Report Builder 2.0 (RB 2.0) is a new tool that was made available as a separate download at the end of October 2008. It offers various improvements over RB 1.0, but it does not replace it directly; you can use both tools side by side, if required. Whereas RB 1.0 is a ClickOnce application that can be installed by users from the same report server web site where they access their reports, RB 2.0 is a standalone application that must be installed separately where required. (RB 2.0 is scheduled to be released as a ClickOnce version as part of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 – you’ll then be able to choose whether version 1.0 or 2.0 is installed when users click the link on the report server web site).
So what does RB 2.0 offer that RB 1.0 doesn’t? Well, firstly the Office-like theme is continued, but the look and feel are more like Office 2007; for example, there is a ‘ribbon’ in place of the older style toolbar (Figure 1). Whilst this is a matter of personal preference, I see this as an improvement.
Figure 1 – The Report Builder 2.0 user interface
Report creation wizards
RB 2.0 simplifies report creation with the new wizards for creating table, matrix and chart based reports, which guide you through the process. You can select a data source (see below), drag and drop is used to add fields to the report and you can arrange fields into columns, rows and values by using selection boxes. Once you’ve created a basic report, you can easily modify it by adding data regions including lists and gauges (new in SSRS 2008) and report items including images and text boxes.
Access to shared data sources
One of the drawbacks of using RB 1.0 is that it requires a report model to be created in advance so that it can interact with it. RB 2.0 can also access report models, keeping report creation easy for information workers, but it can additionally work with other data sources directly. These can be shared data sources that already exist or embedded sources that you create using RB 2.0 itself. The report creation wizards include connectors for a wide variety of sources (Figure 2). Once you have created your source, you can select the data that you wish to extract by using a text based editor (or in the case of SQL Server connections, a graphical editor).
Figure 2 – Data source properties dialog box
Editing of reports stored on the report Server
RB 2.0 supports the editing of reports that are stored on the report server. This enables users to use RB 2.0 to customize reports that were created and published by using Report Designer or RB 1.0. RB 1.0 is limited in this respect as reports that you create using RB 1.0 and then open and modify using Report Designer cannot then be opened again in RB 1.0, which is somewhat restrictive. Now, a developer can create and publish a sophisticated report using Report Designer, and users can access and modify the report themselves using RB 2.0 or Report Designer without any problem.
Summary
Because of these (and other) improvements, RB 2.0 will be attractive not only to information workers, but for developers too. True, it doesn’t support the full range of functionality that BIDS does, but it supports most of the major items – and it has the added benefit that you don’t need to install BIDS in order to create advanced reports.
For more information on Report Builder 2.0, visit Books Online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd207008.aspx
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