Introduction
The Report Server Web Portal is the primary user interface for Davidson College staff, faculty, and students accessing data.davidson.edu (the report server). It is an "out of the box" feature from Microsoft that is maintained by the Davidson Technology & Innovation department.
Categories of Web Portal Items
Folders allow you to navigate to other parts of the report server where additional content may be shared. Your account must have access to a folder in order for you to see it on the Home page of the report server and to view its contents. If you think you should have access to a particular folder, please contact your supervisor or ti@davidson.edu.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are widgets on the page that are mainly meant to track certain metrics over time, but they can also be used to direct users to external content like a website. In this case, you'll notice the green KPI asks the user, "Need help?" Clicking on this KPI will open the T&I Support Center site in a new browser tab for the user.
Power BI Reports are interactive dashboard reports created in Microsoft Power BI Desktop. They are created by report developers spread throughout the college community, particularly in the Technology & Innovation group and other administrative departments.
Paginated Reports are reports created in Microsoft Report Builder. They typically don't have the flashy visuals of Power BI Reports, but they are the most common type of report you'll see on data.davidson.edu. Like Power BI reports, they are created by report developers across campus. For more on how to run paginated reports, read this related article.
Excel Workbooks are Microsoft Excel files that have been uploaded to the report server, typically to provide users with datasets or certain database connections. Clicking on an Excel object on data.davidson.edu will typically prompt you to download it to your hard drive, at which point you can open it.
Browse Heading vs. Favorites Heading
There are two headings under which you can view reports on data.davidson.edu: "Browse" and "Favorites." You can switch between them using the buttons on the main toolbar, directly below the Davidson logo:
Browse allows you to traverse the folder structure on data.davidson.edu, and it's the default heading until you have added at least one report to your favorites.
Once you have tagged at least one report as a favorite, you'll be able to view it and others under the Favorites heading, and Favorites will thereafter be the default heading when you go to data.davidson.edu. Meaning: the next time you access it, you'll automatically be taken to Favorites, not to Browse.
Tile View vs. List View
The default mode for viewing items on the report server is called "Tile view," which displays all the folders, reports, and other objects in a given directory as rectangular tiles. Each report's context menu is denoted by an ellipsis icon (...) in the top-right corner, and "favorite" reports will show a black star as well.
The other option, "List view," allows you to see a bit more information about each report, namely a snippet of its description, the size (in kilobytes) of the report content, the last date and time at which the report definition was modified, and the user who last modified it. The context menu is also available directly to the right of the report's name, along with the "favorite" star icon.
To switch between Tile view and List view, use the drop-down menu on the main toolbar, directly to the left of the search bar.
Context Menus
Each item on the report server has a context menu, which is denoted by an ellipsis (...) icon. When you click on the icon, the context menu is displayed, giving you some basic information about the report and a list of options. If an object has a description, it will be displayed under the title along with some basic metadata. For reports, you will then see options to add the report to your favorites, open it, or subscribe to it.
Breadcrumbs and Navigating Folders
Breadcrumbs are a helpful tool for showing you where you are within the hierarchy of a given application or folder structure. On data.davidson.edu, they are represented by a sequence of folder names, each separated by a caret symbol, starting with the Home page and ending with the folder you're currently looking at. You can navigate back to any folder along this sequence by clicking on its name. You can also go directly back to the Home page by clicking on the Davidson logo in the top-left corner of the web portal.
Related articles
Managing Your Favorite Reports
Report Sserver User Permissions