SSRS OCF Connector: Overview¶
Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation
Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation
The OCF connector for SSRS was developed by Alation and is available as a Zip file that can be uploaded and installed in the Alation application.
To download the SSRS OCF connector package, go to the Alation Connector Hub available from the Customer Portal. Go to Customer Portal > Connectors > Alation Connector Hub. Only Alation users with access to the Customer Portal can access the Alation Connector Hub. If you don’t have access to the Customer Portal, contact Alation Support.
This connector should be used to catalog SSRS as a BI source on Alation on-prem and Alation Cloud Service instances. It extracts and catalogs such SSRS objects as folders, datasources, datasets, and reports. After the metadata is extracted, it is represented in the data catalog as a hierarchy of catalog pages under the parent BI source. Alation users can leverage the full catalog functionality to search for and find the extracted metadata, curate the corresponding catalog pages, create documentation about the data source, and exchange information about it.
Team¶
The following administrators are required to install this connector:
Alation Administrator:
Install the connector
Creates and configures a SSRS data source in the Catalog
SSRS Administrator:
Creates a service account for Alation
Provides access to public folders to extract metadata
Provides the JDBC URI to access metadata
Scope¶
The table below shows what features are covered by the connector.
Feature |
Scope |
Availability |
|---|---|---|
SSRS instance |
The SSRS instance represented as a BI source |
Yes |
Folders |
Folders and sub-folders in SSRS |
Yes |
Filter folders |
Ability to include or exclude certain folders |
Yes |
SSRS reports and paginated reports |
Reports and paginated reports in a folder |
Yes |
SSRS reports from different folders |
Reports that are created from datasets from different folders |
Yes |
SSRS report object data sources |
Datasets used by report objects |
Yes |
Datasource object lineage |
Lineage of the datasource objects |
Yes |
Dataset object lineage |
Lineage of the dataset objects |
Yes |
Report object lineage |
Lineage of a report to a datasource and dataset object |
Yes |
SSRS dashboards |
Dashboards in a folder |
Yes |
SSRS datasets |
Datasets (both embedded and shared datasets) |
Yes |
Datasets without reports |
Datasets which does not have reports |
Yes |
Dataset fields |
Fields of datasets |
Yes |
Report owner |
Owners or authors who created a report |
Yes |
Image previews |
Ability to preview thumbnail images of reports and dashboards |
Yes |
Popularity |
Popularity of dashboards & reports. SSRS API does not provide this info |
No |
Folder description |
Description of a folder |
Yes |
Filter reports |
Ability to include or exclude certain reports. |
No |
Table-level lineage |
Extraction of lineage at the table-level. |
Yes* |
Column-level lineage |
Extraction of lineage at the column-level. |
Yes** |
* Table-level lineage is supported from connector version 1.3.0. Table-level lineage is not supported for stored procedure-based datasets.
** Column-level lineage is supported from connector version 1.3.0. The column-level lineage is available only if the dataset and report column names match.
Note
Currently, Alation certifies lineage generation between SSRS and SQL Server sources only.
SSRS Object Hierarchy¶
The following diagram shows the hierarchy of SSRS objects and how they are cataloged in Alation:
SSRS API Endpoints¶
The following table lists the SSRS APIs used by this connector to extract metadata from SSRS:
Type |
API Endpoint |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Folder |
ListChildren |
Projects metadata extraction |
Datasource |
ListChildren |
Datasource extraction |
Reports, Sub Reports(Dashboards) |
ListChildren GetItemDefinition |
Report extraction |
Dataset |
ListChildren GetItemDefinition |
Dataset extraction |
Report preview(Image) |
LoadReport SetExecutionParameters Render |
Preview extraction |