware) – ability to leverage the predefined conditional formatting that is setup in SSAS in analytical items and scorecards
• Enhanced scorecards – support for expand collapsing hierarchies on scorecards, additional filtering and sorting support (similar to Excel – select Top or Bottom N records), ability to place KPI names on columns or rows along with Actual/Target values, ability to have multiple actuals within a KPI and new feature to relate the values to each other now (connect them to each other), use multiple data sources in a single calculation
• KPI Details content type – ability to view metadata about a particular KPI like the person responsible, threshold information, banding, etc.
• Central Administration configuration – application settings are now done in application settings (like caching, default member limit – 5000 now instead of 500, but can be modified)
• Increased MUI support
• Filters – 1st class citizens now and are their own content type with ability to reuse across dashboards
• Streamlined deployment of dashboards – ability to simply deploy to SharePoint specifying the library and master page (no more five click deployment and then closing down the wizard when it is done…yeah!)
• Improved dimension support in Details section in Dashboard Designer – no longer a field list like Excel 2003.  This will be UDM aware and you will also be able to filter the list based off measure groups now also
• ‘Secure Store’ authorization (single sign-on) option
• PPS elements are now content type stored in SharePoint lists.  You will now need to maintain and arrange items accordingly in the workspace and lists to organize them (no longer separate Indicators, Data Sources, Reports, Scorecards, KPIs, Dashboards distribution
• Ability to use filters with other SharePoint web parts
• Ability to re-use and reference existing KPI values when setting up additional values (actual or targets) and then you can tweak them accordingly to help streamline the process
• Instead of Publish option you now have Save (Publish = Save)
• Instead of communicating with PPS web service URL you communicate with SharePoint site URL
• Ability to related the PPS web parts to other SharePoint parts so that they can interact with each other now (using the same framework now)

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 beta Get Ready

I heard from an MVP friend that Microsoft Release today the first beta for both SharePoint and Office 2010 this is a A great news for me co’s this means welcome to PPS 2010 era I waited for the beta to starting checking it out

Microsoft Performance Point SP3 Released !!! Finally :)

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 3 hits RTM on schedule and is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

· Download sites: PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP3 (x86), PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP3 (x64)

· Documentation: Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, IW documentation is being published.

What’s New in SP3

Focused on the supportability of PerformancePoint Server 2007, Service Pack 3 offers not only a wide range of bug fixes but also a few new features and feature enhancements. For Planning customers, this release offers the following new features:

× Submitting line-item details with assignments. This new feature enables users to add, edit, view, and submit line item details. They can also view the submitted line-item details in reports.

× Adjusting security with the PPSCmd utility. This feature enables users to lower security changes within PPSCMD. For example, it is now possible to move security from Read/Write to Read Only within the PPSCMD utility.

× Extending the application calendar beyond 25 years. This feature enables users to manually change the maximum limit of future years to a value greater than 25 and less than or equal to 200.

For Monitoring & Analytics customers, SP3 offers improved usability, with better handling of zone adjustments, scrolling, and filtering and improved messaging. SP3 also provides better integration with Excel Services, SharePoint Server, and ProClarity.

PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP3 is being released in 18 languages (including English). The localized versions of PPS SP3 will be released by tier beginning in December, 2009. All versions are being released to the following channels:

· Microsoft Download Center. Localized versions of SP3 will be available beginning in December 09.

· Volume licensing (VL). The English version will be available in early December; localized products will be available in early January.

· MSDN. All languages are expected to be available by mid-December.

· ProductsWeb. All languages are expected to available within 4 weeks of the respective release dates.

ProClarity 6.3 SP3 was released on October 9 and is available on the Microsoft Download Center.

· Download sites: ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3 SP3 (ENU), ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 SP3 (ENU)

· ProClarity 6.3 SP3 documentation: ProClarity SP3 Readme and ProClarity SP3 Hardware and Software Requirements

ORA-12154 : TNS Could not resolve the connect Identifier

Accessing an Oracle DB over a 64 bit system was a pain for many SQL Server DBAs.
The purpose of this document is to explain how to fix issues running a SSIS package, Linked Server and SQL Agent which are using Oracle OLEDB under 64bit SQL Server 2008.

The Following solution is based on Oracle 11g version. You can download Oracle 11g client from http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/index.html

You will need 32bit and 64bit both Oracle clients.

Oracle Client & OLEDB component Installation steps in 64bit Windows:

1. If you have old Oracle clients, copy tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora files for backup. 
   (They are under %ORACLE_HOME%/network/ADMIN/.)
2. Uninstall & Delete previous version of Oracle client include installed directory. 
   If you have or ever installed Oracle client, uninstall them and reboot the server. Then you can delete old Oracle directory. If you don’t reboot, you cannot delete them. 
3. Run setup.exe of Oracle 11g Client in 64bit SQL Server running machine.
   You have to install 32bit first.
4. Select “Custom” for OLEDB component installation in "Select Installation Type" step. 
   

   

5. Properly select Oracle Base and Path. 
   

   

6. You must select “Oracle Windows Interfaces 11.x.x” component for OLEDB in “Available Product Components” step. 
   

   

7. After installation, restore TNSNAMES.ORA backup file under the new location of %ORACLE_HOME%/network/admin folder.
8. Repeat above step #4-#7 with 64bit Oracle 11g Client setup.  
   Oracle "Base directory" is same as the 32bit, but Path is supposed to be different from the previous one in above step #5.  
   i.e) If Oracle 32bit Client Path was C:/Oracle/product/11.1/client_32, 
     Then 64bit Client Path is under C:/Oracle/product/11.1/client_64.
9. You will see an error message “OracleMTSRecoveryService already exists” as below screenshot during the 64bit client installation. You can “Ignore” it.

   

10. Modify the system registry settings as follows. And then reboot server! 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSDTC\MTxOCI     and 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSDTC\MTxOCI 
    are correct: 
    a. OracleOciLib = oci.dll 
    b. OracleSqlLib = orasql11.dll   (old: SQLLib80.dll) 
    c. OracleXaLib = oraclient11.dll  (old: xa80.dll) 
11. Test sqlplus.exe or tnsping.exe in command console.

Now you can access Oracle OLEDB provider in BIDS (Business Intelligence Development Studio) & SSMS both places. What I tested was:

• Design SSIS package with Oracle data source (OraOLEDB) in BIDS
• SSIS package debug & run in BIDS
• C# & VB sample code test to access OraOLEDB.Oracle provider in VisualStudio
• Add the developed SSIS package & run on SSMS
• Add SSIS package job in SQL Agent & run on SSMS
• Add Linked Server to access Oracle Server through Oracle OLEDB in SSMS

One thing you have to keep in mind is that BIDS is based on Visual Studio 32bit modules. When you design & test a new SSIS package on it, actually it’s using 32bit Oracle OLEDB modules. 
After the SSIS package added in 64bit SQL Server, SQL Agent is using 64bit Microsoft & Oracle OLEDB modules.

NOTE1:

While you are developing or testing SSIS package, you might see the following ignorable messages:  “Warning: Cannot retrieve the column code page info from OLE DB…”.

NOTE2:

When you add new SSIS package in SQL server, you have to select “Rely on server storage and roles for access control” in Package Protection Level as below screenshot to avoid XML password encryption error. For some reason, saved Oracle password couldn’t be decrypted by SSIS service on my test.

NOTE3:

You might see the following error “Cannot obtain the required interface (“IID_IDBSchemaRowset”) from OLE DB Provider “OraOLEDB.Oracle” for linked server XXX (Error:7399)” in an Oracle Linked Servers as follows.

To resolve this, open properties of OraOLEDB.Oracle provider, and set “Enable” for “Allow inprocess” option as follows.

Instance>>Sever Objects>>Linked Servers>>Providers>>OraOLEDB.Oracle

Microsoft Reporting Services in Silverlight Applications is Possible

 

The main obstacle to the spread of Microsoft Silverlight as a platform for line-of-business RIA’s is the lack of built-in reporting components. At the same time, not a single corporate application can function without effective reporting system.

Perpetuum Software allows you to combine two powerful Microsoft technologies: Silverlight and Reporting Services, so that you can leverage their advantages in your business intelligence applications.

Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services provides you the ability to view Reporting Services reports in Silverlight applications. The component is a native Silverlight control and it easily integrates into any Silverlight application. Thus, it is possible to use the entire set of features which are, as a rule, available in the original desktop applications, including dynamic scaling, smooth panning with animation, interactive sorting, search and so on.

Silverlight Viewer can be used in applications, located directly on the html page, as well as the out-of-browser mode.

Delicate setup of viewer appearance with the use of styles and templates allows the inclusion of the component into the design of any application. All aspects of the Silverlight Viewer component behavior can be controlled from the code.

The user will view only the necessary report pages without loading the entire report. This feature provides quick reporting while reducing internet traffic Fonts will be loaded automatically if they are not set on the client side.

The main competitive advantages of the Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services are:

• WYSIWYG report preview in web browsers with support for scaling, scrolling, panning. The reports are displayed in vector graphic. The advantage is that it provides high quality report representation which is impossible to achieve when reports are converted to html;
• Out-of-browser mode;
• Abilities of the full-functional desktop applications: search, interactive sorting, dynamic zooming, navigation through the reports via hyperlinks, input of the report parameters by the user and so on;
• Smooth animation when you manipulate reports, no sudden changes on the display occur when you scroll, zoom in or out or navigate the report;
• Support for styles and skins allow the change of any control elements;
• Reports export to PDF, Excel, Html, Cvs, Xml, Mhtml, TIFF;
• Automatic font loading.

The current product version only supports MS Sql Reporting Services 2005. The support for MS Sql Reporting Services 2008 will be available in the next Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services release.

Use the functionality of the Silverlight technology for displaying reports from Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services!

Download Silverlight Viewer for Reporting Services...

Error in Performance Point 2007

I was involved in a Project with Microsoft Performance Point 2007 that requires Integration with lot of PPS Web Service APIs and 3.5 Asp.NET Application

I logged most the issues I faced and I’d like to leave this thread as an open discussion thread to help other in there deployments and Development with PPS.

Below are a list of Issues and Fixes that will help you solve your problem.

Configuring PPS on Production Environment

1. Install PPS on the SharePoint Server

2. Configure PPS to Install Dashboard Viewer for SharePoint on the Moss Server

3. Please note the following Steps will be done on all Moss Servers in the production farm

a. Locate the web.config file for your SharePoint site, as well as the PerformancePoint Monitoring Designer web service and its Preview directory.

b. Use any text editor (or Visual Studio), and do a search/replace to replace all references to System.Web.Extensions 1.0.61025.0 to .Net's3.5.0.0.

c. Add the following line to your web.config under the <configuration> node:

<runtime> 

    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> 

      <dependentAssembly> 

        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" /> 

        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.61025.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" /> 

      </dependentAssembly> 

    </assemblyBinding> 

</runtime>

Remember there are 3 web.configs that needs to change here:

i. under PPSMonitoring/WebService

ii. under PPSMonitoring/Preview

iii. SharePoint Site[MM1]

4. Open your SharePoint web.config for the current web application and find HTTPHandlers replace it with the following Set[MM2]

<httpHandlers>

<remove verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*" />

<add verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHttpHandler, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />

<add verb="OPTIONS,PROPFIND,PUT,LOCK,UNLOCK,MOVE,COPY,GETLIB,PROPPATCH,MKCOL,DELETE,(GETSOURCE),(HEADSOURCE),(POSTSOURCE)" path="*" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHttpHandler, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />

<add verb="*" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd" type="Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.HttpHandler, Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

<add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />

<add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />

<add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" validate="false" />

<add verb="*" path="_vti_bin/ReportServer" type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.Soap.RSProxyHttpHandler, RSSharePointSoapProxy, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91" />

<add verb="*" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebPart.axd" type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts.WebPartHttpHandler, Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91" />

</httpHandlers>

5. If you installed URL Scan in our production Environment (as in testing) you may face a problem on all Images are not Displayed in the PPS Dashboard Viewer WP The Solution would be the following

a. Open the following folder “C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\urlscan”

b. Edit URLScan.ini file

i. AllowDotsInPath = 0 to 1

6. Go to the following path in both SharePoint Servers

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\wpresources

Replace the content of the web.config with the following

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<configuration>

<system.web>

<customErrors mode="Off"/>

<httpHandlers>

<add verb="*" path="*.aspx" type="System.Web.UI.PageHandlerFactory, System.Web, Version=1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

<remove verb="*" path="*.asmx" />

<add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />

<add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />

<add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" validate="false" />

</httpHandlers>

</system.web>

<runtime>

<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />

</dependentAssembly>

</assemblyBinding>

<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Dsp" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Dsp.OleDb" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Dsp.SoapPT" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Dsp.Sts" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Dsp.XmlUrl" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.intl" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Library" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Security" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="11.0.0.0" newVersion="12.0.0.0" />

</dependentAssembly>

</assemblyBinding>

</runtime>

</configuration>

Performance Point 2007 Hotfixes

I was looking around through Microsoft website looking Performance Point 2007 hot fixes and I found out that they release a lot of hot fixes that address lots of Issues in Performance Point

I hope this will you since I faced many issues with this product that these hot fixes solve

Build Number	Link	KB Number
3.0.4318.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: June 17, 2009	971928
3.0.4317.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: May 26, 2009	970524

Some of the new fixes that are available in the latest hotfixes that might be of interest to you are:

• Fix for the disappearing Analytical Chart toolbar when you click on the Filter buttons to remove empty items (it still does disappear when you click on the drop down arrow and select Reset View though)
• Fix for exporting an Analytical Chart with more than 14 items in the legend.  Now all of the items will be exported to Excel if there are more than 14
• Another fix for exporting to Excel with scorecards to resolve issue of exporting values from 9.5 to 9.9 so that they maintain their format instead of being multiplied by 100
• For Planning the fix was to remove a duration restriction for extending the calendar to a value greater than 25 (now you can go up to 200)

These are just a few of the minor fixes that were done, check out the official links above to see the complete list for each hotfix and just a reminder that these are cumulative, so if you download the latest it will include all of the previous hotfixes also.

Here is the previous list I posted and I updated the list to include the KB number.

Build number	Link	KB Number
3.0.4315.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: April 28, 2009	969842
3.0.4313.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: February 26, 2009	968131
3.0.4312.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: February 24, 2009	967900
3.0.4311.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: February 9, 2009	967343
3.0.4305.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: February 2, 2009	961878
3.0.4300.00	Description of the PerformancePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: December 22, 2008	961041
3.0.4209.00	Description of PerformancePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 2	958291
3.0.3917.00 (I had 3.0.3916.00 after my install)	Description of PerformancePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1	948060
3.0.3520.0	RTM Release of PPS 2007

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Released a new version of SQL Server 2008 called it release 2 or R2

It contains a lot of updates: use the below like to view it’s latest version http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E19689BD-38DD-46C4-8645-F58CA4D61D1F&displaylang=en

 

For what’s new inside SQL 2008 R2 Check the following link

http://blogs.msdn.com/mattm/archive/2009/08/14/no-new-features-in-for-integration-services-in-sql-server-2008-r2.aspx

Deploying Reporting Services 2005 in Integrated Mode

Probably the biggest benefit of running Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode is that you can deploy and manage reports directly in SharePoint rather than the Report Manager web application. This is probably easier for our business users. As a matter of fact you no longer use the Report Manager after you switch to SharePoint Integrated Mode. The highlights of the capabilities provided by SharePoint Integrated Mode are the following:

• A Report Viewer Web Part that provides report viewing capability, export to other rendering formats, page navigation, search, print and zoom.
• Web application pages so that you can create subscriptions and schedules as well as manage reports, models, and data sources.
• Support for using standard Windows SharePoint Services features including document management, collaboration, security, and deployment with report server content types.
• A new delivery extension that you can use in subscriptions to deliver reports to SharePoint libraries.

You can review all of the details of SharePoint Integrated Mode in SQL Server Books Online.

This tip will walk through the steps to configure Reporting Services to run in SharePoint Integrated Mode. The following assumptions will be made:

• You have installed Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007
• You have installed Reporting Services 2005
• Both of the above are on a single server. This is not a requirement; it just simplifies the installation. You can get the details on the additional steps for a distributed install here.

Create a Report Server Database for SharePoint Integrated Mode

In order to run Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode, you need to create a new reporting services database. Start Reporting Services Configuration (click Start, All Programs, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Configuration Tools, Reporting Services Configuration). Click Database Setup and you will see the following:

Note that the Server Mode is Native; this is the default when you install Reporting Services. Click the Change button and you will be prompted: Changing the report server mode requires creating a new report server database. Do you want to continue? Click Yes and the SQL Server Connection Dialog will appear:

Fill in the Database Name, make sure that Create the report server database in SharePoint Integrated mode is checked, then click OK. The Task Status dialog will be displayed; click the Apply button to complete the database setup:

Leave Reporting Services Configuration open; we will return to it after the next step.

Install Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint Technologies

The SharePoint code required for running Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode is contained in the Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint Technologies. The add-in is packaged in the file SharePointRS.msi; you can download it here. Launch the msi file to install the add-in accepting the wizard defaults.

Configure Reporting Services Integrated Mode in SharePoint

The final step in setting up Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode is to perform configuration steps in SharePoint itself. Return to Reporting Services Configuration and click on SharePoint Integration. You will see the following:

Click the link Click here to go to SharePoint Central Administration. This will launch a new browser window and navigate to the SharePoint Central Administration web site. Click on the Application Management tab and you will be presented with quite a few options; the only options we are interested in are under the Reporting Services heading as shown below:

Click Manage integration settings. You will be prompted to enter the Report Server Web Service Url and Authentication Mode; e.g. http://bi-moss:5150/reportserver and Windows Authentication. Note that your Report Server Web Service Url will be different than what is used in this example. In my case I installed SQL Server 2005 and allowed the installation to automatically configure Reporting Services. I installed SharePoint on a new IIS web site but allowed it to run on its default port of 80. Since the automatic Reporting Services configuration uses the default IIS web site and port 80, I changed the default web site to use port 5150 to eliminate the conflict. Another point about the default configuration of Reporting Services is that the application pool identity will be set to Network Service. You should change it to a domain account (e.g. the same one as the SharePoint application pool).

Click Grant database access. You will be prompted to specify the server for the report server database. In this example my server is BI-MOSS. Note that your server will be different that what is used in this example.

You can just go with the defaults in the Set server defaults page for now.

Testing Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode

To test running Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode, we will use the Adventure Works sample reports that come with SQL Server 2005. Open the sample project then click Project, Properties from the top-level menu. Edit the properties as necessary for your environment; e.g.:

For TargetDataSourceFolder and TargetReportFolder I have selected a document library in my SharePoint site. TargetServerURL is set to the URL of my SharePoint site collection. This would normally be something like http://servername/reportserver. However when you are running in SharePoint Integrated Mode, the URL must be the SharePoint site collection URL.

Right click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Deploy from the context menu. Open a browser and navigate to the document library specified in the project properties above; you will see the following:

Note that you can also deploy reports to the document library by clicking on Upload. Click on one of the reports to display it; e.g. Product Line Sales:

The Actions button provides the following capabilities:

You can also render a report by using the Report Viewer web part which is part of the Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint Technologies. With the web part you have additional control over the toolbar; the above report shows the full toolbar. You can render the report with just the navigation part of the toolbar:

You can render the report without the toolbar:

Using Merge in SQL 2008

First let's begin with the basic type 1 usage.

All fairly self-explanatory. We have a source and a target. We join the two tables, identify new records, changed records and deleted records. And deal with them appropriately.
So let's move onto the type 2 changes. Here we need to:

• Insert New Records
• Disable changed records
• Add a new record for the changed records

That's 2 inserts and an update. The MERGE won't allow that so we have to nest our merge inside an insert. Luckily this works because MERGE allows output!

Ignore the outer INSERT for the moment. We have a MERGE statement which is very similar to our type 1 MERGE. Compare the Source and Target, INSERT new records as required. The difference being that when the matched record contains a change, instead of updating the changed field, we set the CurrentFlag and the EndDate so as to disable the record.

Of course that means we still don't have a record which contains our updated values. So, now lets turn our attention to the OUTPUT clause.

This will be familiar to anyone who used it in SQL 2005 in much the same context - to identify rows which have been modified/added/deleted. Really the origin of MERGE seems to be strongly rooted in the SQL 2005 OUTPUT clause. On the upside, unlike the SQL 2005 version and UPDATE is an UPDATE and not a DELETE and an INSERT. Small but handy! Anyway, where were we? Let's return the columns we need to create a new record and a special $Action column - this tells us what actually happened ie UPDATE, INSERT or DELETE. We need this because the OUTPUT will return everything that occured in the MERGE.

Now we have a set of rows that have been actioned by the MERGE. Still, we haven't actually done anything with them.
To do that, we enclose the entire MERGE statement, including it's OUTPUT clause of course, into brackets so we can make it the FROM clause for an INSERT. Our OUTPUT clause is return the columns we need for the INSERT remember? So now we just add our INSERT INTO at the front, add an alias to the closed bracket of the FROM clause AND, drumroll... whack a WHERE clause on the end. This where clause just filters the OUTPUT from the MERGE so we only insert new records for those that were updated, ignoring those that may have been inserted etc in the MERGE.

Microsoft Silverlight Financial Dashboards

Hello Everyone,

I just came back from my vacation and I found this interesting Article about Microsoft New Financial Dashboard using Silverlight The Reports are amazing and i find something awesome to talk about.

Please check the below this for this Demo

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/IC/FinancialStatements.aspx?table=IncomeStatements

The Layout was based on XBRL which is something I need to study more before I start talking about it.

Anyway I think that Microsoft Started doing something interesting in the BI After all

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek Videos

Microsoft releases the first look for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Extra Info can be found on

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx

It seems like Year 2010 will be an interesting on for all SharePoint Lovers :)

Localizing Reports and Reports Models

Reports and report models can be localized at many levels. Following are some ideas around the current support in SQL Server 2008 for each type of localization.

- Localized metadata at report design time

•  Example: Arabic report author sees “3ameel” instead of “Customer” in model explorer
• Report models do not support multiple languages for metadata names in a single model file
• It should not be difficult to build a custom solution to generate localized versions of the model file

1. Original .smdl file + XML file with localized entity/attribute/role names => localized .smdl file
2. Could use either XSLT or minimal code
3. If implemented, reports would run against any localized version of the model because IDs are unchanged

• Metadata displayed in the report (such as column labels) would be in the language of the person who designed the report. Since they are merely text values copied in from the model explorer, they would not change at report run time.

- Localized metadata at report run time

•  Example: Arabic report consumer sees “3ameel” instead of “Customer” in report column label
• SQL RS reports do not directly support localization of text labels in a report
• Some customers have implemented this using a custom “resource” assembly deployed on the server, and all labels in the report are replaced at report design time with expressions that retrieve the appropriate resource string from the custom assembly (sample)
• This is obviously cumbersome to set up at report design time, but it does work

- Localized data formatting at report run time

•  Example: Arabic report consumer sees numeric and date values in the report data formatted as “1.234,56” and “27/04/2009” instead of "1,234.56" and "04/27/2009".
• o This is supported by the default number formats available on the ribbon in Report Builder 2.0. In the dialog box, select the “Use regional formatting” checkbox.

- Localized data values at report run time

•  Example: Arabic report consumer sees product category “Akala” instead of “Bicycles” in report data
• This is typically done by storing localized values in the database as separate columns or as lookup tables based on user culture.
• Offhand I can’t think of a slick way to do this with report models. If you have some ideas, let me know.

Stsadm Technical Reference Using Silver light [SharePoint]

I came a cross this article on Technet regarding the stsadm. It Displays all stsadm commands as a small silver light movie

what I liked on this one is

1. Commands are categorized.
2. The Description on every thing command
3. Separation between what was available in SP1 and what is available in SP2

How Performance Point Objective KPIs Rollup

The KPIs Rolls based on Weight

The mathematical calculation is done using the following formula

(Actual1/Target1) + (Actual2/Target2) ……. (Actual(n)/Target(n)) / n

Where n is the number of KPIs

The default banding is the Average of the KPIs Thresholds

In case we have decreasing is better

The value will be

(1-(Actual1/Target1)) + (Actual2/Target2) ……. (Actual(n)/Target(n)) / n

Where KPI1 is Decreasing is better

And for the banding its

KPIs Thresholds is calculated based on (1-thersold)

Create scorecards Programatically in PPS

Hello,

After working with PPS I came across a Project which requires Building of Scorecards Programatically and assign KPIs to it

the below Sample can show you how to create scorecards inside PPS

protected void CreateScoreCard()
{
Guid AGuid;
// create a new scorecard instance
AScoreCard_wows = Scorecard.CreateNew();
// Setting the name property;
BpmPropertyText NameProperty = new BpmPropertyText();
NameProperty.Text = "The ScoreCard";
AScoreCard_wows.Name = NameProperty;
AScoreCard_wows.Description.Text = "This Scorecard was created by code";
// Setting the owner property
AScoreCard_wows.Owner.Login = @"Server\Administrator";
// Configuring the scorecard view
ConfiguredView ACofiguredView = new ConfiguredView();
GridViewDefinition ParentChildDefinition = new GridViewDefinition();
GridHeaderItem ParentX = new GridHeaderItem();
AGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
ParentX.Guid = AGuid;
ParentX.DefinitionGuid = AGuid;
ParentX.DisplayText = "ParentX";
ParentX.DimensionName = "Scorecard__";
ParentX.DimensionValue = "cd30315e-bd40-4977-b21b-cbb47cc83494"; // Guid of KPI
ParentX.HeaderType = ScorecardNodeTypes.Kpi;
ParentX.Depth = 1;
ParentChildDefinition.RootRowHeader.Children.Add(ParentX);
GridHeaderItem ChildX = new GridHeaderItem();
AGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
ChildX.Guid = AGuid;
ChildX.DefinitionGuid = AGuid;
ChildX.DisplayText = "ChildX";
ChildX.DimensionName = "Scorecard__";
ChildX.DimensionValue = "e9ec1e6b-8c7e-4f7d-b87d-28cad4b29d7f"; // Guid of KPI
ChildX.LinkedKpiId = new Guid("e9ec1e6b-8c7e-4f7d-b87d-28cad4b29d7f");
ChildX.HeaderType = ScorecardNodeTypes.Kpi;
ChildX.Depth = 2;
ParentX.Children.Add(ChildX);
GridHeaderItem ChildY = new GridHeaderItem();
AGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
ChildY.Guid = AGuid;
ChildY.DefinitionGuid = AGuid;
ChildY.DisplayText = "ChildY";
ChildY.DimensionName = "Scorecard__";
ChildY.DimensionValue = "8878d533-b7b7-40f7-8772-4da81c54c85b"; // Guid of KPI
ChildY.LinkedKpiId = new Guid("8878d533-b7b7-40f7-8772-4da81c54c85b");
ChildY.HeaderType = ScorecardNodeTypes.Kpi;
ChildY.Depth = 2;
ParentX.Children.Add(ChildY);
GridHeaderItem ActualColumn = new GridHeaderItem();
AGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
ActualColumn.Guid = AGuid;
ActualColumn.DefinitionGuid = AGuid;
ActualColumn.DisplayText = "Actual";
ActualColumn.DimensionName = "Scorecard_Measures__";
ActualColumn.DimensionValue = "Actual"; // Guid of KPI
ActualColumn.HeaderType = ScorecardNodeTypes.KpiActual;
ActualColumn.Depth = 1;
GridTargetSettings ActualColumnTargetSettings = new GridTargetSettings();
ActualColumnTargetSettings.ShowImage = true;
ActualColumnTargetSettings.ShowScore = true;
ActualColumnTargetSettings.RollupType = RollupTypes.AverageWeighted;
ActualColumnTargetSettings.ScoreType = ScoreTypes.Normalized;
ActualColumn.TargetSettings = ActualColumnTargetSettings;
ParentChildDefinition.RootColumnHeader.Children.Add(ActualColumn);
GridHeaderItem TargetColumn = new GridHeaderItem();
AGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
TargetColumn.Guid = AGuid;
TargetColumn.DefinitionGuid = AGuid;
TargetColumn.DisplayText = "Target";
TargetColumn.DimensionName = "Scorecard_Measures__";
TargetColumn.DimensionValue = "Target"; // Guid of KPI
TargetColumn.HeaderType = ScorecardNodeTypes.KpiTarget;

Technorati Tags: Scorecards,PPS,Performance Point

TargetColumn.Depth = 1;
GridTargetSettings TargetColumnTargetSettings = new GridTargetSettings();
TargetColumnTargetSettings.ShowImage = true;
TargetColumnTargetSettings.ShowScore = true;
TargetColumnTargetSettings.RollupType = RollupTypes.AverageWeighted;
TargetColumnTargetSettings.ScoreType = ScoreTypes.Raw;
TargetColumn.TargetSettings = TargetColumnTargetSettings;
ParentChildDefinition.RootColumnHeader.Children.Add(TargetColumn);
ACofiguredView.GridViewDefinition = ParentChildDefinition;
AScoreCard_wows.ConfiguredViews.Add(ACofiguredView);
// Publishing the ScoreCard
Publisher.CreateScorecard(AScoreCard_wows);
}

How Performance Point Scorecard Objective value is rolling up

Did you ever wonder how to PPS Actually Calculating the Objective KPI value inside a scorecard.

Okay Actually it’s……. (Count)

for example if we have 10 KPIs that are rolled to a specific Objective

These KPIs colors was

4 = Green
3 = Yellow
3 = Red

The Result Color for this Initiative is (Green)

if the KPIs has different weights that calculations may change

if you have a single KPI and it weights 90% of this Objective the color of this KPI will control the color of the Objective

How to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 on Vista x64/x86

f you are a developer for SharePoint your best friend has been Virtual PC or VMWare. It’s time to introduce a new friend, Bamboo Nation's SharePointOnVista J

We have put together an installer that allows you to install WSS3.0 SP1 on Vista, both x86 and x64.  This will allow you to develop on your workstation with all the power of a non virtualized environment. You still need VPC and VMWare so don’t feel sorry.

There’s been much discussion about SharePoint being a "bad" development platform. This will remove the objection that you NEED to develop on a Server OS.  I think we all as SharePoint developers have built our “virtualization skills” to a comfortable level now so it’s time to give us a break ;)

So please download the setup helper and try it out. I really want to hear from you about problems you encountered so we can fix them.  Please leave your comments here or we can discuss in this forum. It would be nice to hear about successful installations too J

UPDATE: If you run Windows Vista Home Premium IIS only supports Basic Authentication. Therefore you MUST manually enable Basic Authentication in the IIS management console. 

UPDATE: John McBride has posted a solution for all of us that runs Vista 64 bit so we can install the new VSeWSS 1.2 with support for VS 2008. Just go here to see how to solve it. Thanks John!

You no longer need this workaround since the latest version of VSeWSS 1.3 CTP supports 64bit operating systems and we have successfully installed it on both Vista and Windows7. Look at this post for more information.

UPDATE: Jim Parshall has created a detailed video tutorial that walks you through everything you need to do to get WSS running on Vista. It's pretty big so it takes a while to download but it's well worth it. Click here to get the video. Thanks Jim!

UPDATE: If you are installing on Windows 7 RC (build 7100) you need to read this post before continuing.

Current limitations:

• You must select the Advanced option during install.

• If you want to run on SQLExpress, manually install it first.  Get it here.

• You have to manually enable IIS7 with the proper options (explained).

• Your workstation has to be part of a domain. UPDATE: This is not required.

Here’s how you install it.

First download the installation helper and the correct version of WSS with SP1.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 1

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 x64 with Service Pack 1

Go here to download our Setup Helper file

Now run the setup helper (WssVista.msi).

You will see an UAC prompt select Continue to proceed with the installation.

Once the install has completed you will find the SetupLauncher.exe in the install location you selected. If you didn’t change the default option you will see it under the directory ..\Program Files\WssOnVista\Setup

Configuring IIS7

Before we go any further we need to make sure IIS7 is installed with all required options .

Go to Control Panel and click Programs.

Under Program and Features click Turn Windows features on or off.

Under Windows Features select Web Management Tools and World Wide Web Services. Enable at least the following options and choose OK.

Wait until Windows has configured all options.

Installing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 on Vista.

After completing the above steps it’s time for the interesting part. Locate SetupLauncher.exe and start it. You will once again see an UAC prompt, select Continue.

After the SetupLauncher run, select the WSS installation file Sharepoint.exe, or the MOSS installation file, and click OK.  First, the package will be extracted.

After the files have been extracted the WSS setup program will be started.

The current version only supports the advanced installation option so select that one.

Select Web Front End when asked about Server Type. The database will be created later.

(If you are installing MOSS select the option which installs all services on the Web Front End)

Sit back and relax while SharePoint is being installed, you are running Vista remember ;)

Hopefully you will see the following screen at the end of the installation. If you would get an error during the installation step try to run a Repair.

Leave the checkbox checked and click Close to run the Configuration Wizard.

At the second screen select the option to create a new server farm.

Specify your database server (e.g. MYLAPTOP\SQLEXPRESS) and account information.

Let the Configuration Wizard do it's work.

And you should end up with this screen, congratulations!

The final result is WSS running on Vista, Enjoy!

/Jonas

Note: Remember that this is a "beta" product tool from Bamboo.  Do not use it for any production work, as well as the usual "backup your system before install this program".  Obviously, running WSS v3 or MOSS on Vista is not a supported environment by MS. 

UPDATE: Additional discussions and solutions on instalation issues can be found in this forum.

UPDATE:  If you run Vista Home Premium you have to enable Basic Authentication in IIS, if you don't you will only see a blank page.

Here's how to do it:

Open up IIS management console and Enable Basic Authentication. You have to do this for ALL Web Applications you are creating.