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Reporting Services (SSRS) Training Courses

We've been running classroom training courses in Reporting Services for a number of years, and now offer online SSRS training too. If you're trying to learn SSRS there will be something on this page for you!

We currently run the following scheduled SSRS courses:

Not exactly the course contents you want? Why not consider organising your own tailored SSRS course)?

More about our Reporting Services training

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

if yo're a glutton for punishment you can combine these two courses together and sit on our intensive three-day fast-track SSRS course.

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).

Report navigation

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

10 things our courses include

Each of our scheduled courses (whether classroom or online) includes:

  1. Small course sizes - we have a maximum of 6 people on each classroom or online course.
  2. A trainer! And not just anyone - our courses are only ever given by full-time Wise Owls.
  3. Full colour courseware and exercises of oustanding quality.
  4. A no cancellation guarantee (once you've booked and confirmed your training course, it will run).
  5. A one gigabyte USB stick, containing course files, answers to exercises and (by the end of the course) your answers too, together with a nice pen.
  6. 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).
  7. 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:

  1. A computer for each delegate (obviously).
  2. Lunch out each day at a local restaurant (chosen on the day of the course, after discussion!).
  3. 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.

Scheduled SSRS training dates

Here are the SSRS courses we have scheduled for the next 3 months:

Course Dates Days Venue Price Booking
Fast track SSRS Mon/Wed 08-10 April 2024 08-10 Apr 3 Online £1,295 Book places
Reporting Services Thu/Fri 18-19 April 2024 18-19 Apr 2 Online £825 Book places
Report Builder Mon/Tue 22-23 April 2024 22-23 Apr 2 Online £825 Book places
Reporting Services Mon/Tue 20-21 May 2024 20-21 May 2 Online £825 Book places
Fast track SSRS Wed/Fri 29-31 May 2024 29-31 May 3 Online £1,295 Book places
Report Builder Thu/Fri 30-31 May 2024 30-31 May 2 Online £825 Book places

All prices exclude VAT. If you can't see the dates you want, don't forget that you always have the option of arranging onsite SSRS training at your offices (we'll even provide the computers and projector).

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 many ways in which we can help you learn SSRS!

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.

Blogs on SSRS

Click on the link below to see some of our blogs on Reporting Services.

Videos on SSRS

Whatever version of SSRS you're using, you'll find both our 2012 and 2016 videos useful.

SSRS training venues

SSRS courseware manuals

SSRS consultancy

Rather than learn Reporting Services, you could commission Wise Owl to create your reports (which will almost inevitably involve writing SQL too).

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