Subscription and Delivery Scenarios
You can use subscription and delivery functionality to achieve a variety of objectives that vary in complexity and scope.
Using Subscription and Delivery Features
The following table describes scenarios for using the subscription and delivery functionality that installs with Reporting Services. If you are a developer, you can create custom delivery extensions to support additional scenarios. For more information, see Implementing a Delivery Extension.
| Objective | Description |
|---|---|
Push reports out to users in your organization |
Create a subscription and specify a group alias or e-mail alias to receive a report that you want to distribute. You can have Reporting Services determine the subscription data at run time. If you want to send the same report to a group that has a changing list of members, you can use a query to derive the subscription list at run time. |
View reports offline |
Users can select PDF or Web archive formats in a subscription. These formats are recommended for viewing reports offline. |
Archive reports to a file share |
Reports that you want to archive can be sent directly to a shared folder that you back up on a nightly schedule. |
Send large reports to disk |
Large reports that take too long to load in a browser can be sent to a shared folder in a format that can be viewed in a desktop application. |
Preload the cache |
If you have multiple instances of a parameterized report or a large number of report viewers, you can preload reports in the cache to reduce processing time used to display the report. |
Target a desktop application as a viewing device |
If you want to work with a report as a Microsoft Excel file, you can create a subscription that sends the report as an Excel file. If you have a shared folder that stores the working documents for a specific work group, you can specify it in the subscription. |
Customize report output for individual users |
Use data-driven subscriptions to customize report output, delivery options, and report parameter settings at run time. The subscription uses a query to get input values from a data source at run time. You can use data-driven subscriptions to perform a mail-merge operation that sends a report to a list of subscribers that is determined at the time the subscription is processed. |
See Also
Tasks
How to: Delete or Modify a Subscription (Management Studio)
How to: Delete or Modify a Subscription (Report Manager)
How to: Preload the Cache (Management Studio)
How to: Preload the Cache (Report Manager)
Concepts
Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Subscriptions
Data-Driven Subscriptions
Other Resources
Delivering Reports Through Subscriptions