Tools of the Trade

SSRS 2008 provides two primary design tools for building reports and related objects:

• BIDS, a powerful development tool integrated with VS 2008

• Report Builder, a simpler-to-use yet no-less-powerful application for designing ad hoc reports

Note

Report Builder no longer depends solely on logical report models developed using BIDS, as was the case with version 1.0 (report models are covered later in this chapter in the “Report Builder” section).

Both tools provide rich graphical design surfaces and allow for a (mostly) WYSIWYG experience, and you can achieve almost all the same results with either. BIDS, however, is marketed heavily toward developers, whereas Report Builder is marketed more at advanced business users.

Get Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.