Report Builder 3.0

Question

I am evaluating an Ad-Hoc reporting tool on top SQL Server 2008 R2. I would like to know what are the limitations around Report Builder 3.0, which comes with SQL Server.

What reports can we do in VS 2008 using BIDS and which we cannot do in Report Builder 3.0? We are trying to answer what can be done with Report Builder.

Share your experience in real time

Answer 1

We passed the same assessment not so long ago. Basically, BIDS and Report Builder 2/3 let you do the same. The report designer is intended for those users who want to create or modify their own reports without installing BIDS. Report Designer has the look of Microsoft Office. It has ribbon controls similar to Excel and Word. The same .RDL or .RDLC is generated by both. However, Report Builder 3 is for SSRS 2008 R2 only. The .RDL format has been changed for SSRS 2008 R2.

In either case, the report can be deployed to SSRS, Sharepoint, or Microsoft Report Viewer (for .RDLC files).

As you may or may not know, there is no BIDS for Visual Studio 2010 (yet). If you want to use BIDS, you will need to use VS 2008, which is designed for SQL Server 2008.

Answer 2

I think that for Power User, which has already gone through tools such as Cognos and Business Objects, the creator of recom 3.0 seems to lack a lot of functions reporting a cube. Here are the main ones.

• I cannot create a variable that I can use in multiple tables in a report. I thought I could use a “calculated element”, but it does not allow me to use any aggregate function for any of the objects against the cube, since it treats everything as aggregate objects.

• I cannot use the simple "OR" operator in query filters.

• When creating a report, the user's authority should always pay attention to the "group of lines", which, in my opinion, is frustrating. In other tools, a group of dimensions or facts groups only by size u in the table.

• String restrictions when exporting to excel.