Features (Report Builder 2.0)
Report Builder 2.0 is an intuitive, Office-optimized report authoring environment for business users who prefer to work in the familiar Microsoft Office environment. You can use Report Builder 2.0 to work with data, define a layout, preview a report, and publish a report to a report server or SharePoint site. This application includes query builders and an expression editor. It also supports the advanced reporting features found in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services.
Features
Easy-to-use wizards The New Table or Matrix and New Chart wizards walk you through the steps of creating a new table, matrix, or chart data region on your report.
Table, matrix, chart, and free-form report layouts Create table reports for column-based data, matrix reports (like cross-tab or PivotTable reports) for summarized data, chart reports for graphical data, and free-form reports for anything else. A new data region called a tablix, introduced in SQL Server 2008, enables you to create reports that combine table and matrix layouts. Reports can embed other reports and charts, together with lists, graphics, and controls for dynamic Web-based applications.
Report from a variety of data sources Build reports using data from any data source type that has a Microsoft .NET Framework-managed data provider, OLE DB provider, or ODBC data source. You can create reports that use relational and multidimensional data from SQL Server and Analysis Services, Oracle, Hyperion, and other databases. You can use an XML data processing extension to retrieve data from any XML data source. You can use table-valued functions to design custom data sources.
**Modify existing reports **With Report Builder, you can customize and update reports that were created in Business Intelligence Development Studio Report Designer.
Interactive reports Add interactive features such as document maps, show/hide buttons, and drillthrough links to subreports and drillthrough reports. Use parameters and filters to filter data for customized views.
Presentation formats Choose a presentation format when you open the report, or after you open the report. You can select Web-oriented, page-oriented, and desktop application formats. Formats include HTML, MHTML, PDF, XML, CSV, TIFF, Word, and Excel.
Images You can embed or reference images and other resources, including external content.
Charts Charts allow you to summarize data in a visual format, and present large volumes of aggregated information at a glance.
Subscriptions After you publish the report to the report server or SharePoint site, you can configure your report to run at a specific time, create a report history, and set up e-mail subscriptions.
For a comparison of the features of Report Builder 2.0 to Report Builder 1.0 and Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio, see Comparing Report Authoring Environments (Report Builder 2.0).