Report Builder 2.0 released

Typical, you spend a day off line at a team building exercise and then you find that the SQL Server team have released Report Builder 2.0 to a fanfare of silence. 

To rewind a bit Report Builder 2.0 sort of replaces Report Builder 1.0 that came with SQL Server 2005.  The two tools are as different as black and white TV to a bluray DVD, partly due to the Office like UI…

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and partly due to all the good stuff you now have in Reporting Services 2008 like charts and the new tablix data control (replacing tables and matrix).

There are two puzzling things about Report Builder 2.0, one is that Report Builder 1 still ships with SQL Server 2008, as a click once application from Report Manager and the other is that this isn’t (as yet) a click once application.

Anyway if you have been using this at RC0 or RC1 stage then please replace those betas with this as there’s more to it than the fact that the start logo top left is no longer the office logo.

If you haven’t tried this before then you can deploy it to your users for them to write their reports or at least collaborate in the report design process.  Needless to say it will only allow you to deploy reports to a SQL Server 2008 reporting services installation (although the data can from any database you can get a .Net provider for).

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