Robert Bruckner's Advanced Reporting Services Blog : ReportViewer

Report Viewer in Visual Studio 2010

Robert M. Bruckner — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:35:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available for public download!
This beta provides many new features, including an updated
ReportViewer control.

Beta 2 contains several important updates for the ReportViewer, such as using ASP.Net AJAX internally, supporting RDL 2008 features (tablix, rich text, gauge, etc.) in local mode, Word export, and better cross browser support.

Please try it out and provide feedback!

SQL Server 2008 R2 August CTP – What’s New In Reporting Services?

Robert M. Bruckner — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:59:00 GMT

The August CTP download is available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. The public download is now also active here.

The Data Platform Insider blog provides an overview of what's new in this first public CTP release for SQL Server 2008 R2. If you are reading my blog, you are probably interested in knowing what’s new in Reporting Services 2008 R2, and already in August CTP:

Map and spatial data visualization
We provided sneak previews of this functionality at past conferences, including a popular “BI Power Hour” demo. Maps can be very powerful visualizations. They can consume and visualize geospatial and geometry data directly (as shown by Ed Katibah here), “regular” data, and combine multiple datasets using map layers. Maps can integrate ESRI shape files, as well as directly integrate with Bing Maps. More details in upcoming postings.
Report Builder 3.0
The most notable new Report Builder feature area already available in the August CTP is the so-called "server mode":
- An edit session concept enables support for embedded data source credentials, relative references, and subreport references when connected to a report server.
- Dataset results are cached when connected to a report server, which speeds up making layout changes and previewing the new report.
ATOM data feeds
Reports are now also available in the ATOM standard compliant format that can be consumed by Gemini and other tools.
Update: Teo Lachev takes an initial look at data feeds here.
AJAX Report Viewer
The August CTP provides a preview of some of the functionality that will be available in the stand-alone report viewer control with the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 release. You will notice a more fluid navigation experience in August CTP.
Report Manager
Report Manager received visual and functional improvements with SharePoint-like interaction and menus.
Update: Teo Lachev provides his take on report manager with screenshots here.
RDL Expression Language enhancements
We added direct geospatial data & function support, as well as three types of Lookup functions (Lookup, LookupSet, MultiLookup). More about this in upcoming postings.

On top of that, there are several more new Reporting Services and RDL features available in August CTP, including a few in combination with Gemini and SharePoint in a limited CTP program only. During the next weeks and months I plan to cover more details on the major areas listed above, and perhaps some of the other additions like report sections.

Enjoy!

I look forward to hearing your feedback on Reporting Services 2008 R2 August CTP in the dedicated new MSDN discussion forum.

Better Report Viewing in Visual Studio 2010

Robert M. Bruckner — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:20:00 GMT

We plan to release significantly updated and improved versions of both the Winforms and ASP.NET Report Viewer controls in Visual Studio 2010. This is going to include the long awaited local mode support for the new report processing engine, originally released with SQL Server Reporting Services 2008. Most importantly, this provides RDL 2008 features (e.g. tablix, enhanced charts, gauge, rich text) in local mode without connection to a report server. Furthermore, a number of other new features are coming as well in the Report Viewer controls. Related to this, my esteemed colleague Brian Hartman started blogging recently. His blog is definitely worth keeping an eye on regarding common questions on current and future versions of the Report Viewer.

FAQ: What is the current level of RDL support in Visual Studio 2008 Report Viewer controls?

If you are using local mode, you probably already noticed that attempting to load RDL 2008 based reports results in the following error:

The report definition is not valid.
Details: The report definition has an invalid target namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition' which cannot be upgraded.

You cannot use RDL 2008 features in VS 2005 or VS 2008 report viewer controls in local mode, because the controls are using the same report processing engine that was shipped with SQL Server 2005 (supporting only the RDL 2005 namespace and feature set). As a side-note, VS 2008 shipped almost 6 months before SQL Server 2008 became available.

If you want to use RDL 2008 features with the report viewer controls available today, server mode is your only viable option, because report processing is performed remotely on a Reporting Services 2008 server. Please check Brian's blog posting about RS 2008 and the Report Viewer controls for more details. A general overview of the differences in functionality between Report Viewer and RS 2008 is available in the documentation as well.