The Reporting Landscape: Choosing the Right Tool

Why are there so many reporting tools?

The five reporting tools at a glance

Report Data Provider (RDP) classes

Most SSRS reports in F&O get their data from an RDP class — an X++ class that runs queries, processes business logic, and populates a temporary table that the report reads.

How RDP classes work

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌───────────────┐
│  Report      │────▶│  RDP Class   │────▶│  Tmp Table    │
│  (SSRS .rdl) │     │  (X++ logic) │     │  (data rows)  │
└──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └───────────────┘
       │                    │                      │
  Renders output     Runs processReport()     Report reads
  from tmp table     populates temp table     from this table

[SRSReportParameterAttribute(classStr(SalesInvoiceContract))]
class SalesInvoiceRDP extends SRSReportDataProviderBase
{
    SalesInvoiceTmp salesInvoiceTmp;

    [SRSReportDataSetAttribute(tableStr(SalesInvoiceTmp))]
    public SalesInvoiceTmp getSalesInvoiceTmp()
    {
        select salesInvoiceTmp;
        return salesInvoiceTmp;
    }

    public void processReport()
    {
        SalesInvoiceContract contract = this.parmDataContract();
        // Query logic, business rules
        // Insert rows into salesInvoiceTmp
    }
}

Report queries (the simpler alternative)

Not every report needs an RDP class. Simple reports can use an AOT query directly — the report binds to the query’s data sources without any X++ code.

Reporting datastores

Entity store

The entity store is a read-optimised, star-schema database that mirrors F&O transactional data into a format designed for analytics. Power BI reports and analytical workspaces read from the entity store — never directly from the transactional database.

Aggregate measurements

Aggregate measurements are the building blocks for analytical workspaces and KPI tiles. They define:

• What to measure — revenue, order count, defect rate
• How to aggregate — SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX
• What dimensions to group by — customer, date, product category

                    ┌────────────────────┐
                    │ Aggregate          │
                    │ Measurement        │
                    │ "TotalRevenue"     │
                    └────────┬───────────┘
                             │
            ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
            ▼                ▼                ▼
    ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐
    │ Dimension:   │  │ Dimension:   │  │ Dimension:   │
    │ Customer     │  │ Date         │  │ Region       │
    └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └──────────────┘

Reporting security

F&O reporting inherits the standard security model — but there are report-specific considerations.

When to use each tool: decision flowchart

Next up: SSRS Reports: Precision Design — deep dive into building, designing, and deploying SSRS reports in F&O.