Initially, it looks like a much better tool—far simpler than before. However, I’m troubled that it uses an entirely new Query Designer (which brings the total to three different versions shipping with Visual Studio, the BI tools and now this new version). I also don’t see an intuitive way to import reports that the user can alter… but I expect it’s there someplace. I was able to get a report to build from scratch, but there is no Report Wizard (which would make sense for the targeted developers).

The Setup Errors:

It the new Report Builder 2.0 Setup does not bother to check to see if the required version of SQL Server is installed. This means it seems to install correctly but it fails to work. If you try to run it from the menus it works, but if you try to get the Report Manager to link to the Report Builder (so it launches from the Report Manager), you get the error message:

• The report server could not transmit the file because the file /ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application is not installed or you do not have the correct permissions to access it. (rsReportBuilderFileTransmissionError) Get Online Help
  • For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors

No, having the SQL Server CU1 build is not enough. Incidentally, the link to “Get Online Help” in the error message goes to the “We have no clue why this failed” default message handler.

Other issues with the documentation

I also discovered along the way that there is some confusion as to the help documentation in MSDN (imagine that).

One of the problems I had is the ambiguity on the recently posted help topics in MSDN. For example,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181194.aspx says:

Custom Report Builder launch URL

Specify a custom URL when the report server does not use the default Report Builder URL. This setting is optional. If you do not specify a value, the default URL will be used, which launches Report Builder 2.0 or Report Builder 1.0 as a ClickOnce application. The default URL for Report Builder 2.0 is http://<computername>/ReportServer//ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application and for Report Builder 1.0 it is http://<computername>/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder.application.

This implies one needs to add http://<computername> to the URL. It does not indicate if HTTPS should be used in SSL-protected implementations. However, no URL that begins with HTTP works (it’s rejected by the Report Manager).

However, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365173.aspx leads one to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd795295.aspx which states:

To change the default ClickOnce application in Report Manager

1. Start Report Manager.

2. Click Site Settings.

3. Click General in the left pane.

4. In Custom Report Builder URL, type /ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application.

5. Click OK.

This URL is accepted by Report Manager, but when you click on Report Builder in Report Manager, and don’t have SP1 installed, you get the aforementioned error that implies that Reporting Services is looking for Report Builder in the 64-bit Program Files—but it’s not there.

Yes, I understand that MS is going to fix the first article so that’s a move in the right direction. The most current version of http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181194.aspx is dated April 30, 2009. It’s still wrong so I guess they have not done it yet.

Setup continues to be an issue with SQL Server. One of the problems is that SP1 fails to install if the registry PendingFileRenameOperations values key
from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager is set (which is caused in my case by flaky Logitech webcam drivers). Is that SQL Server’s fault? Ah, sure. Why not give the developer an option to clear the key or at least point to it so they can simply step over the issue?