SSRS 2008R2 Features

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New Features in Reporting Services 2008 and 2008 R206 July 2010by Bill Pearson

Quietly, Microsoft has been making radical improvements to Reporting Services; but precisely whatwas introduced, and when? We asked Bill Pearson, the well-known BI expert, to come up with adefinitive survey of the more recent changes and how they help the user of Reporting Services.

You may not be aware how much Reporting Services has improved recently. When Microsoft released SQLServer 2008 R2, they portrayed it as a "minor upgrade". In fact, the enhancements made to Reporting Services inSQL Server 2008 R2 further extend the radical improvements that came along with the third-version release ofSQL Server 2008 in August of 2008. It is apparent that Microsoft has quietly wrought a radical improvement in theproduct.

Were going to summarize the two major changes in Reporting Services since the release of the second version(SQL Server 2005 in November 2005); firstly in SQL Server 2008, and then in SQL Server 2008 R2.

New and Enhanced Features in Reporting Services, SQL

Server 2008

The new features in the SQL Server 2008 release of Reporting Services were in four general areas:

Report Authoring

Report Processing and Rendering

Server Architecture and Tools

Report Programmability

We will take a look at these in more detail.

Report Authoring

The Report Designer gained new data regions, a new data source type (a new data processing extension forTeradata) and an improved design / authoring experience. SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services also introducestwo new data regions, the Tablix and Gauge. The Tablix data region combines the previously independent table,list and matrix into a single data region, with more versatile grouping of rows and columns to allow for bettercustomization. Youll like the impact you can get from the new Gauge data region (see Illustration 1), which youcan use as a stand-alone gauge, several gauges inside a gauge panel, or within one of the Tablix options.


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Illustration 1: The New Gauge Data Region (Example is a Radial Gauge)

A completely redesigned Chartregion has appeared, supporting many new chart types, thats also easier to use.

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services also introduces support for richly formatted text, along with otherenhancements to the Report Designer that make it more intuitive for report authors to access data and designelements. The Report Builder 2.0 now resembles Microsoft Offices style more closely. The data layout andvisualization is better than Report Builder 1.0. The user interface appears, upon launch, as depicted inIllustration 2.


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Illustration 2: The User Interface for Report Builder 2.0

There are new report items which allow more choices and more control over page breaks when exporting reportsto different renderers. Report Definition Language (RDL) elements have been added to support the newfeatures we have already mentioned, and others to support the new report processing and report renderingmodels. Expressions now appear on the design canvas as placeholders (the placeholders are automaticallysubstituted when we upgrade our SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services reports).

The Report Designer has been improved by:

Replacing of the Data tab with the always-visible Data pane, which displays the entire inventory ofreport data sources, datasets, parameters, images, and built-in fields, and so forth.

Adding Positioning devices such as rulers that show the current position of an item, and visible snaplines when we drag / resize items.

Replacing the deep dive (multiple mouse clicks to get there) access to grouping for the Tablix dataregion (and therefore for the table, list and matrix), with a new, always-visible Grouping pane thatprovides a convenient means of creating and managing groups


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Upgrading reports from previous versions of the data regions is a simple process. When we open, and then save,a report in the more recent version it happens automatically. However, the reports might also benefit from addingfeatures that did not exist at the time the original reports were created. Youll also need to test any upgradedreport to check whether, by introducing new report items and RDL elements, youve altered the information theydisplay before you re-deploy it.

Report Processing and RenderingSQL Server 2008 Reporting Services included a new rendering extension for Microsoft Word, andimprovements to the rendering extensions for Microsoft Excel and CSV. The improvements help to ensure thatall rendering extensions handle soft and logical page breaks consistently.

As well as this, the report processing engine has been refactored to improve the scalability and performance ofreports: you can also improve the processing of reports on large amounts of data by using On-Demand ReportProcessing: Thisenables the rendering of each report page as it is viewed ("on-demand").

Server Architecture and Tools

There is a new report server architecture in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services that replaces the support

provided by Internet Information Services (IIS) in previous versions. Reporting Services now has:

Native support for HTTP.SYS and ASP.NET.

URL management for site and virtual directory names.

A new authentication layer.

Health monitoring through newly designed memory management features.

This new architecture consolidates the Report Server Web service, Report Server Windows service, andReport Manager into a single service. This means that we can now define and manage a single service accountfor all report server applications; it also reduces the configuration and maintenance tasks we face, while making iteasier to add custom functions and capabilities. It makes deployment simpler without removing features, orhaving to change the way we access the applications.

There is a better toolset for configuring and managing the report server in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Servicesthat is used in:

The Reporting Services Configuration tool.

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS),

Report Manager (for a native mode report server).

SharePoint application pages (for SharePoint integrated mode).

Data-driven subscriptions and job management are now supported in SharePoint integrated mode.

The authenticationprovided by IIS in previous versions is now handled bySQL Server 2008 Reporting Servicesthrough a new authentication subsystem. Both Windows-based and custom authentication is supported.

Health monitoring has been enhanced within SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services in a number of ways. Newmemory management features allow us to set up memory thresholds for report processing. We can now configurea maximum limit on memory, as well as interim thresholds that dictate report server response to changes inmemory pressure. (The report server simply used all of available memory in previous releases.) To replace thelog file generated by IIS in previous versions, now HTTP logging keeps a record of all HTTP requests handled bythe report server. Moreover, a single log file (named ReportServerService .log) consolidates tracelog files, and provide trace information for:


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The Report Server Web service.

Report Manager.

The background processing application.

Report Server Programmability

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services introduces a new server extension called the Report DefinitionCustomization extension. This provides report definition preprocessing, allowing us to dynamically customize areport definition before its passage to the processing engine, based upon values dictated within the RDL. Forexample, we can modify a report's layout based upon the language in which it is to be rendered.

In addition, the "feature gap" that existed between report servers implemented in native mode and SharePointintegrated mode has been narrowed dramatically. The newly added support for data-driven subscriptions and

job management eliminates differences that existed between report servers implemented in the two modes,allowing them to offer equivalent functionality.

New and Enhanced Features in Reporting Services, SQL

Server 2008 R2: The DetailsHaving examined the significant changes between SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Reporting Services, we will nowfocus upon whats new in SQL Server 2008.

SharePoint Integration

The new features fall into two broad categories: those that apply to a report server configured for SharePointintegration mode ("Server-related enhancements") and those related to the SQL Server 2008 R2 ReportingServices Add-in for SharePoint applications. Some features apply to both categories.

Server-related Enhancements

Support for Multiple SharePoint Zones

In SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, we have new options, via the alternate access mapping functionality inthe SharePoint environment, to access report server items (in previous releases, report server items wereavailable from only the default SharePoint zone). The latest release allows us to access these items from one ormore of the following SharePoint zones:

Default

Intranet

Extranet

Internet

Custom

This can be an advantage where SharePoint environment can be accessed by users from several zones. Wecould, for example, employ alternate access mapping to provide access to the same report server items from ourprimary SharePoint site for information consumers from the intranet and Internet zones.

Support for SharePoint User Token


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Using a new server interface (called IRSSetUserToken), which dbuts in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services,we can use the SharePoint user token to connect to a SharePoint site, via the SharePoint Object Model, andthen retrieve data from the site by using SharePoint credentials.

Claims Based Authentication

In addition to supporting the existing SharePoint User Tokens, SQL Server 2008 R2Reporting Services inSharePoint integrated mode supports Claims Based Authentication.

Scripting with the rs Utility

Servers configured in SharePoint integrated mode are now supported using the rs utility, which can beemployed to automate deployment and administration tasks.

Add-in for SharePoint - Related Enhancements and Additions

When you use the SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Add-in for SharePointapplications, youll noticesome improvements. In order to get the most benefit, Microsoft recommends that we use the SQL Server 2008

R2 version of the add-in with a SQL Server 2008 R2 report server.

Integration Configuration in Fewer Steps

The new SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint applications makes it easier tointegrate a SharePoint server with a Reporting Services report server. In the current version, fewer steps arerequired to configure report server integration within SharePoint Central Administration.

Support for SharePoint Universal Logging Service

Reporting Services now provides several categories which can be configured to be a part of the SharePointdiagnostic logging. (SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 offer diagnostic logging tomonitor activity on a SharePoint server.) The new categories are part of the 'SQL Server Reporting Services'log file area, and will log several categories of information, including the following:

General: Logs events that involve access to the following items:

Reporting Services Web pages

Report Viewer HTTP handler

Report access (.rdl files)

Data sources (.rsds files)

URLs on the SharePoint site (.smdl files)

Database: Logs events that involve database access.

Office Server General: Logs logon failures.

Topology: Logs current user information.

Web Parts: Logs events that involve access to the Report Viewer web part.

SQL Server 2008 R2 also makes available new categories for SharePoint diagnostic logging specifically forReporting Services. The categories that log information with a product area of 'SQL Server ReportingServices' include the following:

HTTP Redirector: Logs calls made by client applications to the report server.

Configuration Pages: Logs calls from Reporting Services pages in SharePoint central administration


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UI Pages: Logs calls made by non-configuration-related pages within the SharePoint user interface.

Soap Client Proxy: Logs calls made by the Reporting Services web pages or Report Viewer web part,to the report server.

Local Mode Rendering: Logs call made by the Reporting Services rendering engine while in localmode.

Local Mode Processing: Logs calls made by the Reporting Services processing engine while in local

mode.

Getting Data from a SharePoint List

A new Microsoft SharePoint List and query experience allows us to easily bring SharePoint List informationinto a report when we designate a SharePoint List as a data source for reports.

Local Mode

Reports from Microsoft Access 2010 and the new Reporting Services SharePoint list data extension can runlocally from the SharePoint document library (no connection to a SQL Server Reporting Services report server isrequired). In the new Local Mode we can use the Report Viewer to directly render reports from SharePoint

(when the data extension supports local mode reporting).

Local mode supports rendering reports that have an embedded data source or a shared data source from an.rsds file. However, the management of the report or its associated data source is deliberately not supported inlocal mode, but only in connected mode.

HTTP requests

In the latest version of Reporting Services, an HTTP redirector has been put in place to listen for client requests(such as those from Report Builder) to the SharePoint web front end. The HTTP redirector will re-direct suchrequests to the Report Server.

Links directly use Document Libraries.

In SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services,on a SharePoint server integrated with Reporting Services, reportsubscriptions and drill-through links work directly with the linked resources in the document library itself.

Increased language and character support

The SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services related interface within SharePoint now supports 37 languages,complex text layout with Thai, and right-to-left character sets with Hebrew and Arabic, and. In addition todocument library menus and user interface controls, support includes the Report Viewer web part.

Collaboration and Reuse

SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services provides new features that support enhanced collaboration and reuse ofcomponents within the reporting environment. We can classify these new features within two groups: ReportParts and Shared Datasets.

Report Parts

Report Parts allow us to employ the various strengths and roles of team members. For example, a given teammember can reuse, in his or her various reports, report parts that have been created and saved by another


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member, say, working within a developmental capacity. Previous versions of SQL Server Reporting Services didnot offer a ready means of generating report parts (such as tables, charts and parameters) that might be usedpervasively throughout our business intelligence solutions. SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services supports ourselection of individual report parts from a given report for uploading to a library on the report server, from whichwe can subsequently browse and select them for inclusion in prospective reports.

The items that we can publish as Report Parts include the following:

Charts

Gauges

Images and embedded images

Lists (via the Tablix data region)

Maps

Matrices (via the Tablix data region)

Parameters

Rectangles

Tables (via the Tablix data region)

Report Parts are stored either on a report server, or within a SharePoint site that is integrated with a reportserver. Report Parts can be reused in multiple reports, and they can be updated on the server.

We can reuse report parts in many reports, where each report part we add to a given report uses a unique ID tomaintain a relationship to the instance of the parent report part on the respective server or site. Report parts thatdisplay data (for example, a matrix, table, or chart) can now be based upon a shared dataset (see the section thatfollows); otherwise, when a report part is published, the dataset upon which it depends is saved as an embeddeddataset. Moreover, embedded datasets can be based upon embedded data sources, but credentials are notstored in embedded data sources.

Choices for the type of dataset underlying a given Report Part can have security implications: if a Report Partdepends upon an embedded dataset that uses an embedded data source, for example, the credentials for theembedded data source will need to be provided by anyone reusing this Report Part. (To avoid this, we wouldbase our embedded and shared datasets upon shared data sources with stored credentials.)

Upgrade and use considerations:

Because of the portability of report parts for uploading into a library from which selections will be madeto reuse them, naming of the parts (perhaps we made a habit of leaving these at their defaults, such asTablix1 or Chart3, when we worked with previous versions) will take on a new importance.Descriptive naming conventions will become important in order to allow for intuitive reuse by otherdevelopment team members, etc.

From the perspective of the new portability of report parts, the full authoring and sharing can only beaccomplished via the new Report Builder 3.0 (although reports can be authored in BusinessIntelligence Development Studio). In effect, we are limited in what we can do with report parts inBusiness Intelligence Development Studio; we can publish report parts from the Development Studio,but cannot select or reuse the existing parts.

Shared Datasets

The second new type of Report Server item that we see in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services is SharedDatasets. Shared Datasets can retrieve data from shared data sources that connect to external data sources.Shared Datasets use only shared data sources (embedded data sources are not allowed). A Shared Datasetcan be based on a report model, or upon any data source for a supported Reporting Services data extension.


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Many of us have no doubt experienced the need to use identical datasets within reports we designed that aresimilar in presentation, or that use similar or identical information. (This is particularly common when the datasetsact as data sources for report parameters that are common to multiple reports). Before SQL Server 2008 R2Reporting Services, we were limited to copying such a datasets definition from the Report DefinitionLanguage (RDL) of one report to that of another report to allow the latter to share the same dataset (theBusiness Intelligence Development Studio did not afford us the ability to copy and paste datasets betweenreports). The only other alternative was to create an identical dataset from scratch within the new report.

A Shared Dataset offers numerous benefits; at the top of the list is the fact that it provides a way to share a queryamong many reports. This practice helps report authors and others to build reports upon consistent sets of data.The dataset query can include dataset parameters. Moreover, we can configure a Shared Dataset to cachequery results for specific parameter combinations. We can perform such a cache upon first use or through thespecification of a schedule. Shared Dataset caching can be used together with report data feeds and reportcaching to help manage access to a data source, as well as to optimize our use of system resources.

We can share a dataset within the Report Designer simply by selecting Convert to Shared Dataset on thecontext menu that appears when we right-click a pre-existing dataset within a report. Once we have converted astandard dataset to a shared dataset, we can select that dataset from among a list of any other shared datasets,within the reports of the current Report Server project, simply by ensuring the selection of the radio button labeledUse a shared dataset within the Dataset Properties dialog that appears when we go to add a new dataset in theReport Data pane, Datasets folder.

When added to a report, a Shared Dataset (like a report part) maintains a relationship to the definition of theparent dataset on the report server. Unlike Report Parts, when the definition is changed, we do not have toaccept updates. All reports that have the relationship always use the Shared Dataset definition on the reportserver.

Data Sources

SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services offers three new data sources types: Microsoft SQL Azure, MicrosoftSQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, and Microsoft SharePoint List. Each of these data sources types,together with a description of its nature and operation, appears in Table 1.

Data Sources Type Description

Microsoft SQL Azure Connects to SQL Server databases in the cloud andenables reports to retrieve and render report data from SQLAzuredatabases.

Microsoft SQL Server ParallelData Warehouse

Connects to a Microsoft SQL Server Parallel DataWarehouse and enables reports to retrieve and renderreport data from SQL Serverdatabases.

Microsoft SharePoint List Connects to a SharePoint site and enables reports toretrieve and render report data from SharePoint lists.

Table 1: New Data Source Types in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services

Data Visualization

SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services provides three new ways to visualize data in reports: Maps, Sparklinesand Data Bars, and Indicators. Lets take a look at each of these ways, together with a description of its natureand operation, in the sections below.

Maps:


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The new Map Wizard and Map Layer Wizard in Report Designer allow us to add maps and map layers to ourreports, an example of which we can see in Illustration 3, to help visualize data against a geographicbackground.

Illustration 3: Adding a Map Visualization to a Report

Once map elements are related with report data, we can control color, size, width, or marker type on any givenlayer, as well as add labels, legends, titles, a color scale, and a distance scale to help assist users in interpretingthe map display. Moreover, we can add interactive features, such as tooltips and drillthrough links, or provideparameters that enable a user to interactively control the visibility of each layer, and much more.

Sparklines and Data Bars

Sparklines and Data Bars have the basic chart elements of categories, series, and values, but they have no

legend, axis lines, labels, or tick marks. Both are simple charts used to convey much information in a little space(and often inline with text), and they can be easily used within matrices and tables.

Sparklines and Data Bars are most effective when many of them are presented together, for rapid visualcomparison (making it easy to identify outliers). Each Sparkline often represents multiple data points over time.Because Sparklines display aggregated data, they must go in a cell that is associated with a group (and are notadded to a detail group in a table). By contrast, Data Bars can represent multiple data points, but typicallyillustrate only one (with each Data Bar typically presenting a single series).

An example of the use of Sparklines is depicted in Illustration 4.


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Illustration 4: Example of a Use for Sparklines

Indicators

Indicators are available in Report Builder 3.0 and Report Designer, and are icon-like, minimal gauges thatconvey the state of a single data value at a glance. They are typically used in matrices or tables to present data inrows or columns.

Indicators are often used to reflect:

Trends with directional images such as arrows;

Ratings using incremental icons such as stars;

States (of being) with traffic lights or check marks.

Once we drag the indicator item from the toolbox to a report we are crafting in Report Designer, we areprompted to make a selection among various options as shown in Illustration 5.


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Illustration 5: Selecting an Indicator Type in Report Designer

Report Layout and Rendering

SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services continues to add features designed to support more rendering options.Moreover, we can now use our reports as the source of data feeds and as exports to Microsoft Excel.

Naming Excel Worksheet Tabs

We can now generate the names of worksheet tabs when we export reports to Excel, using the properties ofreports and page breaks in tandem. We can provide an initial page name of a report that can be exported as thedefault name of worksheet tabs, or use page breaks and page names to provide different names for eachworksheet tab.

Rendering Reports to Data Feeds

Via enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services, including the new Atom rendering extension,wecan export a production report as a data feed or create a report whose primary purpose is provide data, in the

form of data feeds, to applications. The option to use reports as a data feed gives us an additional way to providedata to applications. We might, for example, prefer to hide the complexity of a data source and make it simpler touse the data: We might, alternatively do this when targeted data is not easy to access through client dataproviders.) Another benefit would be the availability of familiar Reporting Services features, such as ReportManager, security, report snapshots and scheduling, to manage the reports that now provide data feeds.Whatever the business need, the capability to render reports directly to data feeds means reusability of existingreports, as well as a means of making best use of all the effort of creating and securing the underlying datasets.

Report Pagination and Text Rotation


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SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services introduces enhancements to page breaks in several key components,including:

Tablix data regions (table, matrix, and list)

Groups

Rectangles

When we delimit the pages of a report using page breaks, we can now assign different reset page numbering andpage names to those pages. Furthermore, we can leverage expressions to establish the dynamic update of pagenames and page numbers at runtime, or the conditional (in addition to full) disablement of page breaks.

An example of the settings involved in creating a page break, based upon a group (Product Category) within asample report, is depicted in Illustration 6.

Illustration 6: Making a Report Break when the Product Category Changes

We can now rotate standalone text boxes up to 270 degrees in:

Report headers


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Report footers

Report body

Cells of tables

Cells of tables

This rotation, and the display of text written vertically and bottom to top that it supports, can help us to better useavailable real estate to create more readable reports, fit more data on printe d reports, and create reports withmore graphical appeal.

Aggregates, Expressions, and Functions

Aggregates, expressions and functionsgain power inSQL Server 2008 R2Reporting Services. This includes:

Enhanced expression support New globals are introduced, including:

o OverallPageNumber and OverallTotalPages - Support for page numbering for the entirerendered report.

o PageName- Support for naming pages.

o RenderFormat - Support for information that is specified for the renderer.

A new read-only property (set by default) for report variables is introduced. This property provides away to persist data across report rendering, page changes, and some types of user interaction. Thevalue of the variable is set when the report is reprocessed, but is maintained in the current session.(This is the equivalent of setting the Writable property for a report variable in RDL.)

Support for calculating aggregates of aggregates we can now calculate aggregates of aggregates,and use this capability, as an example, to more precisely align horizontal and vertical axes for charts andscales for gauges (when nesting within a table, etc.).

Lookup Functions Expressions in data regions can now include references to functions which canretrieve names and values from a dataset that is not bound to the data region.

Report Authoring Tools

In SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services both report authoring tools, Report Builder and Report Designer,been improved to make report design and creation easier and more efficient.

Enhanced Preview Experience in Report Builder 3.0

The introduction of edit sessions enables the reuse of cached datasets when previewing reports in ReportBuilder 3.0, resulting in quicker rendering. We can now reuse cached datasets when previewing reports, thanksto the introduction of edit sessions in Report Builder 3.0. This means not only quicker rendering, but, because editsessions are bound to a report, we can use references to subreports, as well as relative references, in reports.

Easier Report Design and Editing

Report Builder 3.0 provides a user-interface for changing credentials when it is unable to connect to the datasource. We can use the Enter Data Source Credentials dialog box to change the credentials used by ReportBuilder 3.0 at design time, to connect to the data source as the current Windows user, or provide a user nameand password. (This is to compensate for the fact that run-time credentials, specified in the data source propertiesof a report, might not work for design time tasks such as creating queries and previewing reports, depending uponthe setup of the local environment).


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New Capabilities in the Graphical Query Designer

The new query designer provides a graphical user interface to create custom relationships between related andunrelated tables. The query designer also makes it easy to include aggregates and grouping that summarize datain queries. The graphical query designer can now be used to create queries that retrieve report data fromMicrosoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Azure, and Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse

databases, as we noted earlier.

Similarly, the new graphical query designer for the Microsoft SharePoint List data source type simplifies thedesign and creation of queries that retrieve report data from SharePoint lists. The query designer lists the fieldsin each SharePoint list item on a SharePoint site for easy inclusion into a query; the designer also helps us tointuitively define filters within our queries to limit the amount of data returned.

Cache Refresh Plans

SQL Server 2008 R2Reporting Services introduces cache refresh plans, enabling us to cache shared datasetquery results or reports from a schedule, or upon first use. (Previous versions allowed us to control caching at thereport level only, resulting in the simultaneous caching of all datasets.) We can schedule cache refreshes throughan item-specific schedule or a shared schedule, managing and scheduling report caching separately from

report subscriptions. This means that we can refresh certain report components independently, and withvarying frequencies, from others. Cache refresh plans for commonly used parameter combinations, as oneillustration, can help improve data retrieval and report viewing response times.

Report Manager Enhancements

Report Manager has been considerably updated in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services, to make designand creation easier. More noticeable changes in Report Manager include an enhanced layout, which provideseasier navigation to manage report properties and report server items, as well as an updated color scheme. Anew drop-down menu is accessible for each report or report server item in a folder, whereby we can access thevarious configuration options for the report or item we choose.

The Report Manager has improvements in navigation and workflow for viewing and managing reports and report

server items, provided by the new drop-down menu to access various configuration options for each report orreport server item in a folder. It Eliminates of the need to render a report before accessing and configuring reportproperties when in default view. It has an updated Report Viewer toolbar, which includes some updates to thetoolbar controls, as well as the ability (discussed earlier) to export report data to an Atom service document anddata feeds. It also provides more real estate forReport Viewer when rendering reports.

Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS)

The Business Intelligence Development Studio as installed with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Servicessupports design, creation and maintenance of both SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2reports, and ofReport Server projects in the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Business Intelligence Development Studio. Thismeans that we can open, preview, save, and deploy either version of reports or Report Server projects.

We can set Report Server project properties to specify the version of the Report Server to which we wish todeploy reports, as well as to dictate how warnings and errors we might experience, when either upgrading areport from SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server 2008 R2, or reverting a report from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQLServer 2008, are handled.

New Report Definition Language Schema and New Web Service

Endpoint


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The Report Definition Language (RDL) schema introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2 includes a new element, together with elements that define the map report item.

In order to support management operations of the report server in both native mode and SharePoint integratedmode, SQL Server 2008 R2 includes a new Web Service management endpoint, namedReportingService2010,that merges the functionalities of both the ReportingService2005 (which is used formanaging objects on a report server that is configured for native mode) and the ReportingService2006 (used

for managing objects on a report server that is configured for SharePoint integrated mode) endpoints. Featuresthat are introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2, such as shared datasets and cache refresh (which we havediscussed earlier), are included within the new endpoint.

Summary...

With the release of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, Microsoft introduced significant improvements thatcontinued to roll out in the 2008 R2 update. We have reviewed many of these improvements in this article, and Ihope that the extensive list makes a compelling case for upgrade, and the opportunity to develop and deploybetter reports faster. Through the recent addition of entirely new capabilities, and the advances that haveoccurred in existing features, SQL Server Reporting Services delivers the maturity and power of a best of classenterprise reporting application.

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