What's New in Report Builder 3.0

Report parts are report items that you store on a report server, or on a SharePoint site that is integrated with a report server. You can reuse report parts in multiple reports, and you can update them on the server.

The report part that you add to your report maintains a relationship to the instance of the report part on the site or server by means of a unique ID. After you add report parts from a site or server to a report, you can modify them, independent of the original report part on the site or server. You can accept updates that others have made to the report part on the site or server, and you can save the modified report part back to the site or server, either adding a new report part or writing over the original.

Report parts let work groups utilize the different strengths and roles of their team members. For example, one person can create charts and save them as report parts that others can reuse in their reports.

For more information, see Report Parts (Report Builder 3.0).

Shared datasets are a new type of report server item that can retrieve data from shared data sources that connect to external data sources. A shared dataset provides a way to share a query to help provide a consistent set of data for multiple reports. The dataset query can include dataset parameters. You can configure a shared dataset to cache query results for specific parameter combinations on first use or by specifying a schedule. You can use shared dataset caching in combination with report caching and report data feeds to help manage access to a data source.

Like report parts, a shared dataset that is added to a report maintains a relationship to the definition of the dataset on the report server. Unlike report parts, when the definition is changed, you do not have to accept updates. All reports that have the relationship always use the shared dataset definition on the report server.

For more information, see Adding Data to a Report (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

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The SharePoint list data extension lets you specify a SharePoint list as a data source. In your report, you can include data from a SharePoint list for the following versions of SharePoint sites: SharePoint Foundation 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, and Office SharePoint Server 2007. The associated SharePoint List query designer provides a graphical interface to explore the metadata for all lists that you have sufficient permission to view. In each dataset query, you can select multiple fields from one SharePoint list.

For more information, see SharePoint List Connection Type (SSRS).

The Microsoft SQL Azure data source type connects to SQL Server databases in the cloud and enable reports to retrieve and render report data from SQL Azure databases. For more information, see SQL Azure Connection Type (SSRS).

The Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse data source type connects to a Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse and enable reports to retrieve and render report data from SQL Server databases. For more information, see SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse Connection Type (SSRS).

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Report Builder 3.0 provides a Map Wizard and Map Layer Wizard to add maps and map layers to your report to help visualize data against a geographic background. A map layer displays map elements based on spatial data from a map in the Map Gallery, from a SQL Server query that returns SQL Server spatial data, or from an Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) shapefile. Map elements can be polygons that represent shapes or areas, lines that represent paths or routes, or points that represent locations such as stores or cities. You can also add a background that displays Bing map tiles.

After you relate map elements with report data, you can specify rules for the map elements on each layer that control color, size, width, or marker type. For example, you can add a bubble map that varies bubble size for store locations based on sales or a color analytical map that displays customer demographics for geographic regions.

You can add labels, legends, titles, a color scale, and a distance scale to help your users interpret the map display. You can add interactive features such as tooltips and drillthrough links, or provide parameters that enable a user to interactively control the visibility of each layer.

For more information, see Maps (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Configuring a Map Layer

Sparklines and data bars are simple charts that convey a lot of information in a little space, often inline with text. Sparklines and data bars are often used in tables and matrices. Their impact comes from viewing many of them together and being able to quickly compare them, instead of viewing them singly. This makes it easy to see the outliers. Each sparkline often represents multiple data points over time. Data bars can represent multiple data points, but typically illustrate only one. Each sparkline typically presents a single series. You cannot add a sparkline to a detail group in a table. Because sparklines display aggregated data, they must go in a cell that is associated with a group.

Sparklines and data bars have the same basic chart elements of categories, series, and values, but they have no legend, axis lines, labels, or tick marks.

For more information, see Sparklines and Data Bars (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Indicators are minimal gauges that convey the state of a single data value at a glance. The icons that represent indicators and their states are visually effective, even when they are used in small sizes. Indicators can be used by themselves in dashboards or free-form reports, but they are most commonly used in tables or matrices to visualize data in rows or columns.

Indicators can show trends by using directional images such as arrows; ratings by using incremental icons such as stars; and states by using images such as traffic lights or check marks. Indicators are available in Report Builder 3.0 and Report Designer. For more information, see Indicators (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

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You can create expressions that calculate an aggregate of an aggregate. For example, in a cell in the row group header that is associated with a group based on year, you can calculate the average monthly sales for year by using the expression =Avg(Sum(Fields!Sales.Value,"Month"),"Year").

By using this feature for charts and gauges that are nested in a table, you can align horizontal and vertical axes for charts and scales for gauges. You do this by calculating the maximum and minimum of aggregated values so the nested items use the same ranges.

For more information, see Aggregate Functions Reference (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS) and Understanding Expression Scope for Totals, Aggregates, and Built-in Collections (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

New globals and a new property for report variables are introduced in this release.

The following additional items have been added to the built-in globals collection.

• **OverallPageNumber and OverallTotalPages   **Support for page numbering for the entire rendered report. New properties that are related to page breaks control how the page numbering occurs over page breaks that are set on report items. For more information, see Report Pagination later in this topic.

• PageName   Support for naming pages. For more information, see Naming Excel Worksheet Tabs later in this topic.

• RenderFormat   Support for information that is specified for the renderer.

For more information, see Using Built-in Globals and Users References (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Report variables now have a read-only property that is set by default. Advanced expression writers can clear this option to preserve the value of a report variable throughout a report session. This is the equivalent of setting the Writable property for a report variable in RDL. Report variables are still calculated once, and then recalculated every time the report is reprocessed. This property provides a way to persist data across report rendering, page changes, and some types of user interaction. The value of the variable is set when the report is reprocessed, but is maintained in the current session. In custom code, you can specify the variable value by using the SetValue function.

For more information, see Using Report and Group Variables Collections References (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

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Properties of reports and page breaks let you generate the names of worksheet tabs when you export reports to Excel. You can provide an initial page name of a report that can be exported as the default name of worksheet tabs, or use page breaks and page names to provide different names for each worksheet tab. For more information, see Understanding Pagination in Reporting Services (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS) and Exporting to Microsoft Excel (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

The Atom rendering extension renders reports data as Atom-compliant data feeds. Depending on the layout of your report, the Atom rendering extension creates one or more data feeds. The data feeds can be exchanged and read by applications that can consume Atom-compliant data feeds. For example the PowerPivot client can use Atom-compliant data feeds that are generated from reports.

Using report data as data feeds gives you an additional way to provide data to applications when the data is not easily accessible through client data providers, or you prefer to hide the complexity of the data source and make it simpler to use the data. You can generate as Atom-compliant data feeds from Report Manager or a SharePoint site that is integrated with Reporting Services.

For more information, see Generating Data Feeds from Reports (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Page breaks on tablix data regions (table, matrix, and list), groups, and rectangles give you better control of report pagination. Report pages, delimited by page breaks, can have different page names and reset page numbering. By using expressions, the page names and page numbers can be dynamically updated when the report is run. You can also disable page breaks entirely, or based on expression values.

For more information, see Understanding Pagination in Reporting Services (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

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The run-time credentials, specified in the data source properties of a report, might not work for design time tasks such as creating queries and previewing reports. Report Builder 3.0 provides a user interface for changing credentials when it is unable to connect to the data source. For more information, see Data Source Properties Dialog Box, General (Report Builder 3.0).

Text boxes can now be rotated 270 degrees. Standalone text boxes in a report header or footer, the report body, or text boxes in the cells of tables and matrices can display text written vertically and bottom to top. This rotation helps you create more readable reports, fit more columns on a printed report with fixed page size, and create reports with more graphical appeal. For more information, see Text Boxes (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Report Builder 3.0 provides a better preview experience. The introduction of edit sessions enable the reuse of cached datasets when previewing reports. This means that reports render more quickly when using the cached datasets. Edit sessions are bound to a report which makes it possible to use relative references and subreport references in reports. For more information, see Previewing Reports in Report Builder 3.0.

The updated graphical query designer used to create queries that retrieve report data from Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Azure, and Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse databases provides a user interface to create custom relationships between related and unrelated tables. The query designer also makes it easy to include aggregates and grouping that summarize data in queries. For more information, see Relational Query Designer (Report Builder 3.0).

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