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Designing and Implementing Reports (Reporting Services)

Reporting Services provides three tools for report design: Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio, Report Builder 1.0, and Report Builder 2.0.

Report Designer is a graphical interface for creating full-featured Reporting Services reports. You can access many different types of data sources and create highly customized reports. After your report is finished, you have access to the full Reporting Services report management functionality. To use Report Designer, you must know how to connect to and query a data source, but you do not have to know Report Definition Language (RDL).

Report Builder 1.0 is a client-side application that helps you build ad hoc reports. In order to use Report Builder 1.0, a report model for your data source must be designed and published using a Report Model project in Business Intelligence Development Studio. In Report Builder 1.0, you can then connect to the report model as a data source. Using a simplified interface, you can drag data fields onto report templates and then group, sort, format, and subtotal the data. You can click through the data in the report model to see automatically generated reports. You can export your reports to other applications, such as Microsoft Office Excel, and publish the reports or save them locally. You do not have to understand how to use SQL Server to use Report Builder 1.0.

Report Builder 2.0 is an intuitive, Office-optimized report authoring environment for business users who prefer to work in the familiar Microsoft Office environment. You can use Report Builder 2.0 to work with data, define a layout, preview a report, and publish a report to a report server or SharePoint site. This application includes a wizard for creating tables or charts, plus query builders and an expression editor. It also supports the advanced reporting features found in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services.

You can also create a report programmatically. For more information, see the Reporting Services Developer's Guide.

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