SQL Reporting Services Integrator for WebSphere Portal
Introduction
Mainsoft's SQL Reporting Services Integrator for WebSphere Portal provides out-of-the-box connectivity to Microsoft's SQL 2005 Reporting Services, enabling companies that have standardized on SQL Reporting Services to extend a single view of enterprise data to the WebSphere Portal environment. Upon signing into WebSphere Portal, end users can explore and view reports stored in the Reporting Services repository using a secure access, without having to sign into a separate application. The Reporting Services repository will have the same look and feel as the rest of the portal system and can be easily integrated within existing applications in the portal using IBM WebSphere Portal's inter-portlet communications feature.
Here is a brief overview of the product's features, architecture, and enabling technology as well as instructions for how to configure and customize the software.
Figure 1: Integrated Reports Explorer.
Features
Mainsoft's Reporting Services consists of the Reporting Services Viewer portlet with integrated report navigation.
End users can explore the MS SQL Reporting Services reports repository and select a report for viewing from a hierarchy of folders (see Figure 1). Users can reference a breadcrumbs menu at the top of the Explorer to navigate through the folders and select the report that they would like to see.
Figure 2: Reporting Services Viewer.
Then, users can display the report they selected, change report parameters, navigate through the pages, and export the report as a PDF or as an Excel file (see Figure 2).
Configuration
The Reporting Services Integrator is provided as a single Java WAR file, which can be installed and configured using the Portal Administrator menus.
Figure 3: Configuring the portlet.
Portlet settings
Once the portlet is deployed on a page, configure it using the Configure menu from the Report Viewer's Portlet menu (see Figure 3).
Be sure to set the URL of the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services repository.
Single sign-on and security
Mainsoft software was designed with single sign-on and security in mind, in order to provide secured access to the Reporting Services while having a single sign-on experience to end users. The administrator can choose from the following security modes (see Figure 3):
User Credentials - Each user uses their own credentials to retrieve reports from SQL Server Reporting Services. Portal users are prompted for their username/password the first time they access Reporting Services within the portal. Their credentials are stored securely in the WebSphere Credential Vault, and the portlet will use these credentials from that point on. Although this security mode requires every user to enter their credentials once, this provides maximum security flexibility because users access their SQL Server Reporting Services reports using their personal credentials.
Shared Credentials - All portal users share the same credentials to connect to SQL Server Reporting Services. This option is the easiest for the administrator because a single Windows credential is used by all users to access reports. However, this also means that the SQL Server Reporting Services administrator cannot control access to reports on a user/group basis.
Role Based Credentials - Portal users get credentials assigned to them by the administrator based on their portal user/user group. Using this option provides the SQL Server Reporting Services administrator the ability to control access to reports based on the portal user/user group, while not requiring the user to enter credentials. The SQL Server Reporting Services credentials are assigned by the portal administrator to the portal user/user group.
All credentials used by the Reporting Services are stored securely in the WebSphere Portal Credential Vault services.
Integration with existing applications
The Reporting Services Integrator can also integrate with your existing business applications and view SQL Server reports with the click of a button. You can, for example, have an SAP application display a customer invoice report using inter-portlet communications, to trigger which report to display and with which parameters.
Architecture
Figure 5 describes the components that deliver interactive access to the SQL Server Reporting Services from within the WebSphere Portal environment.
Figure 5: Architecture: Integrating SQL Server Reporting Services into WebSphere Portal.
End users log onto the portal using their portal credentials. Mainsoft software fetches the Windows user credentials from the portal Credential Vault and enables the end user to explore the list of reports using the SQL Server Reporting Services Web service via Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). When the user selects a report, Mainsoft software fetches the report from the Reporting server (using the Windows credentials provided by the end user) and displays it in the Report Viewer.
The Reporting Services is built using Mainsoft, Portal Edition. The toolkit enables .NET developers to create JSR 168 compliant portlets that run natively on WebSphere Portal using ASP.NET controls, C#, and Visual Basic. The software cross-compiles .NET source code to Java bytecode, enabling the .NET team, who designed the original applications, to maintain them on WebSphere Portal, without having to rewrite the applications in Java.
Customizations
Written in .NET, Mainsoft's SharePoint Federator comes bundled with source code and a single developer license, which can be used to customize the Reporting Services to meet the needs of an organization, for example, changing the user interface, the content, or business rules. The developer license can also be used to create new native JSR 168 portlets using C# or Visual Basic for IBM WebSphere Portal.
Purchasing
For pricing information or to purchase the product, click here.
Figure 1: Integrated Reports Explorer.
Figure 2: Reporting Services Viewer.
Figure 3: Configuring the portlet.
