Updated Feb 4, 2010
I’m working on the labs for a new interactive webinar being hosted by Progressive. It’s tentatively scheduled for late April so I’m heads-down building the courseware. Unlike my “speak-only” webinars where I simply lecture and take questions, this series of six 90-minute sessions will encourage the attendees to work through a series of lab exercises that leverage the lectures and permit them to try to build and test SQL Server databases, SQL queries and reports using VB.NET and Report Builder 2.0.
In the course of creating these labs I’ve run across a number of issues that I would like to see Microsoft address in the next version of Report Builder. Frankly, I would not expect to see any work done on SQL Server 2010/2011 but I would like to see the following issue addressed after that:
Report Builder 2.0 Issues:
- Report Builder 2.0 does not persist any “history” of report-persisted data sources. I would like to see Report Builder save the Connection String for user-generated data sources that are saved to the report (and not to the catalog). This would save a lot of time when creating multiple reports.
- The Save dialog that prompts for a filename, there is no way to create a new folder—there should be. This dialog should also default to the last saved folder—it doesn’t. This dialog does not permit developers to select the report and copy it so they can easily clone an existing RDL file to be used as a base “template”—it should.
- When you enter the ConnectionString by hand the “Credentials” are set to “Do not use credentials” even when you add “Integrated Security=SSPI”. This means when the connection is opened, the user is prompted for credentials. When you use the Build button and create a simple connection string (identical to the one entered by hand) it works. This is just a bug.
- The text-based query editor does not know how to post changes to the SQL back to the GUI editor. It should. This is supported in the Visual Studio and SSMS query editors.
- When creating new report-based data sources, one cannot access the SQL Server Compact Edition or SQL Server Express via unattached MDB. Both of these scenarios make sense for disconnected applications. Express and Compact edition databases are extremely popular with small businesses and departments within large businesses to manage local databases of all kinds. Not being able to report against these databases is a real problem. While it’s possible to access SQL Server Express via attached databases, all too often (thanks to Local Instance) the customers simply pass around the database file as they do with JET and SQLCe database files.
- There is no way to launch a “local” Report Builder 2.0-created report. While server-hosted reports can be launched via URL, I think it would be interesting to be able to invoke locally-hosted RDL reports via a “display-only” report viewer so reports could be seen (but not modified) by someone other than the author. Ideally, the report could be sent in email (perhaps encapsulated for security purposes) or embedded in a document and viewed on the client system (after they had installed an ActiveX control?). Yes, one can build a Visual Basic (or C#) application that uses the ReportViewer control to do this, but this requires programming knowledge and ownership of the Standard Edition or better version of Visual Studio.
Reporting Services 2008
For Reporting Services in general I would like to see:
- Create report templates that can be applied on top of existing reports (like CSS style sheets).
- Manage report subscriptions in groups instead of having to visit each report individually to configure subscription properties.
- Create a report check-in process that helps prevent un-verified reports from re-entering the catalog.
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