E-Mail Delivery in Reporting Services
Reporting Services includes an e-mail delivery extension that provides a way to e-mail a report to individual users or groups. The e-mail delivery extension is configured through the Reporting Services Configuration tool and by editing the Reporting Services configuration files.
To distribute or receive a report by e-mail, you define either a standard subscription or a data-driven subscription. You can subscribe to or distribute only one report at a time. You cannot create a subscription that delivers multiple reports in a single e-mail message. For more information about subscriptions, see Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Standard Subscriptions.
E-Mail Delivery Options
Report server e-mail delivery can deliver reports in the following ways:
Send a notification and a hyperlink to the generated report.
Send a notification in the Subject: line of an e-mail message. By default, the Subject: line in the subscription definition includes the following variables that are replaced by report-specific information when the subscription is processed:
@ReportName specifies the name of the report.
@ExecutionTime specifies when the report was executed.
You can combine these variables with static text or modify the text in the Subject: line for each subscription.
Send an embedded or attached report. The rendering format and browser determine whether the report is embedded or attached.
If your browser supports HTML 4.0 and MHTML, and you choose the Web archive rendering format, the report is embedded as part of the message. All other rendering formats (CSV, PDF, and so on) deliver reports as attachments. You can disable this functionality in the RSReportServer configuration file.
Reporting Services does not check the size of the attachment or message before sending the report. If the attachment or message exceeds the maximum limit allowed by your mail server, the report will not be delivered. Choose one of the other delivery options (such as URL or notification) if for large reports.
You set delivery options that determine how a report is delivered when you create the subscription. For example, if you select Include Link in the subscription, the e-mail message will include a hyperlink to the report. For more information, see How to: Subscribe to a Report (Report Manager).
Role-based E-Mail Settings
When you subscribe to a report, the e-mail delivery settings you work with vary depending on whether your role includes the "Manage individual subscriptions" task or the "Manage all subscriptions" task.
Task |
Available settings |
|---|---|
Manage individual subscriptions |
Shows fields that enable a user to automate and deliver a report to himself or herself. In this mode, fields that accept e-mail aliases are not available. |
Manage all subscriptions |
Shows fields that support wider distribution, including To:, Cc:, Bcc:, and Reply-To: fields, providing additional ways to route a report to more subscribers. The availability of e-mail alias fields is defined through the RSReportServer configuration file settings. |
Specifying E-Mail Addresses in a Subscription
If you are distributing reports within an intranet and you are using an SMTP gateway to a Microsoft Exchange server, type the e-mail alias (as if you were sending e-mail to a coworker). If delivery is to an external e-mail account, type the full e-mail address. If you specify additional e-mail addresses to add others to your subscription, subscribers get an exact copy of the report that is produced from this subscription.
The report server does not validate e-mail addresses or obtain e-mail addresses from an e-mail server. You must know in advance which e-mail addresses you want to use. By default, you can e-mail reports to any valid e-mail account within or outside of your organization. Configuration settings can be used, however, to restrict e-mail delivery to mail server hosts that you identify by name. You can specify additional hosts if you want to support e-mail delivery to people that are not members of your organization.
The e-mail message used to deliver the report must be sent from an e-mail account that is defined on the e-mail server. A configuration setting specifies the e-mail account. The e-mail account is used for all reports delivered by the e-mail delivery extension; you cannot specify multiple accounts or vary the account for individual reports.
E-Mail Server Connections
The report server connects with an e-mail server using a standard connection. It does not use communication that has been encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). The e-mail server must be a remote or local Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) server located on the same network as the report server. An RSReportServer configuration setting specifies the SMTP server. For more information, see Configuring a Report Server for E-Mail Delivery.