Comparing Report Authoring Environments

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services offers three report authoring environments:

• Report Builder 2.0. Use this tool to design reports by using the familiar Ribbon interface.

• Report Builder 1.0. Use this tool to design ad hoc reports that use a report model as a source of data.

• Report Designer. Use this tool in SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio to design full-function reports.

All three authoring environments create report definitions in the Report Definition Language (RDL). This topic lists the features that are supported in each authoring environment.

Project Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
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.
Use VS-compatible source control systems such as VSTS or SourceSafe.
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.
Use Microsoft Office-optimized report authoring environment.
Use multiple deployment configurations.
Manage resources such as images as part of a project.
Custom configuration options for data extensions, rendering extensions, custom assemblies.

Report Data Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
Create and use embedded data sources.
Use shared data sources with report server credentials.
Create shared data sources.
Create queries that retrieve data directly from relational databases by using a graphical query designer.	View Designer from Visual Database Tools		Relational Query Designer: SQL Server only
Create queries that retrieve data directly from relational databases by using a text-based query designer.
Create queries that retrieve data directly from multidimensional databases by using a graphical query designer.
Create queries for a multidimensional database by using a text-based query designer that supports extended field properties.
Create queries that retrieve data directly from data mining models.
Retrieve data from multiple queries for multiple data sources in a single report.
Import queries from .sql files or reports.
Retrieve data from data source types SQL Server, Analysis Services, Sap NetWeaver BI, Hyperion Essbase, OLE DB, Teradata, ODBC, Oracle, XML.
Retrieve data from report models built from SQL Server, Analysis Services, Oracle, or Teradata.

Report Layout Support Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
New Report Wizard.
Data Region Wizard.
Rich visualizations (chart, gauge).		Basic chart
Free-form report layout surface.
Query generation through layout actions.
Automatic generation of infinite drill through links.
Automatic formatting of data for number format and column width.
Flexible data layout (Tablix).
Snaplines for alignment.
Zoom.
Field tags to add fields to cells.
Placeholder text for simple expressions.
Full support for RDL features.
Advanced grouping, sorting, filtering.
Multiple data regions in one report.

Report Expression Support Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
IntelliSense for report expressions.
Display processing errors in the Task pane.

Report Rendering Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
Excel
Word
PDF (Acrobat)
MHTML (Web archive)
TIFF
CSV (Comma delimited)
XML (Report data only)
HTML 4.0

Custom Extension Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
Provides design time support for Custom Report Items (CRI).
Use local CRIs.
Use report server CRIs.
Use local custom .NET Framework assemblies in languages such as VB.NET or C#.
Use runtime custom .NET Framework assemblies on the report server.
Use local custom data sources.
Use custom data sources installed on the report server.
Use a custom security extension on the report server to authenticate username and password.

Miscellaneous Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio) in SQL Server 2008	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 2.0 (Standalone and ClickOnce)
View RDL source.
Import existing reports from Access.

See Also

Concepts

Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder 1.0

Planning for Report Authoring and Report Deployment

Other Resources

Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder 2.0

Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Designer (Reporting Services)

Change History

Updated content
Added information about automatic data formatting in the Report Layout Support Features table.
Added information about support for custom security extensions in the Custom Extension Features table.
Included information about feature set in Report Builder 2.0 ClickOnce, introduced in SQL Server 2008 PCU1.