Developing different types of reports in SSRS 2008 R2

SSRS 2008 R2 has advanced the reporting functionality to a long way, since the time of 2000. There are many different types of reports that can be created using SSRS and each serves a different functionality, but still each of these can be categorized into a few common groups. Different types of reports that can be created using SSRS are as below:

• Parameterized reports
• Linked reports
• Snapshot reports
• Cached reports
• Ad hoc reports
• Clickthrough reports
• Drilldown reports
• Drillthrough reports
• Subreports

The categories of reports that I see from a development / production aspect are as below:

• Business Users authored reports: Ad hoc reports and Clickthrough reports can be classified in this category of reports.


• Performance Boosters: Cached reports and Snapshot reports can be classified in this category of reports.


• Data / Problem Decomposition: Drill-down and Drill-through reports can be classified in this category of reports. These are probably the reports of maximum value for business users.


• Business As Usual: Parameterized reports are the most common kind of reports, and can be classified in BAU category.


• Reusable / Versioned reports: Subreports and Linked reports can be classified in this category. These are probably the most focused category of reports from a development perspective.

For more detail on the types of reports in SSRS 2008 R2, a very detailed explanation can be read on MSDN from here.