Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Bible

Building Reports with Report Builder

When Reporting Services first debuted with the 2005 release of SQL Server, an ad hoc tool called Report Builder 1.0 was released with it. This ad hoc tool had much promise but proved to be fairly limited in its reporting capabilities because it lacked many design-rendering elements available in Report Designer and was limited to being sourced from a report model. (Report Models were objects created in Busines Intelligence Development Studio that worked like a data view, specifically for the Report Builder.) It went through another iteration as Report Builder 2.0 in the 2008 version, but it was with the 2008 R2 release, when it was named Report Builder 3.0, that it achieved enough sophistication to be fully embraced by the report building world. Now it is simply called Report Builder and offers nearly all the same design elements that Report Designer does in a more Office-like interface.

Creating a Report with Report Builder

Report Builder can be launched as a standalone program from the Report Manager, or from inside SharePoint. Regardless of how it is launched, after it is opened, a Report Wizard is also opened, as shown in Figure 55.12. The Report Wizard guides the user through the creation of a report. Report Builder reports no longer require a report model as a data source; they use the same datasets and sources as reports created in the Report Designer; the interchangeability of pieces between Report Designer and Report Builder was one ...