Designing and Implementing Reports (SSRS)
Reporting Services provides three tools for report design: Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio, Report Builder 1.0, and Report Builder 3.0, and one tool, Model Designer, for report model design.
Report Designer is a graphical interface for creating full-featured Reporting Services reports. You can access many different types of data sources and create highly customized reports. After your report is finished, you have access to the full Reporting Services report management functionality. To use Report Designer, you must know how to connect to and query a data source, but you do not have to know Report Definition Language (RDL).
Report Builder 3.0 is an intuitive, Office-optimized report authoring environment for business users who prefer to work in the familiar Microsoft Office environment. It also supports the advanced reporting features found in Reporting Services. For more information about using Report Builder 3.0, see Getting Started with Report Builder 3.0 on msdn.microsoft.com.
You can use Report Builder 3.0 to work with data, define a layout, preview a report, and publish a report to a report server or SharePoint site. This application includes wizards for creating tables, charts, and maps, plus query builders and an expression editor.
Report Builder 1.0 is a client-side application that helps you build ad hoc reports. Report Builder 1.0 was first released in 2005 and remains available for use in the current release. For more information about using Report Builder 1.0, see Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder 1.0 on msdn.microsoft.com. In order to use Report Builder 1.0, a report model for your data source must be designed and published using a Report Model project in Business Intelligence Development Studio. In Report Builder 1.0, you can then connect to the report model as a data source. Using a simplified interface, you can drag data fields onto report templates and then group, sort, format, and subtotal the data. You can click through the data in the report model to see automatically generated reports.
Reporting Services Developer’s Guide You can also create a report programmatically. For more information, see the Reporting Services Developer's Guide.
Model Designer is a flexible tool for designing models based on SQL Server or Oracle databases. Using Model Designer, you can select which rules are applied during the model generation process, and you can modify the model and its underlying data source view. Models can be used as data sources in other report authoring tools, such as Report Designer or Report Builder
In This Section
Designing Reports in Report Designer and Report Builder 3.0 (SSRS)
Describes how to use Report Builder or Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio to create, design, and implement reports, and connect to and work with your data.Designing and Implementing Report Models
Discusses how to use Model Designer to create and publish report models. Report models can be used as data sources for reports created in any Reporting Services report authoring tool.