SSRS - Report Subscriptions

SQL Server Reporting Services comes with many features to visualize your business data. In term of Report delivery, SSRS supports both on-demand (pull) and event-based (push) delivery of reports where users can view reports in a Web-based format or in e-mail. The event based delivery of reports is known as Report Subscriptions in SQL Reporting Services which provides a way to us to configure the automatic delivery of specified reports by e-mail or to a file share at scheduled intervals.

A report subscription is a report snapshot generated on some defined scheduled time and delivered to the intended audience through the report server. We have two type of subscription in SQL Server Reporting Services as given below-

1. Standard Subscription - This subscription is based on the static values for the parameters and could be created by any user having "Manage individual subscriptions" or "View a report" permissions.

2. Data-driven Subscription - This subscription is based on the dynamic values for the report parameters means report parameters are filled from a query (or a database) at the time of report execution. This subscription requires recipient list, delivery method and parameter values needed for each recipient's report execution. To create this subscription, user must have permissions as "Manage all subscriptions” or Content Manager.

SSRS provides the facility to create multiple subscriptions for a single report to vary the subscription options; for example, we can specify different parameter values to produce three versions of a report, such as a Western region sales report, Eastern region sales, and all sales.

Report delivery is an extensible part of Reporting Services architecture. These subscriptions are processed on the report server and are distributed through delivery extensions that are deployed on the server. 

By default, we can create subscriptions that send reports to a shared folder or to an e-mail address.

For each subscription, we need to configure delivery options and the available options are determined by the delivery extension we choose. A delivery extension is a module that supports some manner of distribution. 

Parts of a subscription

For each standard subscription, there is exactly one set of report presentation options, delivery options, and report parameters. A subscription definition consists of the following parts:

• A pointer to a report that can run unattended (that is, a report that uses stored credentials or no credentials).
• A delivery method (for example, e-mail) and settings for the mode of delivery (such as an e-mail address).
• A rendering extension to present the report in a specific format.
• Conditions for processing the subscription, which is expressed as an event.
• Usually, the conditions for running a report are time-based. For example, you may want to run a particular report every Tuesday at 3:00 P.M. UTC. However, if the report runs as a snapshot, you can specify that the subscription runs whenever the snapshot is refreshed.
• Parameters used when running the report.

In the report subscription, report parameters are optional and are specified only for reports that accept parameter values. This is because a subscription is typically user-owned, the parameter values that are specified vary from subscription to subscription. 

For example, sales managers for different divisions will use parameters that return data for their division. All parameters must have a value explicitly defined, or have a valid default value.
File Share Delivery Subscription in SSRS 2016

References: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159762.aspx