asked
SSRS 2008 R2 report manager parameters
I have a SSRS report that takes seven user-input parameters. Some of the contents of the later parameters are driven by the choices made in the earlier parameters. To someone who has not used it before, it can be a little daunting, but to the seasoned user it gives them all the flexibility they need. It would be really neat if I could include some instructions in the parameters section of the report to guide the newcomers through. I do include instructions in the report itself, but of course, you have to run the report in order to see how to... run the report. Does anyone have any suggestions for adding utility to the parameters section of a report?
The only way how to add some description into the parameters section is to alter the template for the section on the server. However this change will apply to all reports, so it's not the way. There could be a workaround to render the instruction in the report, when there are no parameters specified and when all necessary parameters are passed, then render the rest of the report (the report itself).
Yeah I've done a less sophisticated version of that. I've put default values in all of the parameters so that it renders before the user has a chance to input their own parameter values. It runs really fast with the default values, and the first thing the user sees is the instructions. I think it'll have to do. We'll wait and see how the punters take to it.
If you use Report Manager or SharePoint to distribute the reports, have you tried adding information to the Description property of the report? This information appears with the report title when the user is browsing for the report. While they don't see it when they are in the report, they would see it beforehand.
