Configuring Reporting Services

The Reporting Services use Folders to organize Reports. The Aras Innovator integration with Reporting Services use as the default Innovator Reports Folder.

In this section, we configure the Reporting Services using the Report Manager by adding the Innovator Reports Folder and a Shared Data Source, which the Reports use to connect to the database.

The ReportServer Reporting Services comes with the Report Manager page used to configure the Reports, Folders, Data Sources, and so on. This page has been integrated into Innovator client via an Innovator Report that opens the Report Manager page.

Open your browser with http://localhost:80/Reports on the default installation.

To set up Reporting Services:

1. Open the Reporting Services Configuration Manager.
2. Set up a Service Account.



3. Set up a Web Service URL



4. Set up the Database.



5. Set up the Web Portal URL.

1. Open the Report Manager page (defined above) in a new dialog.



2. Click +and thenFolder.
3. Enter Innovator Reports for the name and click Create.

Once you add the Innovator Reports Folder, navigate into it by clicking on the link. Now, you add a Shared Data Source for the Reports to use to connect to the database.

1. Click +and thenData Source inside the Innovator Reports folder.



The New data source dialog appears.



2. Enter innovator_regular for the Data Source Name.
Note
By using this same name for both the development and production servers, exporting and importing Reports becomes simpler because there is no need to reassign the Data Source for the Reports you import.
3. Enter the following for the Connection String replacing the values for the two parameters with the actual server name where SQL Server is installed as well as the actual database name.

data source=<SQLServerName>;initial catalog=<InnovatorDatabase>e.g.data source=MyServer\MSSQLSERVER2019;initial catalog=InnovatorSolutions

4. Select the Using the following credential choice for the Connect Using field and enter the DB Client Login credentials for your database.
5. Click Create to deploy the shared Data Source.

The entry point for the Microsoft Reporting Services is the ReportServer.asmx file. The same Web Service is used to request Reports and administer the Report Server. The Web Service is configured by default to use Windows Authentication. You can’t simply open the security for anonymous Web users because that would open the Report Manager as well. This security model requires the User be authenticated when they request Reports. A dialog opens requesting the user’s login credentials the first time they request a Report each time the browser is opened again. When requesting the Report from within Aras Innovator this would not be desirable. Users would not only have to constantly provide login credentials to access reports, but each Innovator user would also have to have either a domain or local user access on the server. To handle this problem, Aras provides the Innovator Reporting Services Gateway that processes requests to Reporting Services. This gateway uses one shared User Account for all Report requests. The Gateway submits the actual Report request using this shared User Account and propagates the results back to the client. The Report renders without the authentication dialog appearing. If the user attempts to view the Report directly outside Aras Innovator, they still see the authentication dialog as normal. So, users can only view the Reports through Aras Innovator. The local User Account on the server by default is named ‘Reporting’ with a default password is ‘reporting’ and must be mapped as a Role in the Report Server.

The administrator for the server where Microsoft Reporting Services is installed must add a new Windows User Account named ‘Reporting’. Once the User Account is created Aras Innovator needs to be configured to use account credentials.

Reporting Service configuration is stored in InnovatorServerConfig.xml configuration file. <ReportingServices> section needs to be updated with the username and password:

<ReportingServices>

 <ReportServer>http://localhost/ReportServer/</ReportServer>

 <User>Reporting</User>

 <Password>reporting</Password>

 <Domain>Domain for the above User</Domain>

</ReportingServices>

Optional node, <Domain>, should contain the domain name you want to use to connect to Reporting services.

The Reporting User Account must next be mapped as a Role in Reporting Services enabling this account Browser privileges.

1. Create the Reporting user on the Server.
2. Click the Site Settings link in the upper right-hand corner of the Report Manager page.



3. Click the Security tab.



4. Click Add group or user to map the Reporting User Account as a Reporting Services Role.



5. Enter the Reporting User Account name, select the System checkbox, and click OK to create the new Role.



6. Click the Browse link in the upper left corner of the page.



7. Click the Manage Folder link.



8. In the settings tab, click Add group or user.



9. Enter Reporting in the Group or user field, select the Browser checkbox, and click OK to create a new Role Assignment for the Innovator Reports folder.