Reporting in Dynamics AX 2009 : Ad Hoc Reporting

Reporting Services ad hoc reporting, the second major category of Dynamics AX reports, enables users to create and view Dynamics AX reports without needing assistance from developers or IT staff. Users can simply use SQL Server Report Builder to create their own ad hoc reports.

Deployment: Perspectives and SMDL Models

Before users can create and view ad hoc reports, developers and administrators must configure the ad hoc reporting functionality in Dynamics AX by deploying ad hoc reporting models to the Reporting Services server. Once these models are deployed and secured, users can start creating ad hoc reports without further assistance from developers or IT staff.

Developers build the ad hoc models from Dynamics AX perspectives, which is nothing but a collection of references to tables in Dynamics AX. Developers create the Dynamics AX perspectives, and the IT staff deploys the ad hoc models in the Reporting Services server. These models are stored as SMDL files, which Reporting Services understands.

Performance and Platform Considerations

The performance of ad hoc reports doesn’t match the performance of production reports. Ad hoc reports work best for simple, small reports that don’t involve large data sets. If the performance of an ad hoc report is insufficient, you should consider whether creating a production report instead is worth the time and effort.

Ad hoc reports are implemented in SMDL. Because SMDL is a concept specific to SQL Server, ad hoc reports work only with SQL Server. Dynamics AX 2009 doesn’t support ad hoc reporting with Oracle databases.

Security

Unlike production reporting, which depends on the AOS to implement security, the ad hoc reporting framework is based on secure views. A secure view is a normal SQL database view that enforces security on tables when they are accessed from outside Dynamics AX. When the IT staff generates or updates a report model, the Dynamics AX application creates secure views in the OLTP database for every table referenced in a report model. When a user accesses report data using Report Builder, security is automatically enforced via these secure views, so users see only the data they are supposed to see (according to their user group membership).

You can also generate secure views using the Create All Secure Views form in Dynamics AX, which is at Administration\Periodic\Business Analysis.

Creating Ad Hoc Reports

To create an ad hoc report, go through the following steps in order. The steps shown here are meant to give you an overview of the end-to-end scenario involved in deploying SMDL models and creating ad hoc reports. Dynamics AX has published detailed procedures for each of these steps in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 SDK.

1.	Configure the Reporting Server in Dynamics AX for report models. (Find the Reporting Servers form, shown in Figure 1, at Tools\Business Intelligence Tools\Reporting Servers.) Enter the Server Name, Description, Report Manager, and Web Service URLs. Figure 1. Reporting Servers form, in which you configure the report servers in Dynamics AX Note This form is automatically populated when you install the Dynamics AX reporting extensions component on your report server. Make sure you enter the correct port number for the Report Manager and Web Service URLs. If you are using SSL, make sure the URLs are preceded by https.
2.	Define perspectives in the AOT.
3.	Configure BI properties on the tables and fields that are included in the perspectives. Make sure to set the Usage property to ad hoc reporting for the perspective in question. Figure 2 shows the AOT Perspectives form. Figure 2. AOT perspectives
4.	Configure the model generation options in the Model Generation Options form (shown in Figure 3), found at Tools\Business Intelligence Tools\Report Model Generation Options. Choose the languages that are needed, and set the corresponding report servers. Figure 3. Model Generation Options form
5.	Set the default report server to be used for report models in the Default Report Servers form, found at Tools\Business Intelligence Tools\Default Report Servers. Note At any given time, you can use only a single report server instance for report models.
6.	Publish the SMDL models on the report server by clicking the Update A Report Model button in the Model Generation Options form.
7.	Launch the Report Builder Options form (shown in Figure 4) from Tools\Business Intelligence Tools\Report Builder Options. In this form, you can specify the report model you want to use and the required language. Choose the report data (Perspective label) and the language, and click OK. Figure 4. Report Builder Options form
8.	Launch the Report Builder from Tools\Business Intelligence Tools\Report Builder, and design the report by dragging the required fields from the left side onto the report design.
9.	Generate the report.

Troubleshooting

This section contains some of the most common ad hoc reporting framework issues and possible solutions that testers identified during the Dynamics AX 2009 release cycle.

Unable to Validate the Report Server

• Click the Create button in the Reporting Servers form, found at Tools\Business Intelligence Tools\Reporting Servers, and make sure that a report folder and data source have been created on the report server. Click the Validate button.
  
  
• Configure the firewall settings appropriately on the report server box.
  
  
• Make sure the report manager and report server URLs are correct.
  
  
• Make sure the Dynamics AX user has permissions on the report server box.
  
  

Unable to Generate a Report

• Make sure the report server account configured in the report data source on the report server has read permissions on the Dynamics AX SQL database.
  
  
• Configure the firewall settings on the database box appropriately.
  
  
• Check that the user name and password provided for the report server account in the data source on the report server are correct.
  
  

SMDL Model Is Not Seen on the Report Server After Successful Model Generation

• Check that the correct report server is configured in the Default Report Servers form for report models.
  
  
• Make sure the Publish To Report Server option is selected in the Report Generation Options form.
  
  

Unable to Generate an SMDL Model Because One or More Languages Are Missing Some Information

• Make sure the Default Currency for the Default Exchange Rate Company has been specified correctly in the Company Information form, found at Basic\Setup\Company Information.
  
  
• Make sure the Destination Server is specified for the selected language.