SQL Server Reporting Services Team Blog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/feed.xml A blog from the SQL Server Reporting Services product team at Microsoft. Tue, 12 Mar 2019 17:12:33 GMT en-US hourly 1 Enter Data feature now available in SQL Server 2016 Report Builder https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/enter-data-feature-now-available-in-sql-server-2016-report-builder Tue, 11 Sep 2018 17:07:28 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=5065 Note: This project was done by the summer intern for the Reporting Services team, Xiaosheng (Wilson) Wu.  Great work, Wilson! We recently released a new version of SQL Server 2016 Report Builder that contained a brand new feature – the ability to enter data directly into an RDL report as an embedded dataset.  This new feature is similar to the one found in Power BI Desktop. Now, customers can either type the data in directly into a dataset in their report, or paste it in from another program like Microsoft Excel.  Once users have created their dataset by entering data, they can use it just like they would any other embedded dataset they’d created.  This feature is especially useful for small, static datasets you might need to use in your report like report parameters.

How to get started

Once you’ve downloaded and installed Report Builder, you’ll follow the same workflow you’ve previously used to add an embedded data source and dataset to your report.  Under Data Sources, you’ll see a new option labeled “Enter Data” that you’d select.  You only need to set this data source up once, since you’ll the be able to create multiple tables of entered data as separate datasets using that single data source. image To begin entering data in a new table, create a new dataset in your report and hit the “Query Designer” button to start entering data into the table that appears. image You can set the column headers by double-clicking the cell or using the option in the right-click menu to change the name.  By default, the data type for each column is a String.  You can optionally right-click the column header and set it to other data types like Date or Integer.  Once you’ve finished creating the table, click OK.  Note: Long time users of Report Builder will notice that the query that’s generated is the same as you’d see with an XML data source. Under the covers, that’s what we’re using as the data provider.  We've just re-purposed it to enable this scenario as well. image Once you’ve finished creating your report, you’ll probably want to publish that to your report server.  We’re planning to enable this new data extension automatically on the server in the next update of Power BI Report Server and next release of SQL Server, but you don’t need to wait until then to use this.  If you’re using SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 or 2017 (or Power BI Report Server), you can add the following item to your RsReportServer.config as an additional data extension.  Please note: You should back up your RsReportServer.config file prior to making the change in case you run into any issues. <Extension Name="ENTERDATA" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.XmlDPConnection,Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions"> <Configuration> <ConfigName>ENTERDATA</ConfigName> </Configuration> </Extension> Once completed, the list of data providers in the config file should look like this: image That’s it – you can now publish your reports that use this new functionality to your report server! For report authors who use SQL Server Data Tools instead of Report Builder, you’ll see this functionality added in the upcoming release of that product as well.  We're also looking at ways to simplify the UI and take users to this new functionality right from the toolbar.

Get it now and send us your feedback

]]> Microsoft acquires report rendering technology from Forerunner Software https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/microsoft-acquires-report-rendering-technology-from-forerunner-software Mon, 02 Apr 2018 09:00:10 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4955 Forerunner Software to accelerate our investments in Reporting Services. This technology includes, among other things, client-side rendering of Reporting Services (*.rdl) reports, responsive UI widgets for viewing reports, and a JavaScript SDK for integrating reports into other apps – a testament to what our partners can achieve building on our open platform. This is great news for you, as we see opportunities to apply this technology to multiple points of feedback we’ve heard from you:
  • You’re looking for cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that can run SSRS reports. As you might’ve seen in our Spring ’18 Release Notes, we’re actively working on bringing SSRS reports to the Power BI cloud service, and we’re building on client-side rendering to make that possible.
  • You want to view SSRS reports on your phone, perhaps using the Power BI app. We believe this technology will help us deliver better, more responsive UI for supplying report parameter values, navigating within reports, and possibly even viewing report content.
  • You love the Report Viewer control… but it’s an ASP.NET Web Forms control. You need something you can integrate into your ASP.NET Core/MVC app or non-ASP.NET app. With this technology, we hope to deliver a client-side/JavaScript-based Report Viewer you can integrate into any modern app.
These are large undertakings and we don’t yet have timeframes to share, but stay tuned over the coming months as we always strive to share our progress with you and hear your feedback as early and often as we can. Forerunner Software will continue to support existing customers for a limited period of time.]]> MSBuild support for Reporting Services projects now available https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/msbuild-support-for-reporting-services-projects-now-available Mon, 25 Sep 2017 10:00:32 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4855 Today’s post is written by Brad Syputa, a software engineer on the SQL Server BI team. Today, we’re pleased to announce a long requested feature from the SQL Server Reporting Services developer community. For the first time, Reporting Services customers can take advantage of the Microsoft Build Engine (MSBuild) support when building and deploying Reporting Services projects with SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio 2015 or Reporting Services Projects for Visual Studio 2017. By invoking msbuild.exe on your project or solution file, you can orchestrate and build products in environments where Visual Studio isn't installed. This is key for developers looking to automate deployment of Reporting Services projects outside of Visual Studio, which can streamline the process of moving between development and production environments.

How to get started

Once you install the latest update, depending on which version of Visual Studio you’re using, the new files enabling MSBuild for your projects will be installed in different folder paths - In Visual Studio 2015, you’ll find it as a standalone folder called “MSBuild” under Program Files (x86) – clip_image002 In Visual Studio 2017, it’ll will be a nested folder in your Visual Studio folder hierarchy. For example, the location with the Community Edition is in the Community folder clip_image004 If you see these new folders, this means you’ll now see MSBuild support as an option for Build, Clean, Compile and Deploy actions in any new report project you create. For existing projects, you will be prompted to do a one-time upgrade the first time you open it after installing the latest updates. The upgrade will automatically backup your project first, then proceed. Once it’s completed, you’ll have the new MSBuild functionality available to you. For detailed walkthroughs to help you take full advantage of the MSBuild capabilities in your projects, please refer to the following documentation – We’ll be publishing an updated walkthrough that’s tailored to Reporting Services projects in the coming weeks.

Get it now and send us your feedback

]]> Embed paginated reports into SharePoint using the Report Viewer web part https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/embed-paginated-reports-into-sharepoint-using-the-report-viewer-web-part Fri, 22 Sep 2017 09:00:13 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4756 simplify our SharePoint integration story. Starting with SQL Server 2017, there’s only one installation mode for Reporting Services: “Native” mode. If you do have SharePoint and want to integrate with it, we're making it simpler to do so, focusing on the integration scenarios you've told us you value most – chief among them, embedding reports into SharePoint pages. You can embed all report types into a Page Viewer web part using the rs:Embed=true URL parameter. Plus, for paginated reports, we're updating our Report Viewer web part. Today, we're pleased to release a preview of an updated Report Viewer web part for you to try. Report Viewer Web Part

About the Report Viewer web part

While a Page Viewer web part suffices to embed a paginated report into a SharePoint page, the Report Viewer web part offers additional features: you can show or hide specific toolbar buttons, override report parameter values, or even connect Filter web parts to report parameters. And now you can do all that without the complexity of the previous "SharePoint-integrated mode." You can think of it as a web part "wrapper" around the recently-updated Report Viewer control. A few things to know about this version of the Report Viewer web part:
  • It's designed for SharePoint Server 2013 and 2016. (As a result, it's a web part for "classic" SharePoint pages.)
  • It enables you to embed paginated (RDL) reports into SharePoint pages. (Looking to embed Power BI reports or mobile reports? You can embed any report using a Page Viewer web part and the rs:Embed=true URL parameter.)
  • It accepts connections and report parameter values from Filter web parts.
  • It works with SSRS 2008-2017 (Native mode), and with paginated reports stored in Power BI Report Server.
  • It runs reports as the user viewing the SharePoint page, which means you need to configure the Claims to Windows Token Service (C2WTS) and Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD).

Get started

  1. Download the Report Viewer web part. It's a solution package called ReportViewerWebPart.wsp.
  2. Deploy the web part in your SharePoint farm:
    1. Run SharePoint Management Shell as Administrator.
    2. Run Add-SPSolution to install the solution package.
    3. Run Install-SPSolution to deploy the solution package.
    4. Activate the Report Viewer Web Part feature.
  3. Add the web part to a page and configure it with your report server URL and report path.

Try it now and send us your feedback

]]> Updated Report Viewer control now generally available https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/updated-report-viewer-control-now-generally-available Thu, 27 Jul 2017 11:00:01 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4715 Release Candidate builds of the updated Report Viewer control in your ASP.NET Web Forms apps and shared valuable feedback with us. Today, we're pleased to announce an updated build that's generally available for you to use in your production apps.

About the Report Viewer control

We’ve heard from many of you using the existing Report Viewer 2015 control in your existing ASP.NET Web Forms apps and awaiting an updated version with, among other things, modern browser support. This update is for you. A few things to know about this Report Viewer control:
  • It's an ASP.NET Web Forms control (there's a Windows Forms version as well) for your existing apps. (Developing new web apps on ASP.NET Core/MVC and other web frameworks? Know that your scenario is on our radar as well.)
  • It enables you to embed paginated (RDL) reports into your app. (Looking to embed Power BI reports or mobile reports? We're not building that support into the existing Report Viewer control since it's limited to ASP.NET Web Forms apps, but you can embed any report using an iframe and the rs:Embed=true URL parameter.)
  • It supersedes the Report Viewer 2015 version and includes several enhancements we made for SSRS 2016: modern browser support, cross-browser printing, report parameter positioning, and a modern look-and-feel.
  • It works with SSRS 2008-2017, and with paginated reports stored in Power BI Report Server.

What’s new in this update

With this update, the Report Viewer control
  • Includes Microsoft.SqlServer.Types and SqlServerSpatial140 assemblies, which you may need to render reports that contain maps.
  • Won't affect your app's version of jQuery.
  • Won't affect your app's jQuery UI CSS.
  • Supports the SizeToReportContent setting in IE11 and Firefox.
  • Reduces occurrences of redundant scrollbars in IE11.
  • Shows correct toolbar buttons on pages whose ResponseEncoding is not UTF-8.

Install the NuGet package

To install the Report Viewer control into your app,
  1. Open your ASP.NET Web Forms project in Visual Studio 2015 or 2017.
  2. Open the NuGet Package Manager Console (Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console).
  3. Enter this command in the console: Install-Package Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportViewerControl.WebForms
That’s it; your project now has the files you need.

Add a Report Viewer control to your page

If your project doesn’t reference an earlier version of the Report Viewer control, you’re ready to add a Report Viewer control to your page. You’ll need to add
  • A Register tag.
  • A ScriptManager control.
  • The ReportViewer control itself.
Your page will look something like the following: <%@ Page Language=”C#” AutoEventWireup=”true” CodeFile=”Default.aspx.cs” Inherits=”_Default” %> <%@ Register Assembly=”Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91″ Namespace=”Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms” TagPrefix=”rsweb” %> <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns=”https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”> <head runat=”server”> <title></title> </head> <body> <form id=”form1″ runat=”server”>   <asp:ScriptManager runat=”server”></asp:ScriptManager>   <rsweb:ReportViewer ID=”ReportViewer1″ runat=”server” ProcessingMode=”Remote” Width=”850px” Height=”680px”>     <ServerReport ReportServerUrl=”https://your-report-server/reportserver” ReportPath=”/Some Folder/Some Report” />   </rsweb:ReportViewer> </form> </body> </html> Just use your ReportServerUrl and ReportPath in place of the sample values above. Check out this article for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Update an existing app

If your existing project references a previous version of the Report Viewer control, you’ll need to update a few references in your web pages and web.config file; see this article for more info.

Get it now and send us your feedback

]]> A closer look at Power BI Report Server https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/a-closer-look-at-power-bi-report-server Wed, 17 May 2017 10:00:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4465 Microsoft announced Power BI Premium, a capacity-based licensing model that increases flexibility for how users access, share and distribute content. The new offering also introduces the ability to manage Power BI reports on-premises with the included Power BI Report Server. Today, we're excited to make available a preview of Power BI Report Server. Along with today's preview release, let's take a closer look at Power BI Report Server.

Publish Power BI reports on-premises

As more and more customers have come to use Power BI Desktop as a powerful tool for self-service BI and creating interactive reports, some customers have expressed a need for an on-premises solution for sharing these reports with business users. We heard that feedback and earlier this year released a "Technical Preview of Power BI reports in SQL Server Reporting Services," describing the combination of Power BI Desktop's interactive report capability with SQL Server Reporting Services' on-premises server platform. On May 3, we announced that we're bringing this combination to market as Power BI Report Server. We continue to develop both SQL Server Reporting Services and Power BI Report Server to meet our customers' range of needs. SQL Server 2017 will continue to include Reporting Services for on-premises enterprise reporting. For customers who want all that, plus self-service BI, we offer Power BI Report Server. image When you buy Power BI Premium, your subscription includes capacity in the cloud for the Power BI service as well as a license to run Power BI Report Server in your own on-premises capacity. If you buy Power BI Premium P1, for example, you get eight virtual cores ("v-Cores") of capacity in the cloud, plus a license to run Power BI Report Server on up to eight processor cores on-premises. Alternatively, if you have SQL Server Enterprise with active Software Assurance, you can use your Enterprise per-core licenses to run Power BI Report Server on-premises. (They don't give you any capacity in the cloud, though.) Either way you license Power BI Report Server, "publisher" users who publish Power BI reports to the report server for others to access need Power BI Pro licenses, whereas "reader" users who merely view reports don't need any per-user licenses. Power BI Report Server will be generally available along with Power BI Premium late in the second quarter of 2017.

Power BI report features

With Power BI Desktop and Power BI Report Server, you can
  1. Create beautiful, interactive reports using Power BI Desktop
  2. Publish reports to Power BI Report Server
  3. View and interact with reports in your web browser or in Power BI Mobile on your phone or tablet
PBI RS Report As its name suggests, Power BI Report Server focuses on Power BI reports (the artifacts you create in Power BI Desktop) and on enabling users to view them in a web browser or on a mobile device. The Power BI service in the cloud supports reports as well, but also a broader feature set: Dashboards, real-time/streaming data, natural-language query ("Q&A"), and more. At launch, Power BI Report Server will support most Power BI report features, included but not limited to
  • Create reports in Power BI Desktop
  • Connect to Analysis Services data models (Tabular or Multidimensional)
  • Visualize data using built-in or custom visuals
  • View and interact with reports in your web browser
  • Export report data to CSV
  • Print a report page
  • View and interact with reports in Power BI Mobile
With this first release, you connect directly to an Analysis Services data model, which in turn can connect to a variety of other data sources, including SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata, and more. We aim to extend direct connectivity to the other Power BI Desktop data sources, targeting later this year.

SQL Server Reporting Services compatibility

Since it's built on the SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) platform, Power BI Report Server includes all the enterprise reporting capabilities of SSRS, so you can manage content the way you do today and generate the precisely-formatted reports your business needs. With the Power BI Report Server web portal, you can
  • Organize reports into folders and subfolders
  • Control access with fine-grain security (who can view, download, and publish reports)
  • Highlight important business metrics and trends using key performance indicators (KPIs)
PBI RS Portal Under the hood, a Power BI Report Server is a full-blown SSRS report server as well (you don't need a separate SSRS report server), so you can publish and run your SSRS reports and use familiar SSRS features such as scheduled execution and email delivery. You can even easily migrate your report server database and all your reports from SSRS 2008 or later to Power BI Report Server. Paginated Report

Modern, rapid release cycle

You told us you want access to new features more often, and we listened. With Power BI Report Server, we're introducing a modern, rapid release cycle independent of SQL Server. We plan to release not every couple of years or even every year, but multiple times per year. These releases will provide server support for new features in accompanying releases of Power BI Desktop, as well as other new features and bug fixes. You'll be in control of installing updates and will have flexibility in deciding exactly when to do so while maintaining support via the Modern Lifecycle Policy. To support this rapid release cycle, we've developed a lightweight installer for Power BI Report Server. With its small file size and simplified wizard, you can download and install Power BI Report Server in minutes. And because it's separate from SQL Server setup, you can install Power BI Report Server updates knowing they'll have zero impact on your SQL Server deployments and databases. PBI RS Setup (Based on your positive feedback about the new installer, we're using it for SQL Server Reporting Services as well, starting this month with SQL Server 2017 CTP 2.1.)

On-premises today, cloud-ready for tomorrow

Need an on-premises solution today but want to invest in a cloud-ready platform for tomorrow? Power BI Report Server has you covered. You can deploy it behind your firewall on everything from commodity-grade to datacenter-grade server hardware. The same Power BI reports you create for Power BI Report Server can work in the Power BI service and even continue to query your on-premises data via the On-premises Data Gateway, so when you’re ready to adopt the cloud, you can take your reports with you and take advantage of the Power BI service's additional features such as Dashboards, real-time/streaming data, natural-language query, and more.

Try it now and send us your feedback

]]> Introducing Power BI Report Server for on-premises Power BI report publishing https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/introducing-power-bi-report-server-for-on-premises-power-bi-report-publishing Wed, 03 May 2017 08:30:01 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4345 announced Power BI Premium – a capacity-based licensing model that increases flexibility for how users access, share and distribute content in Power BI. The new offering also introduces the ability to manage Power BI reports on-premises with the included Power BI Report Server. Power BI Report Server delivers the capabilities we made available in January 2017 as the Technical Preview for Power BI Reports in SSRS. Power BI Report Server is an on-premises server that enables Power BI Pro users to publish Power BI reports and distribute them broadly across the enterprise, without requiring report consumers to be licensed individually per user. Organizations now have the flexibility to publish their Power BI reports to the cloud (Power BI service), or manage them on-premises (Power BI Report Server) and move to the cloud at their pace. PBI RS Power BI Report Server is built on the proven SQL Server Reporting Services technology, and includes all Reporting Services capabilities, including operational (RDL) reports. Power BI Report Server will be generally available late in the second quarter of 2017. Power BI Premium allows customers to purchase Power BI capacity (virtual cores) in the cloud. It also includes the rights to concurrently deploy Power BI Report Server to the equivalent number of cores on-premises. SQL Server Enterprise Edition per-core customers with active Software Assurance (SA) will also have the rights to deploy Power BI Report Server through SA entitlement. While we’re introducing Power BI Report Server, we continue to invest in SQL Server Reporting Services, and SQL Server 2017 will continue to include Reporting Services, supporting the same report types as in SQL Server 2016. Read the Power BI Premium announcement and learn more about Power BI Report Server on the Power BI website.]]> Query designer support for DAX now available in Report Builder and SQL Server Data Tools https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/query-designer-support-for-dax-now-available-in-report-builder-and-sql-server-data-tools Thu, 09 Mar 2017 16:19:21 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4225 image Today, we’re pleased to announce a long requested feature from the SQL Server Reporting Services community.  With the latest releases of Report Builder and SQL Server Data Tools – Release Candidate, you now have the ability to create native DAX queries against supported SQL Server Analysis Services tabular data models.  This includes the ability to use the query designer in both tools to drag and drop the fields required for your query and have the DAX query generated for you vs. writing it manually.  Please note that the ability to use the query designer for DAX is limited to SSAS tabular data sources built in 2016+ only.

How to get started

Once you’ve downloaded the latest development tools, you’ll find the new functionality available either when building a shared dataset or an embedded dataset against a SQL Server Analysis Services 2016+ data source in the built-in query designer. image Once the query designer is opened, you’ll see a new dropdown menu that allows you to select to either have your query generated in DAX or MDX against your data source. image If you select DAX, when you drag and drop your fields from the Metadata tab into the query designer, a DAX query will be generated behind the scenes. image You can see this underlying DAX query text by toggling the design mode from graphical to text. image You may switch between DAX and MDX by simply changing the option in the dropdown menu.  You will be warned that by doing so, you will need to regenerate your query. image If you are using either a 2012 or 2014 SSAS tabular model as your data source, while you can’t use the graphic designer, you’re still able to use the text editor and write DAX queries against those sources.  Simply select DAX from the dropdown and write your query accordingly. image In either scenario, any reports or datasets you build using this functionality can be saved and used with SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services instances or later, including the current preview releases that support Power BI reports.

Try it now and give us your feedback!

We’re excited to hear your thoughts on this new query design experience and how we can make this new functionality even more valuable for you moving forward. ]]> Leveraging Web Application Proxy in Windows Server 2016 to provide secure access to your SQL Server Reporting Services environment https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/leveraging-web-application-proxy-in-windows-server-2016-to-provide-secure-access-to-your-sql-server-reporting-services-environment Thu, 02 Feb 2017 08:13:25 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4115 A common ask from customers is around how to make their Reporting Services environment available to users outside of their internal corporate network.  This is especially important for them when they’re trying to use the Power BI mobile apps to view mobile reports and KPI’s while on the go.  Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve made updates to both SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and the Power BI mobile apps to give companies some additional options to enable this in their organizations. First introduced in Windows Server 2012, Web Application Proxy (WAP)provides reverse proxy functionality for web applications inside your corporate network to allow users on any device to access them from outside the corporate network. WAP pre-authenticates access to web applications using Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), and also functions as an ADFS proxy.  Below is a typical network topology when using WAP. Web Application Proxy Topology While we’ve provided ad hoc guidance in the past around taking advantage of this functionality, we’ve not had official support for it in the mobile apps, nor did we have full support for viewing mobile report content in the browser for many scenarios using this setup.

ADFS Support using WAP now available in the Power BI mobile apps

As first announced on the Power BI blog today, there is now support to access your mobile reports and KPI’s through the mobile app when used in conjunction with the Web Application Proxy functionality in Windows Server 2016.  Currently in preview for both iOS and Android devices, this will allow organizations using Kerberos in their corporate environment to access the mobile apps outside of that environment using ADFS.  The apps now also support modern security features that can be enabled in WAP like multifactor authentication, providing additional security options for organizations that can be tailored to their specific needs. Keep in mind that though you must use Windows Server 2016 to enable the functionality, you don’t need to run your Reporting Services instances on servers running WS2016 machines, nor do you need to update your entire ADFS infrastructure to the latest release.  There is a detailed walkthrough available for you to setup and enable this in your organization posted in the Power BI documentation. We’ve also made accessing your reports through your web browser using WAP more flexible with the recently released Cumulative Update for SQL Server 2016 SP1.  In this update, a bug that had prevented certain customers from accessing mobile reports through their web browser using WAP was addressed.  If you want to access reports through your web browser using WAP, make sure you have this update applied to your SQL Server Reporting Services environment.  Please note - you can use the WAP functionality found in either Windows Server 2016 OR Windows Server 2012 R2 when accessing reports through the browser.  There is a walkthrough guide of setting up WAP in the context of an application you can access through the browser.  We’ll be putting together a specific walkthrough for Reporting Services for this scenario in the coming weeks as well.

Try it now and send us your feedback

Thanks for all the feedback so far around the need for this capability, which allowed us to prioritize it accordingly.  As always, let us know if you have any questions or comments about the functionality in the blog comments. ]]> Power BI reports in SQL Server Reporting Services: Feedback on the Technical Preview https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/sqlrsteamblog/power-bi-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-services-feedback-on-the-technical-preview Fri, 16 Dec 2016 12:30:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/?p=4015 NOTE: This blog post describes an early Technical Preview of Power BI reports running on SQL Server Reporting Services’s on-premises report server platform. In June 2017, we brought this technology to market as Power BI Report Server. For more info, check out A closer look at Power BI Report Server.
In October at PASS Summit 2016, we released a Technical Preview of Power BI reports in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Since then, we’ve received a ton of enthusiastic feedback. Here’s just some of the feedback we’ve heard so far:
  • The virtual machine with everything you need preloaded – Power BI Desktop, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, and even some sample data and reports – makes it really quick and easy to try a new feature like this one.
  • Power BI reports feel natural within the Reporting Services web portal and work just as you’d expect, while Power BI Desktop’s ability to open reports from and save them to a report server feels seamless and supports the iterative process of creating reports.
  • The Comments feature is a welcome addition and a great way to engage in discussions about the insights you uncover in Power BI reports as well as in other reports.
We thank everyone who’s tried the Technical Preview and shared their feedback so far. In addition to feedback, we’ve received a number of questions, and in today’s post, we thought we’d round up some of the most common ones. What’s Microsoft’s approach to offering Power BI capabilities in an on-premises solution? Power BI was designed to be Software-as-a-Service running in Microsoft’s Azure datacenters, while SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) was designed to be an on-premises solution that customers can deploy and manage on their own servers. For customers who need an on-premises solution, as described in our reporting roadmap, we’re investing in the SSRS product and adding support for Power BI reports to SSRS. With this support, you can create a report in Power BI Desktop, publish it to your SSRS report server, and view and interact with it in your web browser. Which Power BI capabilities do you plan to add to SSRS? We’re focusing our efforts on adding Power BI reports to SSRS and on supporting the features Power BI Desktop offers for use within these reports, including a variety of data connectors and visualizations. Beyond the current Technical Preview, we plan to add support for
  • Custom visuals
  • Additional data connectors (besides Analysis Services), cached data, and scheduled data refresh
  • Power BI mobile apps (viewing Power BI reports stored in SSRS)
Given our focus on Power BI reports, we have no current plans to add other Power BI features (such as “dashboards,” Q&A, Quick Insights, and others) to SSRS. What can we expect in the next Technical Preview of Power BI reports in SSRS? With the current Technical Preview, we used a pre-configured Azure VM to offer you a preview that’s quick and easy to try. Our focus for the next Technical Preview is on a version you can download and install on your own VM or server, a necessary next step toward a production-ready version. Aside from this aspect, the functionality will be similar to the current Technical Preview’s. When will we have this next Technical Preview? We’re targeting January 2017 to release this next Technical Preview. What’s the release vehicle for a production-ready version? We plan to release the production-ready version in the next SQL Server release wave. We won’t be releasing it in a Service Pack, Cumulative Update, or other form of update for SSRS 2016. When will we have a production-ready version? We’re targeting availability in mid-2017. Can I deploy SSRS 2016 today and migrate to SSRS with Power BI reports when it’s available? Yes, we aim to make it easy to migrate to SSRS with Power BI reports from SSRS 2016 and previous versions. How can I participate today? The best way to participate and help us deliver SSRS with Power BI reports as quickly as possible is to try our preview releases and share your feedback with us:    ]]>