SQL Server 2008 is generally an evolutionary release, building on the foundation of the 2005 release. This is a good approach in my opinion. It means we can build on our existing skills that we have worked hard to acquire since 2005. We can then just focus on learning the new features, right? One exception to this is Reporting Services 2008. The architecture has been changed and a new Report Designer has been developed. There's some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?
Well, the good news is that Reporting Services 2008 is no longer reliant on the ASP.NET / IIS architecture which forced the use of these products for Web Services. The Reporting Services applications have been re-written natively so that other Web Services products can be used an alternative to IIS, giving us greater security, performance and scalability. That's great. You can still use IIS if you want, but now you have options.
Other good news is that Microsoft has acquired the Dundas visualization tools which provide dashboard style controls like gauges and maps. Now you can include 3D gauges such as Speedometers on your reports using the new Report Designer. There are also cool new features such as automatic scale-breaks in charts and the new Tablix data region which combines the Table and Matrix data region objects for a best-of-both-worlds solution.
The bad news is that the new Report Designer has been completely redesigned with the Office 2007 "Vista" look and feel. If your experience is like mine, then using Office 2007 (or Vista for that matter) is like going on a scavenger hunt. I know exactly what I want to do, but I have to search a while before I find where the Microsoft developers have hidden that option. The expression "feeling like a fish out of water" comes to mind. Now I know change is difficult and it's something we always have to manage especially in the software industry. But when the changes appear for no apparent reason it becomes frustrating and frankly concerning. In the old Report Designer we had 3 tabs: Data, Layout and Preview. We would bounce between each tab until we had a report we wanted to deploy and away we go. Very logical. Now we have two tabs: Design and Preview so we have to go on a scavenger hunt to find out how to update the data query. The new Vista-style "ribbons" also have rearranged the options. On top of that, the February CTP version (Build 1300) appears premature at best, so there's much work to be done before release. I have tested the UI in Visual Studio 2008 and the new Report Designer Preview. Reporting Services has been available since late 2003 so after five years it feels like Microsoft is reinventing the wheel.
Maybe for old dogs like me, they will come up with a Report Designer "Classic" mode...
Cheers,
Brian
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Brian D. Egler, MCITP-DBA/MCSE/MCT, is currently an instructor with Global Knowledge, teaching various Microsoft training courses such as MCSE, MCITP-DBA and other SQL Server courses. He is a SQL specialist and an expert on Exchange, Windows, .Net and XML. Egler has been a technical instructor for 16 years and has more than 10 years experience with SQL Server, data modeling, database design, application development including IMS, DB2, Sybase. In addition, he is member of the Project Management Institute.
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SQL Server 2008 RC0
I have tested RC0 now and it looks like the Vista look and feel has been removed, thankfully. I have tested BIDS (Visual Studio 2008) and ReportBuilder and all looks good. Thanks Microsoft!