Database Reference
In-Depth Information
SSRS is a feature-rich, flexible, and scalable reporting platform that can satisfy the
needs of everyone from small businesses to fortune 500 companies. The following
screenshot shows an SSRS report in the design mode using Visual Studio 2012:
An SSRS project in Visual Studio 2012
SSRS supports dozens of data sources including SQL Server, SQL Azure, SSAS
multidimensional models and tabular models, Parallel Data Warehouse, OLE DB,
ODBC and, a SharePoint list. It is a powerful report-authoring and management
environment that allows the creation of static and parameterized reports. The reports
are built using Visual Studio or
SQL Server Data Tools for Business Intelligence
(
SSDT-BI
), which provides a drag-and-drop interface as well as wizards that
generate a
Report Definition Language
(
RDL
) file based on XML. This allows
for most of the reports to be built without having to write any code.
There is also a simpler-to-use and more streamlined reporting tool called
Report Builder 3.0
that looks and feels more like an Office application than the
project-centric development tool SSRS. It is a popular tool that also creates an
RDL file that can be used by SSRS. Report Builder has about 80 percent of the
features and capabilities of SSRS, so it is geared more toward a person who needs
a very easy-to-use tool and is willing to sacrifice some flexibility (nevertheless,
the RDL file created in Report Builder can always be opened in SSRS to add any
missing functionality).
