What's New in Report Processing and Rendering

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) introduces fundamental changes to the report processing engine.

New Feature List

  • New and Enhanced Rendering Extensions
    This release includes new and enhanced rendering extensions for Word, Excel, and CSV.

  • New Rendering Object Model
    This release provides enhanced rendering extensions that standardize the way a report renders across soft page break, hard page break, logical page break, and data renderers.

  • New On-Demand Report Processing
    This release supports new on-demand report processing that enables the processing of large reports.

New and Enhanced Rendering Extensions

  • Microsoft Word
    The new Word rendering extension renders a report as a Microsoft Word document that is compatible with Microsoft Office Word 2000 or later. For more information, see Exporting to Microsoft Word.

  • Microsoft Excel
    The Excel rendering extension now supports rendering of subreports and nested data regions to Microsoft Office Excel. For more information, see Exporting to Microsoft Excel.

  • Comma Separated Value (CSV)
    The CSV data rendering extension now produces data-only content, and not a combination of data and layout. Removing the layout information means the data output file can be consumed more readily by other applications. For more information, see Breaking Changes in SQL Server Reporting Services.

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New Rendering Object Model

This release introduces enhanced rendering extensions that support on-demand report processing and more consistent paging among different renderers. When you set a page break in your report, the redesigned rendering rules for pagination provide more consistent paging behavior when you view or export your report. For more information, see Understanding Pagination in Reporting Services.

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New On-Demand Report Processing

On-demand processing is a processing enhancement that renders each page of a report as you view it. This enhancement improves the way report processing handles large amounts of report data at run time.

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