• Microsoft Has Released SQL Server 2008

    August 6, 2008 / No Comments »

    Today, Microsoft announced that official release of SQL Server 2008. Build #10.0.1600.22 has been declared as a SQL Server RTM. SQL Server 2008 includes major enhancements to the Microsoft Business Intelligence Stack, some of which I have mentioned in my previous posts. Note that if you have Visual Studio 2008 on your machine, you must wait for a few more days to get the official release of Visual Studio 2008 SP1, which is a required prerequisite to integrate the SQL Server 2008 client tools with Visual Studio 2008. Enjoy!

  • Rules Have Changed

    August 6, 2008 / No Comments »

    An interesting question has pop up on the Katmai RS 2008 discussion list today about how to implement a "green bar" group-level report that alternates background color for all rows in a group instance instead of doing this for each row. I attach the report sample I posted. What makes it interesting is that it demonstrates report variables – a new feature in RS 2008. Before you start analyzing it, you should know that expression evaluation rules in RS 2008 have changed as a result of the new on-demand processing model. As a result, state in class-level instance variables is discarded as you page through the report which makes maintaining state trickier between page requests. However, RS 2008 introduces report variables that guarantee one-time evaluation semantics. I know this may sound to you like Greek, so let me jump into the implementation details: 1. The report has a EvenRow code-behind...

  • Yet Another Post About Analysis Services HTTP Connectivity

    August 2, 2008 / No Comments »

    With risk to iterate the obvious, here is a lesson learned from the trenches: Scenario: You want to let external users browse an Analysis Services cube over the Internet. Setup: You have followed the steps in the Configuring HTTP Access to SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 article by Edward Melomed to set up Analysis Services for HTTP connectivity. Issue: Windows integrated security doesn't work. After a long battle where countless options have been tried, I have to admit a defeat. In our case, we've set up identical Windows local accounts on the SSAS server. This worked fine when connecting Report Builder 2.0 to the cube from our home machines. However, it appeared that the firewalls that our clients use make a minced meat of Windows integrated security. Strangely, Excel connects without a problem to the cube using Windows integrated security. However, Report Builder 2.0 chokes...

  • A Must-read Reporting Services Blog

    July 21, 2008 / No Comments »

    Robert Bruckner on the Reporting Services team has started a blog. Robert oversees several key areas of Reporting Services, including Report Definition Language (RDL), data processing, report processing, data visualization, and performance/scalability. Many of you have gotten help from Robert on the Reporting Services discussion lists to which he frequently contributes. So, this sure it's going to be a must-read blog as his first posts (report variables and scalability) show. RS Blog Roll Bob Meyers' Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/bobmeyers)—Bob Meyer is a Program Manager on the Reporting Services team who is responsible for Report Builder 1.0. Brian Welcker's Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/bwelcker)—Brian Welcker is a former Group Program Manager on the Reporting Services team. Chris Baldwin's Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisbal)—Chris Baldwin is a Program Manager on the Reporting Services team who oversees the report rendering area. Chris Hays's (http://blogs.msdn.com/chrishays)—Chris Hays is an architect on the Reporting Services team and oversees the Report Definition Language. John Gallardo's...

  • It’s Done

    July 21, 2008 / No Comments »

    A quick update on my book Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. I am happy to announce that the work on the manuscript is over and the manuscript RTM'd (released to manufacturing). The paper copy should be available on the reseller sites and brick and mortar stores around the publication date (August 15th). Expect the ebook version around that time as well. Of course, the good thing about the ebook version besides being searchable and portable is that it includes color images. As you would probably agree, color is a good thing when you are studying report design. Video demos are even better, of course, which brings me to the next topic. While waiting, take a look at the book web page that just went live and check the available resources. Among other things, you'll find two sample chapters (chapters 1 and 3), the book source code, and video...

  • Automating Report Deployment

    July 12, 2008 / No Comments »

    Here is an awesome tip courtesy to the Craig Guyer's I Command Thee blog. You probably know that Visual Studio supports project configurations. In BIDS 2008, you can automate report deployment with configurations. For example, the following command deploys the solution using the settings of the QA configuration. C:\>devenv "C:\Books\RS2008\Code\ch03\Reports\Reports.sln" /deploy QA This is especially useful when automating deployment to SharePoint because you need to change the report definitions to use absolute paths to external resources, such as shared data sources. BIDS deployment can handle this for you and save you writing custom code to automate deployment. While we are on the SharePoint deployment topic with BIDS, one nasty bug was introduced late in the SQL Server 2008 cycle that prevents you deploying folders that contain a space, such as Data Sources, to SharePoint from BIDS. When you attempt to do this, you get: Error rsInvalidItemName : The name of...

  • SQL Server 2008 Available on August Price List

    July 9, 2008 / No Comments »

    Courtesy to Francois Ajenstat, Director of Product Management for Microsoft SQL Server, we know that SQL Server 2008 is on the August price list. What this probably means according to my interpretation is that the SQL Server 2008 RTM date is close. More than likely, SQL Server 2008 will be released in August.

  • Textbox on Steroids

    June 19, 2008 / No Comments »

    One of the new features in Reporting Services 2008 that debuted in the SQL Server 2008 RC0 build is the enhanced textbox report item. In previous releases, if you wanted to mix static and dynamic expression-based text, you either needed multiple textboxes or a Visual Basic expression to concatenate strings together. The first approach led to textbox "explosion". The disadvantage of the second approach was that you couldn't format string fragments inside the same textbox independently.   In Reporting Services 2008, the textbox report item has been redesigned to support multiple bands of text. The screenshot shows a report title of a sales order report. In the past, you would need two textboxes (or three if you wanted different formatting for the sales order number). You may be surprised to find that the entire title is implemented as a single textbox with two paragraphs. The second paragraph combines static text...

  • SQL Server 2008 RC0 Product Samples Refreshed

    June 11, 2008 / No Comments »

    Microsoft has refreshed the product samples and AdventureWorks databases. I still have to figure out what's the AdventureWorksAS2008 database that is not released yet.

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack RC0, June 2008

    June 10, 2008 / No Comments »

    Today, Microsoft released an updated feature pack for SQL Server 2008 RC0. Among other things, it includes: A web downloadable installer for Report Builder 2.0 which is not included anymore with the SQL Server 2008 setup An updated version of the RS add-in for SharePoint Analysis Services 10.0 OLE DB Provider

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