Professional Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Reporting Services

Chapter 12. Report Builder 1.0

This chapter looks at using the traditional Report Builder 1.0 application, now termed Report Builder 1.0 by Microsoft, to perform ad hoc reporting. The traditional Report Builder 1.0 application discussed in this chapter has not changed since SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and is the recommended tool for users who want to continue benefitting from the query design experience as well as the infinite drill capability. As of this writing, Microsoft is working hard on a new version of Report Builder — Report Builder 2.0. Microsoft's plans for the new version of Report Builder 1.0 are discussed later in this chapter.

In March 2004, Microsoft purchased a company called ActiveViews. ActiveViews had a technology that allowed users to build a user-friendly model on top of their data. This model has become the backbone of ad hoc reporting in Reporting Services.

As you move through this chapter, you will be introduced to the Report Builder 1.0 application. Report Builder 1.0 has a traditional Microsoft Office interface for building reports. You will also see how to use different report layouts to fulfill various reporting needs. Once you understand the report layouts, you will move on to formatting and filtering data. The chapter ends with a few administrative items you need to be aware of when deploying this tool to your users.

Report Model Overview

Report models are the key to creating ad hoc reports. They represent the semantic layer on top of your SQL Server ...