Reporting Services (SSRS) Training Courses
We've been training and consulting on Reporting Services enthusiastically for a number of years. If you're trying to learn SSRS there will be something on this page for you!
SSRS classroom training
We currently run the following classroom courses in Reporting Services and Report Builder:
Alternatively, why not organise your own onsite SSRS course, or have a look at the extensive changes we've made to our classroom training to allow social distancing.
Online SSRS training
We also have the following online SSRS / Report Builder courses:
Not sure how if online training is for you? We've created a detailed page for you to see exactly how our online courses work (probably better than you think!).
Which is the right SSRS course for you?
Have you got an off-the-shelf package which contains some standard reports, but you're finding they don't show what you need to see? Maybe it's time to learn how to create reports in SQL Server Reporting Services!
We publish two standard courses:
| Course | Contents |
|---|---|
| Introduction to SSRS (2 days) | Creating and publishing reports in SSRS |
| Advanced SSRS (2 days) | Basic reports on views and stored procedures, and other advanced topics |
Here's what you'll learn on the two-day introductory course:
| Topic | Notes |
|---|---|
| Tables | Linking to data sources, creating datasets and displaying the resulting rows in formatted tables in your reports. |
| Grouping data | Learning to create group headers and footers, as well as ensuring titles remain at the top of each page and being able to expand and collapse topics. |
| Expressions | Creating additional columns in reports using functions like SWITCH, and using expressions to conditionally format parts of a report. |
| Pages and printing | Displaying page headers and footers, and learning to customise print settings for a report. |
| Parameters | Making a report return different results according to the values of parameters that you type in (such as start/end dates), and creating dropdown parameters. |
| Indicators and gauges | Displaying traffic lights or smiley faces to show how good a particular score is, or a linear or radial gauge for even more gimmickiness! |
| Matrices | Displaying data in a two-dimensional grid, similar to a pivot table in Excel. |
| Charts | Learning how to show charts in an SSRS report, including (if time allows) spark lines and data bars. |
| Subreports | Creating a subreport to show for each item on a main report, and using an action to enable drill down in a report. |
| Lists | Using a list to display tables, charts and matrices for each row in a main table. |
| Maps | If time allows, creating maps and linking them to data tables to show different pie charts at different locations for different postcodes. |
| Deployment | Copying your work onto your corporate server, and using the SSRS web portal to view reports. |
The two-day advanced course includes the following topics:
| Topic | Notes |
|---|---|
| Expressions | A revision of expressions, followed by an explanation of what scope means and how to use it. |
| Variables | Creating report-level and group-level variables. |
| Embedded code | Creating and referencing custom functions within a report. |
| Views | Creating views on SQL and referencing them in reports. |
| Stored procedures | Using stored procedures as a basis for reports, as well as creating them in SQL. |
| Parameters | A refresher of parameters in reports, followed by how to use them with stored procedures (including dropdown and multivalue parameters using stored procedures). |
| Dynamic reports | Using document maps and bookmarks to make it easier to navigate in a report. |
| Dynamic reports | How to vary the content and structure of a report depending on options chosen by a user. |
You can see even more details about what our SSRS courses will cover here. We currently teach using SSRS 2016, but you won't notice much difference between this and 2014, 2012 or even 2008 R2 (with the exception of the SSRS web portal for the last topic, which has replaced the previous Report Manager).
10 things our SSRS courses include
Each of our scheduled courses (whether classroom or online) includes:
- Small course sizes - we have a maximum of 5 people on each classroom or online course.
- A trainer! And not just anyone - our courses are only ever given by full-time Wise Owls.
- Full colour courseware and exercises of oustanding quality.
- A no cancellation guarantee (once you've booked and confirmed your training course, it will run).
- A one gigabyte USB stick, containing course files, answers to exercises and (by the end of the course) your answers too, together with a Sheaffer biro.
- Unofficial help after the course (although we don't have a dedicated post-course support line, in practice trainers will be happy to answer the odd ad hoc question after a course has taken place).
- A certificate sent out digitally or in paper form (your choice) after each course, together with (for tailored courses) the trainer's thoughts on how the course went.
In addition, our classroom courses also include:
- A computer for each delegate (obviously).
- Lunch out each day at a local restaurant (chosen on the day of the course, after discussion!).
- Unlimited refreshments during the day, including Tassimo or Nespresso coffee and a range of biscuits and snacks to keep you going through those dark afternoon hours.
Still not convinced? You can read hundreds of testimonials to the quality of our training (all attributed and added in the last 3 years.
About our SSRS training
If you need to use Reporting Services to create and distribute reports based on your corporate data, you'll probably need to learn SQL too.
You don't need to learn SQL to attend our SSRS course, but it's virtually inevitable that you will at some point need to learn how to combine data from different database tables using the SQL querying language.
In an ideal world, we'd suggest attending courses in the following order:
| Course | Notes |
|---|---|
| Introduction to SQL | Learn how to select data from your corporate database, including joining tables together, setting criteria and using expressions. |
| Introduction to SSRS | Learn how to create beautiful (!) reports based on this data, including parameters so that you can choose which rows to see. |
| Advanced SQL | Learn how to create stored procedures and use other advanced programming techniques, giving you more power to select exactly the right data for your reports. |
However, you definitely shouldn't book an advanced SQL course until a) you're sure you'll need to learn this and b) your trainer on the introduction course has confirmed that you'll enjoy it.
Other Reporting Services training resources
There are so many ways in which we can help you learn SSRS, as the impressive list below shows.
Try our SSRS exercises
We've published all of our SSRS and Report Builder exercises online (we mix and match betwen the two, as they're virtually identical), so you can judge for yourself whether our training is for you.
Videos on SSRS
Whatever version of SSRS you're using, you'll find both our 2012 and 2016 videos useful.
SSRS consultancy
Rather than learn Reporting Services, you could commission Wise Owl to create your reports (which will almost inevitably involve writing SQL too).
Blogs on SSRS
Click on the link below to see some of our blogs on Reporting Services.
SSRS training venues
Here's where our scheduled SSRS courses run.
Self-paced SSRS online training
SSRS courseware manuals
To allow you to judge the quality of our training we publish a few courseware chapters at random on our website (you can download them and view them in Word).