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Introducing Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio is Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 with additional project types that are specific to SQL Server business intelligence. Business Intelligence Development Studio is the primary environment that you will use to develop business solutions that include Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services projects. Each project type supplies templates for creating the objects required for business intelligence solutions, and provides a variety of designers, tools, and wizards to work with the objects.

Notes

Business Intelligence Development Studio, the 32-bit development environment for Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services projects, is not designed to run on the Itanium 64-bit architecture and is not installed on Itanium servers.

Notes

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 does not support Business Intelligence Development Studio Integration Services, Report Services and Analysis Services projects for SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. To work around this issue, you can install Visual Studio 2008 alongside Visual Studio 2010 on the same machine and then open the Business Intelligence Development Studio projects in Visual Studio 2008.

This topic provides a brief look at the features in Business Intelligence Development Studio that let you build end-to-end business solutions in this new environment:

  • Start Page

  • Tool Windows in Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Menus in Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Toolbars in Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Working with Projects and Solutions

  • Customizing Environment, Tools, and Windows

  • Using Source Control Services

  • Getting More Information

  • Accessibility in Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Analysis Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Integration Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

  • Reporting Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

Start Page

When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, the Start Page appears in the center of the Business Intelligence Development Studio user interface. This page displays a list of recently updated projects; help topics, Web sites, technical articles, and other resources; links to product and event information from Microsoft; and by default, a list of articles from the RSS feed of the specified news channel. After you open an object in a project, the designer for working with that object also appears in the center window.

To display a page other than the Start Page at startup, click Options on the Tools menu, expand the Environment node, and in the At Startup list, select the item to display.

To learn more about the Start Page, click within the Start Page and press F1. If the Start Page is closed, click Start Page on the View menu.

Tool Windows in Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio includes a set of windows for all phases of solution development and project management. For example, Business Intelligence Development Studio includes windows that let you manage multiple projects as a unit and view and modify the properties of objects in projects. These windows are available to all the project types in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

The following diagram shows the windows in Business Intelligence Development Studio in the default configuration.

Default BI Development Studio configuration

Business Intelligence Development Studio consists of four main windows:

  • Solution Explorer

  • Properties Window

  • Designer Window

  • Toolbox

Other windows included in Business Intelligence Development Studio let you view search results, and get information about error messages and information that are output by the project debuggers or designers. Server Explorer lists database connections; Object Browser displays the symbols available to use in a project; Task List lists user-defined programming tasks; and Error List provides detailed descriptions of errors.

To learn more about these tool windows, click the View menu, select the option for the window you are interested in, and then press F1 from within the window.

Solution Explorer

You can manage all the different projects in a solution from a single window, Solution Explorer. The Solution Explorer view presents the active solution as a logical container for one or more projects, and includes all the items associated with the projects. You can open project items for modification and perform other management tasks directly from this view. Because different kinds of projects store items in different ways, the folder structure in Solution Explorer does not necessarily reflect the actual physical storage of the items listed within the solution.

In Solution Explorer, you can create empty solutions and then add new or existing projects to the solution. If you create a new project without first creating a solution, Business Intelligence Development Studio automatically creates the solution too. When the solution includes projects, the tree view includes nodes for project-specific objects. For example, the Analysis Services project includes a Dimensions node, the Integration Services project includes a Packages node, and the Report Model project includes a Reports node.

To access Solution Explorer, click Solution Explorer on the View menu.

Properties Window

The Properties window lists the properties of an object. You use this window to view and change the properties of objects, such as packages, that are open in editors and designers. You can also use the Properties window to edit and view file, project, and solution properties.

Fields in the Properties window have different types of controls embedded that open when you click them. The type of edit control depends on the particular property. These edit fields include edit boxes, dropdown lists, and links to custom dialog boxes. Properties that are shown as dimmed are read-only.

To access the Properties window, click Properties Window on the View menu.

Toolbox Window

The Toolbox window displays a variety of items for use in business intelligence projects. The tabs and items available in the Toolbox change depending on the designer or editor currently in use.

The Toolbox window always displays the General tab, and may also display tabs such as Control Flow Items, Maintenance Tasks, Data Flow Sources, or Report Items.

Some designers and editors do not use items from the Toolbox. In that case the Toolbox contains only the General tab.

To access the Toolbox, click Toolbox on the View menu.

Designer Window

The Designer window is the tool window in which you create or modify business intelligence objects. The designer provides both a code view and a design view of an object. When you open an object in a project, the object opens within a specialized designer in this window. For example, if you open a data source view in any of the business intelligence projects, the designer window opens using the Data Source View designer.

The Designer window is not available until you add a project to a solution and open an object within that project.

The default menus that appear in Business Intelligence Development Studio are identical to those in Visual Studio.

When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, before you modify the environment, open a solution, or open any projects, Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the following menus:

  • File

  • Edit

  • View

  • Tools

  • Window

  • Community

  • Help

When you open a specific project type in Business Intelligence Development Studio, additional menus are added to the menu bar and new options may appear on the default menus in Business Intelligence Development Studio. Moreover, depending on the object you open in the designer window, the menu bar may change to include additional menus specific to the designer for the object you are working with.

File Menu

The options on the File menu support file management. When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, but before you have created a new project or opened an existing project, some options are unavailable. These options become available only when you start to work in the context of a solution, or open a project within a solution.

The File menu includes the Source Control option that lets you integrate source control software with the Business Intelligence Development Studio development environment. For more information about how to use source control with Business Intelligence Development Studio, see Using Source Control Services.

Edit Menu

The options on the Edit menu support editing of text and code in files. This menu provides commands such as undo and redo; find and replace strings and symbols, locate a specified line number in code; enable and manage bookmarks. When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, before you have created a new project or opened an existing project, some options are unavailable. Some options become available only when you start to work in the context of a solution, or open a project in a solution.

Depending on the project type, some menu options many not be available. For example, the Undo and Redo options are not supported in Integration Services projects.

View Menu

The options on the View menu help you manage the user interface of Business Intelligence Development Studio. This menu and its submenus provide the options to open the various windows, toolbox, explorers, and browsers. You can also select which toolbars to display.

When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio, before you have created a new project or opened an existing project, some options are unavailable. These options become available only when you start to work in the context of a solution, or open a project in a solution. For example, the View menu includes options to navigate backward and forward, but appears only when multiple windows are open.

Tools Menu

The options on the Tools menu customize behavior of the development environment. This menu, its submenus, and the dialog boxes it accesses provide options to set the following options:

  • Select process and a code type for debugging. Alternatively, select the option to automatically detect the code type.

  • Connect to a database. The Database Explorer lists the data connections.

  • Add, remove, or import a manager for code snippets in the specified language.

  • Choose the items that appear in the Toolbox window.

  • If an add-in is installed, select the add-in to include in the environment.

  • Work with macros. You can perform tasks such as recording and running macros.

  • Select external tools to include in the environment.

  • Import and export specified environment settings or reset environment settings to their defaults.

  • Choose the toolbars to display in the user interface and arrange the order of commands.

  • Set the options that apply to the overall development environment, solutions and projects, source control, debugging, and designers and editors.

For more information about configuring Business Intelligence Development Studio, see Customizing the Environment and Tools.

Window Menu

The options on the Window menu manage the behavior of windows, explorers, and browsers in Business Intelligence Development Studio. For example, you can specify whether windows are floating, dockable, display as tabbed documents, or are hidden.

Depending on which windows are open, the Windows menu may include different options.

Community Menu

The options on the Community menu lets you ask questions of other users and of technical support, send feedback to Microsoft, access communities, connect to the developer center, and search communities.

Help Menu

The options on the Help menu provide access to How Do I and Help topics. You can locate Help information using the index, table of content, or search features. From this menu, you can also access technical support and look for updates.

Additionally, Business Intelligence Development Studio Helps lets you save index results and maintain a list of favorite topics.

Toolbars in Business Intelligence Development Studio

When you first open Business Intelligence Development Studio the Toolbar includes only the MenuBar toolbar and only a few icons are available on the MenuBar toolbar.

To customize the Toolbar, click Customize on the Tools menu, and then select additional toolbars to display, or change options for the toolbar appearance.

Working with Solutions and Projects

In Business Intelligence Development Studio, a solution is a container that organizes the various projects that you use when you develop end-to-end business solutions. A solution lets you handle multiple projects as one unit and combine one or more related projects that contribute to a business solution. For more information, see Solutions as Containers.

When you create a new solution, Business Intelligence Development Studio adds a Solution folder to Solution Explorer and creates files that have the extensions .sln and .suo.

  • The *.sln file contains information about solution configuration and lists the projects in the solution.

  • The *.suo file contains information about your preferences for working with the solution.

Projects are stored in solutions. You can create a solution first and then add projects to the solution. If no solution exists, Business Intelligence Development Studio automatically creates one for you when you first create the project. A solution can contain multiple projects of different types. You can also create a blank solution and then add projects later.

Solutions in Business Intelligence Development Studio can include different types of projects. You can add projects of the following types:

Customizing the Environment, Tools, and Windows

Business Intelligence Development Studio can be easily configured to suit your working style. You can configure the overall development environment and its behavior, and make changes to its tools and windows. When you save a solution, your configurations are saved to a *.suo file in the solution folder.

You can configure the Business Intelligence Development Studio environment with a collection of settings customized for SQL Server business intelligence development by selecting the Business Intelligence Settings collection. Use Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu to reset all your settings based on the Business Intelligence Settings collection, or to import only the categories of Business Intelligence Settings that you select. For more information, see "Working with Settings" in Visual Studio Help.

To configure individual options for the environment and tools, click Options on the Tools menu to open Options dialog box. To learn more about the different options in the dialog box, click a node in the left pane, and then press F1.

You can configure Business Intelligence Development Studio in the following ways:

  • Configuring the Environment

  • Configuring Projects and Solutions

  • Configuring Source Control

  • Configuring the Text Editors

  • Configuring Designers

  • Configuring Database Tools

  • Configuring Debugging

  • Configuring the HTML Designer

  • Configuring Windows Forms Designer

  • Configuring Windows

Configuring the Environment

You use the Environment pages in the Options dialog box to configure Business Intelligence Development Studio in the following ways:

  • Windows options, such as whether to use a tabbed or multiple-document format, whether to show the status bar, and how many files should be displayed in the recent files lists.

  • Security options, such as whether to allow macros to run and which add-ins to load.

  • Document options such as whether to show miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer, and whether to automatically detect files that have been changed outside the environment.

  • Find and replace options, such as whether to display warnings before replacing, or whether to automatically populate the Find box.

  • Fonts and colors options, such as the font, font size, text color, and background color.

  • Help options, such as which Help Viewer to use, and the configuration of Dynamic Help.

Additionally, you can specify miscellaneous options such as the location to use when saving files, the language used in the environment for the user interface and for online Help, the keyboard mapping scheme, startup behavior, options for the task list, and settings for the Web browser.

Configuring Projects and Solutions

You use the Projects and Solutions pages in the Options dialog box to specify the following settings:

  • The location of projects, user project templates, and user item templates; the properties of solutions, and properties that apply to all project types. For example, you can specify whether to save new projects when you first create them.

  • The behavior of Business Intelligence Development Studio when it builds and runs objects, and whether to use a startup project.

Configuring Source Control

You use the Source Control pages on the Options dialog box to configure the integration of source control software and Business Intelligence Development Studio in the following ways:

  • Specifying the source control plug-in.

  • Configuring the behavior of the plug-in environment.

  • Configuring the plug-in.

Configuring the Text Editor

You use the Text Editor pages in the Options dialog box to configure text editor features that apply to all languages, in addition to any features that apply only to specific languages or language versions. For example, you can set options that apply only to the Transact-SQL version used in SQL Server.

Configuring Designers

You use the Business Intelligence Designers pages in the Options dialog box to configure the default settings for the designers used by Analysis Services and Integration Services. On these pages you can specify options such as the colors to use within the data mining viewers, the time-out for Analysis Services queries, and whether to check digital signatures when loading Integration Services packages.

Configuring Database Tools

You use the Database Tools pages in the Options dialog box to configure the behavior of various tools for managing and designing database objects:

  • Configuring view and table designers, script editors, and script/query execution.

  • Setting properties of data connections.

  • Configuring query and view designers.

  • Setting table and diagram options.

  • Setting column options.

Configuring Debugging

You use the Debugging pages in the Options dialog box to configure debugging in the following ways:

  • Specifying general debugging options such as whether to ask before deleting all breakpoints.

  • Enabling edit and continue options such as whether to warn about stale code.

  • Selecting the types of code to enable for just-in-time debugging.

Configuring the HTML Designer

You use the HTML Designer pages in the Options dialog box to configure HTML pages in the following ways:

  • Specifying the view in which to start pages in source or design view and whether to enable Smart tags.

  • Specifying positioning and display options of elements.

Configuring Windows Forms Designer

You use the Windows Forms Designer pages in the Options dialog box to configure Windows forms in the following ways:

  • Specifying code generation, layout, Smart Tag, and Toolbox behavior.

  • Customizing the user interface of data.

Configuring Windows

The Windows menu includes options for configuring the behavior of Business Intelligence Development Studio windows. You can change most windows to float or be dockable, appear as tabbed documents, or hide until you reopen them from the View menu.

From this menu, you can also create new vertical and horizontal tab groups that let you divide the designer window into multiple windows. You can also close all windows, or reset the window layout to defaults.

Using Source Control Services

Like Visual Studio, Business Intelligence Development Studio is integrated with source control software. If source control software is installed on the computer, you can add solutions and projects to source control, and then open the solutions and projects in Business Intelligence Development Studio from the source control application.

You configure integration with source control by using the Options dialog box. To open the Options dialog box, click Options on the Tools menu. The Source Control node in the Options dialog box includes pages for specifying the source control plug-in, configuring the source control environment, and setting plug-in options.

Getting More Information

The Visual Studio documentation provides detailed information about the Microsoft application development environment. Business Intelligence Development Studio uses a subset of the Visual Studio user interface, and the environments in Business Intelligence Development Studio and Visual Studio appear identical. If you install Visual Studio 2008 before you install SQL Server, the environments are one and the same.

The Visual Studio help collection provides documentation for the user interface that Business Intelligence Development Studio uses. To access the Visual Studio help topics that are relevant to the user interface shared with Business Intelligence Development Studio, you must install the MSDN Library that is included with SQL Server or configure the Business Intelligence Development Studio help options to access Help.

To configure Help to use online content

  1. On the Start menu, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, and then click SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.

  2. In Business Intelligence Development Studio, on the Tools menu, click Options.

  3. In the Options dialog box, expand Environment, expand Help, and then click Online.

  4. On the Online page, select either the Try online first, then local or Try local, and then online option.

When online Help is enabled, you can obtain context-sensitive help from the Visual Studio windows by pressing F1 or clicking Help. To get help for windows and dialog boxes that are available when working within an Analysis Services, Integration Services, or Reporting Services project, or to access SQL Server Books Online, you must install Books Online or MSDN. To benefit from updates to Books Online content, you should install Books Online.

If you included the .NET Framework documentation in the installation of the MSDN Library, the links between topics in the Books Online Help collection work automatically. However, to add the .NET Framework documentation to Books Online when it is viewed from the Start menu or SQL Server Management Studio, you must add the Help collection. For more information about enabling links in other Help collections, see Adding and Removing Help Collections.

You may also want to install the .NET Framework SDK. The .NET Framework SDK is available as a free download at the Microsoft Web site. For more information, see Installing the .NET Framework Documentation.

If you install Business Intelligence Development Studio, SQL Server Books Online, and MSDN Library, two copies of Books Online appear in the table of contents. One of these was installed by MSDN Library, and the other by SQL Server. To avoid seeing multiple versions of Books Online topics in search and index results, you can remove the MSDN Library copy of Books Online or do a custom installation of the MSDN Library and elect not to install Books Online. To remove Books Online from MSDN Library, open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel, select MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 and then click Change. In the MSDN Library wizard, select the Modify option, click next, select the uninstall option for SQL Server and complete the wizard.

Accessibility in Business Intelligence Development Studio

The Business Intelligence Development Studio environment, the business intelligence projects, and the objects that you work with in these projects include accessibility features to help in navigating and viewing the user interface. For example, the user interface in Visual Studio supports shortcut keys for users who cannot use a mouse, text labels that describe functionality otherwise expressed by color coding, to help users who cannot recognize colors, and alternative text for graphical elements, to help users who use a screen reader. For more information, see Accessibility in Business Intelligence Development Studio and Using Keyboard Shortcuts in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Analysis Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the Analysis Services project for developing online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining functionality for business intelligence applications. This project type includes the templates for cubes, dimensions, mining structures, data sources, data source views, and roles, and provides the tools for working with these objects. For more information, see Analysis Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data).

Integration Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the Integration Services project for developing ETL solutions. This project type includes the templates for packages, data sources, and data source views, and provides the tools for working with these objects. For more information, see Integration Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Reporting Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the Report Model and Report projects for developing reporting solutions. The Report Model project type includes the templates for report models, data sources, and data source views, and provides the tools for working with these objects. The Report project includes the templates for working with reports and shared data sources. For more information, see Reporting Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio (SSRS).

Change History

Updated content

Added information about Visual Studio 2010 support for Business Intelligence Development Studio projects.