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Report Builder 2.0

In Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Reporting Services released Report Builder 2.0, a new report authoring tool that features a Microsoft Office-like authoring environment and many new features such as enhanced data layout, data visualization, richly formatted text, and on-demand rendering.

New Table, Matrix, and Chart wizards

New easy-to-use wizards walk you through the steps of creating a new table, matrix, or chart data region on your report. Steps include

  • Adding a connection to a data source.

  • Creating or importing a dataset.

  • Arranging fields.

  • Choosing a layout or a chart type.

  • Choosing a preliminary style.

Use the wizards as a starting point for creating a data region that you can continue to modify after you've finished the wizard.

Modify Reports from Other Environments

You can customize and update all existing reports, regardless of where they were initially designed. Thus, your organization can create more advanced reports within Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Development Studio and distribute them to end users, who can customize them in Report Builder 2.0 to meet their needs. You can also update reports created in Report Builder 1.0.

Multiple Data Regions and Data Sources

Full support for all of the capabilities of Report Definition Language (RDL) means that you can use Report Builder 2.0 to create reports with multiple data regions (such as tables and charts), as well as data from multiple data sources within a single report. Report Builder 2.0 also supports queries that run directly against relational data sources (SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata, OLE DB, and ODBC) and multidimensional data sources (SQL Server Analysis Services, Oracle, Hyperion Essbase, SAP NetWeaver BI). Report Builder 2.0 also supports user-friendly data access via published report models (SMDL) based on SQL Server, SQL Server Analysis Services, Oracle, and Teradata.

You can install the new Report Builder 2.0 separately from the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack on the Microsoft download center. To use Report Builder 2.0, from the Start menu, point to All Programs and click Report Builder 2.0.

Report Builder 2.0 ClickOnce

In SQL Server 2008 PCU1, a ClickOnce version of Report Builder 2.0 was released. The ClickOnce version can be started from Report Manager or a SharePoint library. For more information, see How to: Set Report Builder 2.0 as the Default ClickOnce Report Builder Version.

Change History

Updated content

Added information about Report Builder 2.0 ClickOnce, introduced SQL Server 2008 PCU1.