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Comparing Report Authoring Environments (Report Builder 3.0)

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services offers support for the following report authoring environments:

  • Report Builder 3.0. Use this tool to design reports that are compatible with a SQL Server 2008 R2 report server by using the familiar Ribbon interface.
  • Report Builder 2.0. Use this tool to design reports that are compatible with a SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) report server. Report Builder 2.0 features the familiar Ribbon interface. For more information about using Report Builder, see Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder 2.0 on msdn.microsoft.com.
  • Report Builder 1.0. Use this tool to design ad hoc reports that use a report model as a source of data. Models can be published to SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers. For more information, see Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder on msdn.microsoft.com.
  • Report Designer. Use this tool in SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Development Studio to design full-function reports that are compatible with a SQL Server 2008 R2 report server. For more information about report version support, see " Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Designer" in the Reporting Services documentation in SQL Server Books Online.

All report authoring environments create report definitions in Report Definition Language (RDL). This topic lists the features that are supported in each authoring environment. For more information about report version support, see "Planning for Report Authoring and Report Deployment" in the Reporting Services documentation in SQL Server Books Online.

Project Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

Integrate SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports and data sources, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages, and Visual Studio (VS) language projects in a single solution in BI Development Studio.

Available

Use VS-compatible source control systems such as VSTS or SourceSafe.

Available

Enable business users who do not want to work in BI Development Studio to create their own report or to update, edit and share existing reports.

Available
Available
Available

Use Microsoft Office-optimized report authoring environment.

Available
Available

Use multiple deployment configurations.

Available

Manage resources such as images as part of a project.

Available

Custom configuration options for data extensions, rendering extensions, custom assemblies.

Available

Report Data Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

Create and use embedded data sources.

Available

Available
Available

Use shared data sources with report server credentials.

Available
Available

Create shared data sources.

Available

Create queries that retrieve data directly from relational databases by using a graphical query designer.

Available

View Designer from Visual Database Tools

Available

Relational Query Designer: SQL Server only

Available

Relational Query Designer: SQL Server only

Create queries that retrieve data directly from relational databases by using a text-based query designer.

Available

Available
Available

Create queries that retrieve data directly from multidimensional databases by using a graphical query designer.

Available

Available
Available

Create queries for a multidimensional database by using a text-based query designer that supports extended field properties.

Available

Create queries that retrieve data directly from data mining models.

Available

Retrieve data from multiple queries for multiple data sources in a single report.

Available

Available
Available

Import queries from .sql files or reports.

Available

Available
Available

Retrieve data from data source types SQL Server, Analysis Services, Sap NetWeaver BI, Hyperion Essbase, OLE DB, Teradata, ODBC, Oracle, XML.

Available

Available
Available

Retrieve data from report models built from SQL Server, Analysis Services, Oracle, or Teradata.

Available
Available
Available
Available

Report Layout Support Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

New Report Wizard.

Available

Data Region Wizard for Table/Matrix and Chart.

Available
Available

Map and Map Layer Wizard.

Available

Available

Data visualization for charts and gauges.

Available
Available

Basic chart

Available
Available

Data visualization on maps.

Available

Available
Available

Query generation through layout actions.

Available

Automatic generation of infinite drill through links.

Available

Automatic formatting of data for number format and column width.

Available

Flexible data layout (Tablix).

Available

Available
Available

Snaplines for alignment.

Available

Available
Available

Zoom.

Available

Available
Available

Field tags to add fields to cells.

Available

Available
Available

Placeholder text for simple expressions.

Available

Available
Available

Full support for RDL features.

Available

Available
Available

Advanced grouping, sorting, filtering.

Available
Available
Available
Available

Multiple data regions in one report.

Available

Available
Available

Report Expression Support Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

IntelliSense for report expressions.

Available

Display processing errors in the Task pane.

Available

Report Rendering Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

Excel

Available
Available
Available
Available

Word

Available
Available
Available
Available

PDF (Acrobat)

Available
Available
Available
Available

MHTML (Web archive)

Available
Available
Available
Available

TIFF

Available
Available
Available
Available

CSV (Comma delimited)

Available
Available
Available
Available

XML (Report data only)

Available
Available
Available
Available

HTML 4.0

Available
Available
Available
Available

Custom Extension Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

Provides design time support for Custom Report Items (CRI).

Available

Use local CRIs.

Available

Use report server CRIs.

Available

Available
Available

Use local custom .NET Framework assemblies in languages such as Visual Basic or C#.

Available

Use run-time custom .NET Framework assemblies on the report server.

Available
Available

Use local custom data sources.

Available

Use custom data sources installed on the report server.

Available
Available

Use a custom security extension on the report server to authenticate username and password.

Available
Available

Miscellaneous Features

Feature Report Designer (BI Development Studio) Report Builder 1.0 Report Builder 2.0 Report Builder 3.0

View RDL source.

Available

Import existing reports from Access.

Available

See Also

Concepts

Getting Started with Report Builder 3.0
Working in Report Builder 3.0