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Symbio Reporting

Overview

The Symbio reporting service consists of several components that together realize a rich integrated reporting solution.

  • Symbio provides the data which will be saved in a specialized ODS database. Symbio also displays the reporting results within its own UI. You can manage which storage connects to which reporting service by setting up and assigning different Report Pools. Within Symbio you can also manage which reports are active and which will be hidden from users.
  • The Reporting Connector is what a Symbio Report Pool connects to and that receives events from Symbio describing the changes that were made to elements (like changes to names, descriptions, additions of new symbols to a diagram, removal of relations, etc.). The connector stores the received events in the operational part of the ODS database. It also provides Symbio with the actual report links for configured reporting systems (i.e. SSRS).
  • The Reporting Console is responsible for getting an initial data dump (fullfetch) from Symbio that is saved in the data part of the ODS database. It also realizes the conversion of events collected by the Reporting Connector into updates (crud: create & update) of the data part of the ODS database. The Reporting Console operations are triggered by an admin user (for manual and maintenance tasks) or by the Windows Task Scheduler (for recurring tasks).
  • The ODS DB contains operational and actual reporting data for reports to work on. This data is available in a format optimized for reporting, in contrast of the data stored in Symbio databases that is optimized for business and process management tasks.
  • SSRS, the SQL Server Reporting Services, provides an enviroment for defining, managing, and running reports. It is mainly intended for on-premise use.

Requirements

To use Symbio Reporting, the following requirements must be fullfilled:

  • Symbio set up and running
  • SQL Server or Azure SQL set up and running
  • SSRS (requires SQL server) set up and running
  • An ODS database on SQL Server or Azure SQL created and running, with appropriate logins for read (reporting) and write (connector & console) access
  • The Reporting Connector set up and running as web service on IIS or as an Azure App Service
  • The Reporting Console set up on an appropriate machine

The following communication directions must be available for the system to work:

  • Symbio (the server side) to Reporting Connector (to send events on data changes)
  • Symbio (just the client side/browser displaying the Symbio website) to SSRS (to retrieve report results)
  • Reporting Connector to Symbio (to setup reports)
  • Reporting Connector to SSRS (to create a workspace)
  • Reporting Connector to ODS DB (to read & write operational data)
  • Reporting Console to Symbio (to read data)
  • Reporting Console to ODS DB (to read & write data)
  • SSRS to ODS DB (to read data)