SSRS New and Enhanced Features from SQL Server 2005 to 2016

1.            SSRS 2005

      I.          Report Functionality Enhancements

1)   Interactive Sorting in Reports

Now you can change the sort order of your data while viewing a report.

2)   Printing Reports

You can now print multipage reports directly from Internet Explorer.

3)   Creating Ad Hoc Reports using Report Builder.

4)   Multivalued Parameters

Now you can specify two or more values for a single parameter.

5)   SharePoint Web Parts to Find and View Reports

This release of Reporting Services includes two new Web parts that you can use within a SharePoint site. The Web parts include a report server navigation part that you can use to browse for reports, and a report viewer part that you can use to view reports within the site. You can also use the Web parts to create subscriptions to specific reports.

6)   Fixed Table Headers

You can set a new option in the Table Properties dialog box to anchor a table header in place so that it remains visible on the screen while a user scrolls down the report. Fixed headers improve the usability of online reports that are rendered in HTML by providing a context for tabular reports that contain a large amount of data.

   II.          Reporting Services Design-Time Enhancements

1)   New Model Designer

Ad hoc reporting is based on models that you define in advance and then publish to a report server. A new type of project, called a Report Model, has been added to create the report models used by the Report Builder client. To work with a report model, you use Model Designer, which is available in Business Intelligence Development Studio. Model Designer provides several wizards to help you specify data sources and data views, and generate models.

2)   Report Designer Enhancements in BIDS

a)              Expression Editor Enhancements

The expression editor now includes a list of functions available to report authors, as well as Intellisense features that provide statement completion, real-time syntax checking, and context-sensitive information about inline parameters.

b)              Expression-based Data Sources

Reporting Services now supports the ability to specify data sources dynamically. This lets you to switch data sources at run time based on conditions you specify in the expression.

c)               New Analysis Services Query Designer

A new query designer for creating MDX queries. You can use the integrated query designer for Analysis Services to build queries by dragging and dropping server metadata onto a report layout and then preview the results.

d)              Integration Services Enhancements

You can use a new data processing extension to build reports from data generated by a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package. For more information, see Defining Report Datasets for Package Data from SQL Server Integration Services.

 III.          Report Definition Language Enhancements

1)   General Enhancements

·        Reports now support Interactive Height Element (RDL) and Interactive Width Element (RDL) elements so that you can specify the page size for logical page rendering extensions such as HTML. To learn more about pagination support for different rendering extensions, see Controlling Report Pagination.

·        The ConnectString Element (RDL) element can now be an expression, enabling dynamic data source connections at run time.

·        A FixedHeader Element (RDL) element can be specified for ColumnGrouping and RowGrouping elements in a matrix and TableColumn and TableHeader elements in a table. A fixed header remains visible on the page during scroll operations that continue off the page.

·        Within the Chart element, a Style Element (RDL) element has been added to SeriesGrouping. The Styleelement defined border and background style properties for the series legend items and data points in the series.

·        Expressions are now supported in the MajorInterval, MinorInterval, Min, and Max elements on the chartAxis element.

·        GUID is now a supported data type for report expressions.

2)   Report Parameter Enhancements

·        ReportParameter now supports the Hidden Element (RDL) element so that you can define report parameters that are not displayed to users. Hidden report parameters can still be set programmatically during report processing. 

·        ReportParameter also supports the MultiValue Element (RDL) element so that you can pass multiple values to a single parameter. Multivalued parameters are accessed in expressions as zero-based arrays in the Value and Label properties. The following examples illustrate the syntax: Parameters!Cities.Value(0) andParameters!Cities.Label(0).

3)   Sorting Enhancements

·        UserSort Element (RDL) element on a TextBox enables support for an end-user sorting of data in report. Sorting is controlled by SortExpression, SortExpressionScope, and SortTarget.

·        SortExpression Element (RDL) specifies the expression on which to sort. It has the same restrictions as aGrouping Filter expression.

·        SortExpressionScope Element (RDL) specifies the name of the scope (data region or grouping) in which to evaluate the SortExpression. If omitted, the expression will be evaluated and the sort will be performed independently in each detail scope within the SortTarget.

·        SortTarget Element (RDL) specifies the Name of the data region, grouping, or dataset to which the sort is applied. If omitted, the sort applies to the instance of the current scope.

4)   Custom Report Item Enhancements

·        CustomReportItem describes a report item that is not natively defined in RDL. In the previous version, this element supported XML data only. In this release, it provides a definition for third-party controls or any data-bound report item that is not native to a Reporting Services report.

·        AtlReportItem specifies a report item to render instead of the CustomReportItem. This is used when the assembly specified by the custom report item is not installed on the server.

·        CustomProperties contains the CustomProperty settings that are used when processing the custom report item control.

·        CustomData defines the data used by the CustomReportItem. Grouping, sorting, filtering and aggregation are specified through existing DataSetName and Filters elements, and through these new elements:DataColumnGroupings, DataRowGroupings, DataRows, and DataCell.

5)   Extended Properties for the Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Data Processing Extension

·        When you use the Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services as a data source type, you can set additional Field object properties. In addition to Field.Value, you can set properties like Field.Color and Field.FormattedValue using standard property syntax: Fields!FieldName.PropertyName

 IV.          Reporting Services Programmability Enhancements

1)   New SOAP endpoints for the Report Server Web Service The Management Endpoint, and the Execution Endpoint

2)   Revised WMI Provider

·        The Report Server Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider is a programmatic interface that allows you to configure the environment for a Reporting Services installation. You can use the WMI provider to build custom report server administration tools, or call it in scripts that you use to deploy a Reporting Services installation.

·        In this release of SQL Server 2005, the WMI provider includes new classes for retrieving more information about a Reporting Services, and new methods for configuring Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), creating report server roles and database in SQL Server, and reading and writing values to the configuration files.

3)   New ReportViewer Controls in Visual Studio 2005

·        Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 contains a set of freely distributable report viewer controls that make it easy to embed Reporting Services functionality into custom applications. The ReportViewer controls are intended for developers who want to provide predesigned, fully authored reports as part of an application feature set (for example, a Web site management application might include reports that show click-stream analysis on company Web sites). Embedding the controls in an application provides a streamlined alternative to including the Reporting Services server components in your application deployment. The controls provide report functionality, but without the additional report authoring, publication, or distribution and delivery support that you find in Reporting Services.

·        There are two versions of the ReportViewer controls, one for rich Windows client applications and one for ASP.NET applications. The controls support both local processing and remote processing modes. In local processing mode, your application provides the report definition and datasets and triggers report processing. In remote processing mode, data retrieval and report processing happen on the report server and the control is used for display and report navigation. This model allows you to build rich applications that can be scaled from desktop to the enterprise.

   V.          Reporting Services Manageability and Deployment Enhancements

1)   New Reporting Services Configuration Tool

The Reporting Services Configuration tool is a new server configuration tool that you can use to configure a local or remote report server instance.

2)   New Setup and Deployment Options

·        SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services includes support for multiple instances, 64-bit installation, and the ability to use local security groups for the service accounts. Reporting Services installation is fully integrated with SQL Server Setup. Setup provides two approaches for installing Reporting Services:

o   A default configuration option that installs a ready-to-use report server, requiring all server components to be installed locally and use default values.

o   A files-only installation option that copies the program files to disk. With this option, a report server requires additional configuration before it is available to use. Configuration is now performed separately using the new Reporting Services Configuration tool.

·        Setup also includes interoperability enhancements that make it easier to deploy a report server on a computer that hosts other Web applications. For example, if you are installing Reporting Services on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Setup will create a new application pool specifically for the report server Web service. If Windows SharePoint Services is installed on the same computer, Setup will automatically add the report server instance to the SharePoint list of exclusions.

·        In contrast with earlier versions of Reporting Services, you cannot use Setup to install a scale-out deployment (previously known as "Web farm"), specify a remote report server database, or configure report server e-mail. Scale-out deployment and report server e-mail configuration are performed through the Reporting Services Configuration tool after installation is finished.

3)   Management Studio Integration

You can use SQL Server Management Studio to administer multiple report server instances within the unified Management Studio workspace. You can manage one or more report server instances alongside the other SQL Server services that integrate with Management Studio. For more information, see Introducing SQL Server Management Studio.

4)   SQL Server Surface Area Configuration and SQL Server Configuration Manager Integration

You can use the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool to determine Report Server Windows service and Web service availability. You can use the Configuration Manager to specify properties on how the Report Server Windows service runs.

5)   Report Model Management

Ad hoc report functionality introduces new report model management functionality so that you can securely deploy models and model-driven reports. Several new roles have been added to control access to Report Builder and models. Using SQL Server Management Studio, you can use apply these roles to precisely control access down to the field level.

 

2.            SSRS 2008

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) introduces many new features and enhancements that increase the reporting capabilities of people who develop reporting solutions.

      I.          What's New in Report Authoring

Introduces tablix, chart, and gauge data regions. It also introduces support for richly formatted text, new data source types, and Report Builder 2.0, which offers many new features, like enhanced data layout and visualization, in an Office-like authoring environment. Finally, this topic describes incremental changes to authoring tools and the Report Definition Language (RDL) that allow a report author to take full advantage of new processing features.

1)   New and Enhanced Data Source Types

Included in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) are new data processing extensions that enable you to report from the following data source:

·        The Teradata data source type enables you to query and use Teradata for reports and report models.

 

2)   Enhanced Chart Data Region

The new Chart data region supports a richer set of data visualization features. The new chart types include bar/column cylinder, pyramid, funnel, polar, radar, stock, candlestick, range column, range bar, smooth area, smooth line, stepped line, and box plot chart types. There is also built-in support for Pareto and Histogram charts.

A series can be displayed on any specified chart area and in any specified legend. You can insert empty points in place of missing data. You can combine multiple chart areas, multiple legends, and multiple titles on the same chart.

There is new support for secondary axes, which enable you to display multiple series using more than one axis. On each axis, you can set options to add scale breaks, logarithmic scales, custom axis intervals, and interlaced strip lines.

The new Chart data region supports automatic interval labeling to avoid label collisions, customizable rotation angles, font size and text-wrap properties for axis label calculations, support for axis crossing at custom positions, and support for background strip lines at regular or custom intervals.

You have more control to label, align and color your chart. Smart labels for data points adjust text to avoid label collisions. Custom color palettes and automatic alignment of multiple chart areas make it easier to improve the appearance and layout of charts in your report. You can collect small slices on a pie chart into one slice, drill down or show ToolTip information on individual data points, and place stacked bars or columns side-by-side in any number of stacks. The pie, doughnut, bar, and column charts support 2D and 3D drawing effects.

New design and run-time support for automatically calculated series on the chart are introduced in this release. Reporting Services provides built-in functions for 15 commonly used calculations, including statistical analysis, moving averages, and financial indicators. You can select a formula to create a new series of data points that is calculated at run time.

The user interface has been enhanced to make it easier to work with chart types. There are new dialog boxes for each chart element, shortcut menus for each chart element, support for text editing directly on the chart for titles and labels, a new chart type selector, and the ability to drag, drop, and rearrange fields in the drop-zone of a chart. This enables you to easily change the order in which series appear on a chart.

 

3)   New Gauge Data Region

The new Gauge data region is most often used to provide a high-level summary of your data by highlighting key performance indicator (KPI) values. The gauge uses a pointer to show a single value. You can add a range to highlight a subset of values on your scale and control the size and positioning of the scale on the gauge to create different visual effects.

The Gauge data region is a gauge panel that contains one more or gauges. You can combine multiple gauges into a gauge panel to show single values side by side. You can apply filtering or sorting on the gauge panel. You can choose between radial and linear gauge types. There is a specific thermometer gauge type to visualize temperature data. You can select a bullet graph from the list of linear gauges.

4)   New Tablix Data Region

The new Tablix data region is a generalized data region item that combines features of both a table and a matrix. In SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS), the Tablix data region replaces the Table, Matrix, and List data regions by combining their features into one flexible grid layout. In RDL syntax, the Tablix element replaces the Table, Matrix, and List elements from previous RDL schemas.  

The Tablix data region improves report layout flexibility and provides a more consistent rendering behavior. It uses a flexible grid layout to support multiple row groups and column groups. Groups are organized on a row hierarchy and a column hierarchy. Groups can be nested, adjacent, or recursive. After you add a Tablix data region, you can use the Grouping pane to quickly and easily create row and column groups, and add totals, subtotals, and grand totals. The Tablix data region automatically adjusts to include rows and columns on which to display group and summary data.

Tablix opens up new possibilities for working with complex and aggregated data, but does not prevent you from working with simple table and matrix structures. Report Designer provides three templates for the Tablix data region: Table, Matrix, and List, which you can drag from the Toolbox and use as a starting point for your reports. From here, you can design complex reports that integrate features of the various report types. In a tablix cell, you can embed any report item, including another data region.

5)   New Enhancements for Text and HTML

The text box report item has been enhanced. You can mix fonts and colors, add bold and italic styles, and use paragraph styles such as alignment and hanging indents. You can format an entire text box or you can format specific text, numbers, expressions, or fields within the text box. You can also import basic HTML from a field in your database for display in the report. You can create mail merges or template reports that mix data from a database with literal text on the design surface. The new release also provides full support for international complex scripts. For more information, see Formatting Text and Importing HTML.

Report authors who use expressions in their reports will notice that simple expressions appear on the design surface as placeholder text. For example, in a text box on the design surface, the expression =Fields!Sales.Value is displayed as [Sales]. For more information, see Understanding Simple and Complex Expressions (Reporting Services).

6)   Enhancements to Report Designer

The most noticeable change to the Report Designer work area is that the Data tab in Report Designer has been replaced with a Report Data pane that organizes all report data into one place that is always visible as you create the report layout. The Report Data pane shows you data sources, datasets, parameters, images, and built-in fields. Query designers can be accessed from the dataset.

The design surface supports a richer designer experience. Rulers show the current report item position and visible snap lines while you drag and resize items.

Other changes include a new Grouping pane that provides a convenient way to create groups for a Tablix data region, and new property dialog boxes to set properties for report items.

7)   Report Builder 2.0

The new release of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Report Builder 2.0 offers many new features, like enhanced data layout, visualization and text formatting, and on-demand rendering. Report Builder 2.0 leverages your experience with Office 2007 products by featuring an Office-like authoring environment. You can create reports with multiple data regions, pull data from multiple data sources into a single report, and directly query relational and multidimensional data sources.

You can customize and update all existing reports, regardless of whether they were designed in Report Designer or in the previous version of the tool, Report Builder 1.0, which was installed with SQL Server 2005. Report Builder 1.0 will continue to be installed with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. For more information, see Report Builder 2.0 and Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder 2.0.

You can install the new Report Builder 2.0 separately from the Web. Go to the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack and search for Report Builder 2.0. This version of Report Builder 2.0 is a stand-alone version that you or your administrator installs directly on your computer.

SQL Server 2008 PCU1 provides a ClickOnce version of Report Builder 2.0. The ClickOnce version can be used with Reporting Services in native mode or SharePoint integrated mode. You can start Report Builder ClickOnce from Report Manager or a SharePoint library.

 

8)   New and Enhanced Report Items and RDL Elements

Report Definition Language (RDL) defines the syntax for a Reporting Services report. In this release, major changes to RDL include the addition of Tablix, Chart, and Gauge data regions, which are described in the previous section. However this release also includes incremental enhancements to support the new report processing model and the new report rendering model. For more information, see Report Definition Language XML Schema and Report Definition XML Diagrams.

a)              RDL Page Elements

RDL page elements have been redesigned to provide more consistent control over page breaks when you export a report to different renderers. New RDL elements include PageSections, PageSection, and PageBreak. Page headers and footers, page margins, columns, column spacing, the InteractiveHeight element and the InteractiveWidthelement have moved from the Report parent element to the Page parent element. New support for KeepTogetherand KeepWithGroup has been introduced to support better control over pagination. For more information, seeUnderstanding Pagination in Reporting Services, Understanding Rendering Behaviors, Report Definition Report Layout Overview Diagram, and Report Definition Language XML Schema.

b)              Explicit Null Values

The new attribute xsi:nil="true" enables you to distinguish between an element that is explicitly null instead of one that is not specified.

c)               Processing-time Variables

You can declare variables that are global throughout the report or local to particular group scopes. You can use a global variable to calculate an expression one time, and then use that value in expressions throughout the report. TheDeferVariableEvaluation element controls whether a variable is evaluated during on-demand processing of the report. Do not set this value if the variable has a time-dependency. For more information, see Using Report and Group Variables Collection References in Expressions (Reporting Services).

d)              Data type for constants

The Value element has an optional DataType attribute that specifies the data type of the value if it is a constant. IfDataType is omitted, a constant uses the String data type. DataType can be Boolean, DateTime, Integer, Float, orString.

 

   II.          What's New in Report Processing and Rendering

Introduces new rendering extensions for Microsoft Word and enhancements to the Excel and CSV rendering extensions. This topic also describes important changes to the report processor that improve the performance and scalability of large reports.

This release supports new on-demand report processing that enables the processing of large reports.

1)   New and Enhanced Rendering Extensions

a)              Microsoft Word

The new Word rendering extension renders a report as a Microsoft Word document that is compatible with Microsoft Office Word 2000 or later. For more information, see Exporting to Microsoft Word.

b)              Microsoft Excel

The Excel rendering extension now supports rendering of subreports and nested data regions to Microsoft Office Excel. For more information, see Exporting to Microsoft Excel.

c)               Comma Separated Value (CSV)

The CSV data rendering extension now produces data-only content, and not a combination of data and layout. Removing the layout information means the data output file can be consumed more readily by other applications.

 

2)   New Rendering Object Model

This release introduces enhanced rendering extensions that support on-demand report processing and more consistent paging among different renderers. When you set a page break in your report, the redesigned rendering rules for pagination provide more consistent paging behavior when you view or export your report.

 

3)   New On-Demand Report Processing

On-demand processing is a processing enhancement that renders each page of a report as you view it. This enhancement improves the way report processing handles large amounts of report data at run time.

 

 III.          What's New in Server Architecture and Tools

Introduces the new report server architecture that includes native support for functionality previously provided by Internet Information Services (IIS).

1)   New Report Server Architecture

Report server architecture is fundamentally changed in SQL Server 2008 by the removal of Internet Information Services (IIS) dependencies and the consolidation of applications into a single service. The new architecture embeds HTTP server capabilities into the report server itself, allowing you to run a report server as a true a middle-tier application, separate from Web front-end applications used to access it. The report server also includes a new hosting layer to authenticate users, manage memory and internal processes, and support end-to-end tracing and logging.

a)              Native support for HTTP.SYS and ASP.NET 

Reporting Services no longer uses Internet Information Services (IIS) to gain access to ASP.NET functionality, the Report Manager application, or the Report Server Web service endpoint. In SQL Server 2008, Reporting Services does the following:

·        Hosts the ASP.NET and Microsoft .NET Framework technologies that are built into SQL Server CLR.

·        Leverages the HTTP.SYS capabilities of the operating system.

b)              Native support for URL reservations and registration of the report server endpoints

The report server includes an HTTP listener that accepts requests that are directed to a URL and port that you define during server configuration. URL reservations and registration is now managed directly by the report server through HTTP.SYS. For more information, see Configuring Report Server URLs.

c)               Consolidated services and applications

This release combines the Reporting Services server applications into a single service. The following server applications run within a single service: the Report Server Web service for interactive report processing, the Report Manager front-end component, and the Scheduling and Delivery processor (a background processing application for scheduled operations).

Consolidating the server applications into a single service reduces configuration and maintenance tasks, and provides a better platform for integrating custom functionality. Although consolidation simplifies deployment, it does not reduce the Reporting Services features you are accustomed to using or affect how you access the applications. All functionality continues to be available. Both Report Manager and the Report Server Web service run intact within the single service. Both applications continue to be available through URLs that provide HTTP access to each one. For more information about these enhancements, see Service Architecture (Reporting Services).

d)              Authentication layer

In the previous release, authentication was handled through IIS. In this release, Reporting Services handles all authentication requests through a new authentication subsystem that supports Windows-based and custom authentication. For more information about authentication support and configuration options, see Configuring Authentication in Reporting Services.

e)               Memory configuration

New memory management features enable you to set a memory threshold for report processing. In previous releases, the report server used all available memory. In this release, you can configure a maximum limit on memory as well as interim thresholds that determine how the report server responds to changes in memory pressure. For more information, see Configuring Available Memory for Report Server Applications andApplication Domains for Report Server Applications.

f)                End-to-end logging

New HTTP logging keeps a record of all HTTP requests handled by the report server. It is equivalent to the log file that is generated by IIS.

Trace log files are consolidated into a single ReportServerService_<timestamp>.log file. All trace information for the Report Server Web service, Report Manager, and the background processing application can be found in this file. Application logs and the report server execution log are unchanged in this release.

 

2)   Enhanced Toolset for Report Server Configuration and Management

Reporting Services includes a complete set of tools for configuring and managing a report server installation. The tools have been redesigned to support a distinct set of tasks that no longer overlap in functionality. New capabilities are added to some tools, whereas other capabilities have been removed to eliminate redundant tasks. If you are already familiar with report server tools and want to know how the tools changed from the previous release, seeReporting Services Backward Compatibility and Behavior Changes in SQL Server Reporting Services.

a)              SQL Server Management Studio

For report servers that run in native mode or in SharePoint integrated mode, this tool is used to enable features, set server properties and defaults, create shared schedules, configure role definitions (or view permission levels on a SharePoint site), and manage scheduled jobs that are currently in progress on the report server.

This tool is no longer used to manage the folder hierarchy or report server content. You cannot use this tool to assign permissions, nor can you manage reports, models, resources, shared data sources, or data-driven subscriptions. All content management is through Report Manager or a SharePoint site. For more information about this tool, see SQL Server Tools for Report Server Administration.

b)              Report Manager

For a native mode report server, Report Manager is now the only tool that you use to view and manage report server content.

Assigning permissions, creating and managing report server items, scheduling report and subscription processing, managing report delivery, and generating and managing models are handled exclusively through this tool. New pages are provided for generating models, setting model item security, and associating clickthrough reports to entities in a model. For more information about this tool, see Report Manager.

c)               Reporting Services Configuration tool

The Reporting Services Configuration tool is used to set the service account, create or manage the report server database, configure URLs, set the unattended execution account, configure report server e-mail, and manage encryption keys. The tool includes new pages for defining URLs and a revised workflow for creating and configuring a report server database or updating a service account. 

 

3)   New Support for Data-driven Subscriptions and Job Management in SharePoint Integrated Mode

This release of Reporting Services introduces data-driven subscriptions and job management for report servers running in SharePoint integrated mode. You can define data-driven subscriptions for reports that you have deployed to a SharePoint library by using the new subscription definition pages that are provided by the Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Technologies. The add-in also provides new job management pages at the site level to view and cancel reports that are in progress. Note that you must install or upgrade to the Reporting Services Add-in to access the new report server functionality from your SharePoint site. The add-in installs the application pages that provide the graphical user interface to the SQL Server 2008 report server that supports data-driven subscriptions and job management for SharePoint users.

 

 IV.          What's New in Report Programmability

Introduces a new server extension that provides preprocessing for report definitions, plus new methods to theReportServer2006 endpoint that eliminate the feature gap that previously existed between native mode and SharePoint integrated mode report servers.

 

1)   New Report Definition Customization Extension

Reporting Services supports a new extension to the report processor that provides built-in support for preprocessing a report definition. The RDC extension accepts a report definition stream as input, and then returns a customized report definition stream as output. Customizations are scoped to RDL only. If the report definition specifies a user identity, locale, or culture, you can further customize the report layout or query based on the values you detect in the RDL. For example, you could modify the layout if the report is to be rendered in French or Arabic.

The RDC extension is an advanced programming feature for developers who have expertise in creating report server extensions and who know how to work with RDL programmatically.

In this product release, the RDC extension is a simple preprocessing hook that enables you to plug-in custom code that modifies the report definition before the report is processed. You cannot use non-RDL sources to drive customization, nor can you control where in the request pipeline the RDL customization occurs. Preprocessing always occurs before the report is processed at a specific point in the request pipeline when the report server checks for an RDC extension.

To create an RDC extension, you must create and deploy a custom extension that implements the following interfaces:

IReportDefinitionCustomizationExtension

IReportContext

IUserContext

IParameter

AuthenticationType

RdceCustomizableElementId

2)   New Report Server Methods for ReportService2006 Class

A SQL Server 2008 report server that runs in SharePoint integrated mode includes support for data-driven subscriptions and job management. To use these new capabilities in custom code, use the ReportService2006endpoint and the following methods:

ListJobs

CancelJobs

CreateDataDrivenSubscription

GetDataDrivenSubscriptionProperties

SetDataDrivenSubscriptionProperties

 

   V.          SQL Server 2008 SP2 - What’s New in SharePoint Integration

SQL Server 2008 SP2 provides updates for Reporting Services SharePoint integration. SQL Server 2008 SP2 report servers can integrate with SharePoint 2010 products. SQL Server 2008 SP2 also provides a new add-in for SharePoint 2007 products. The new add-in supports the integration of SharePoint 2007 products with SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers.

1)   Summary of SQL Server 2008 SP2 Updates

Updated component

New functionality

SQL Server 2008 SP2 report server.

Integration with SharePoint 2010 products

SQL Server 2008 SP2 add-in for SharePoint 2007 Products.

Integration of SharePoint 2007 products with SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers.

2)   Updated report server will integrate with SharePoint 2010 products

SQL Server 2008 SP2 report servers can integrate with SharePoint 2010 products. The SharePoint features supported by the SQL Server 2008 SP2 Reporting Services integration are the same features supported when integrated with SharePoint 2007. Feature support is also dependent on SharePoint 2010 backward compatibility support. Consult your SharePoint documentation for backward compatibility information.

 

Note: SharePoint features that are new in SharePoint 2010, such as Claims Authentication, are not supported.

 

For more information about integrating SQL Server 2008 SP2 with SharePoint 2010 products, see Integrating SQL Server 2008 SP2 Report Servers with SharePoint 2010.

3)   Updated add-in for integrating SharePoint 2007 with SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers (see below)

The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint 2007 lets you integrate SharePoint 2007 products with SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers and use some of the new SQL Server 2008 R2 features. The new features supported include the following:

·        Support for Report Part Gallery, shared datasets, and shared report items.

·        SQL Server 2008 R2 Report Builder 3.0.

·        ATOM feed renderer. For more information, see the “Rendering Reports to Data Feeds” section in What's New (Reporting Services).

 

3.            SSRS 2008R2

Reports can now include maps, sparklines, data bars, and indicators to depict data. Report parts enable collaboration through shared datasets, report items, and data regions that are centrally stored and managed. Dataset query results can be cached on first use or by schedule. SharePoint integration supports multiple SharePoint Zones, SharePoint Universal Logging, and local mode report viewing with Access Services and SharePoint lists. SharePoint lists, SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse, and SQL Azure Database can be used as data sources for reports.

      I.          SharePoint Integration

Reporting Services with SharePoint integration has several new features. These include support for multiple SharePoint Zones, support for the SharePoint Universal Logging service, a new data extension, a query designer for SharePoint Lists as a data source, and support for right-to-left text with Arabic and Hebrew in the SharePoint user interface. The SharePoint List data extension supports getting data from the SharePoint technologies: SharePoint lists for SharePoint Foundation 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, and Office SharePoint Server 2007.

   II.          Collaboration and Reuse

Reporting Services provides new features that enable and enhance collaboration and reuse within the reporting environment.

1)   Report Parts

Report parts are report items that you store on a report server, or on a SharePoint site that is integrated with a report server. You can reuse report parts in multiple reports, and you can update them on the server.

The report part that you add to your report maintains a relationship to the instance of the report part on the site or server by means of a unique ID.

Report parts let work groups utilize the different strengths and roles of their team members. For example, one person can create charts and save them as report parts that others can reuse in their reports.

2)   Shared Datasets

Shared datasets are a new type of report server item that can retrieve data from shared data sources that connect to external data sources. A shared dataset provides a way to share a query to help provide a consistent set of data for multiple reports. The dataset query can include dataset parameters. You can configure a shared dataset to cache query results for specific parameter combinations on first use or by specifying a schedule. You can use shared dataset caching in combination with report caching and report data feeds to help manage access to a data source.

 

Like report parts, a shared dataset that is added to a report maintains a relationship to the definition of the dataset on the report server. Unlike report parts, when the definition is changed, you do not have to accept updates. All reports that have the relationship always use the shared dataset definition on the report server.

3)   Data Sources

Reporting Services supports three new data sources types: Microsoft SQL Azure, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, and Microsoft SharePoint List.

·        The Microsoft SQL Azure data source type connects to SQL Server databases in the cloud and enable reports to retrieve and render report data from SQL Azure databases. For more information, see SQL Azure Connection Type (SSRS).

·        The Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse data source type connects to a Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse and enable reports to retrieve and render report data from SQL Server databases. For more information, see SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse Connection Type (SSRS).

·        SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse Connection Type (SSRS)

·        Microsoft SharePoint List data source type connects to a SharePoint site and enable reports to retrieve and render report data from SharePoint lists. For more information, see SharePoint List Connection Type (SSRS).

4)   Data Visualization

Reporting Services provided three new ways to visualize data in reports: maps, sparklines and data bars, and indicators.

a)              Maps

Report Designer provides a Map Wizard and Map Layer Wizard to add maps and map layers to your report to help visualize data against a geographic background. A map layer displays map elements based on spatial data from a map in the Map Gallery, from a SQL Server query that returns SQL Server spatial data, or from an Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) shapefile. Map elements can be polygons that represent areas, lines that represent paths or routes, or points that represent locations such as stores or cities. You can also add a display background based on Microsoft Bing Maps tiles.

After you relate map elements with report data, you can specify rules for the map elements on each layer to control color, size, width, or marker type. For example, you can add a bubble map that varies bubble size for store locations based on sales or a color analytical map that displays customer demographics for geographic regions.

You can add labels, legends, titles, a color scale, and a distance scale to help your users interpret the map display. You can add interactive features such as tooltips and drillthrough links, or provide parameters that enable a user to interactively control the visibility of each layer.

In a map report, you can use the map wizard to configure an existing map layer. You can change the type of map, the data visualization rules, and change match field that specifies the relationship between spatial data and analytical data. The Specify the match fields for spatial and analytical data wizard page displays data from both the spatial data source and the analytical data source to help you choose the field on which to match.

b)              Sparklines and Data Bars

Sparklines and data bars are simple charts that convey a lot of information in a little space, often inline with text. Sparklines and data bars are often used in tables and matrices. Their impact comes from viewing many of them together and being able to quickly compare them, instead of viewing them singly. This makes it easy to see the outliers. Each sparkline often represents multiple data points over time. Data bars can represent multiple data points, but typically illustrate only one. Each sparkline typically presents a single series. You cannot add a sparkline to a detail group in a table. Because sparklines display aggregated data, they must go in a cell that is associated with a group.

Sparklines and data bars have the same basic chart elements of categories, series, and values, but they have no legend, axis lines, labels, or tick marks.

For more information, see Sparklines and Data Bars (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

c)               Indicators

Indicators are minimal gauges that convey the state of a single data value at a glance. The icons that represent indicators and their states are visually effective, even when they are used in small sizes. Indicators can be used by themselves in dashboards or free-form reports, but they are most commonly used in tables or matrices to visualize data in rows or columns.

Indicators can show trends by using directional images such as arrows; ratings by using incremental icons such as stars; and states by using images such as traffic lights or check marks. Indicators are available in Report Builder 3.0 and Report Designer.

For more information, see Indicators (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

5)   Report Layout and Rendering

Reporting Services provides new features that help you create reports that render the way you want and are useful in different ways such as the source of data feeds and exported to Microsoft Excel.

a)              Naming Excel Worksheet Tabs

Properties of reports and page breaks let you generate the names of worksheet tabs when you export reports to Excel. You can provide an initial page name of a report that can be exported as the default name of worksheet tabs, or use page breaks and page names to provide different names for each worksheet tab. For more information, see Understanding Pagination in Reporting Services (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

b)              Rendering Reports to Data Feeds

The Reporting Services Atom rendering extension renders reports data to an Atom service document, which lists the data feeds and the data feeds, which contains the report data. You use this extension to generate Atom-compliant data feeds that are readable and exchangeable with applications that can consume data feeds generated from reports. For example the PowerPivot client can consume data feeds that are generated from Atom-compliant data feeds.

 

Using report data as data feeds gives you an additional way to provide data to applications when the data is not easily accessible through client data providers, or you prefer to hide the complexity of the data source and make it simpler to use the data.

 

You can export report data to an Atom service document and data feeds from Report Manager or a SharePoint site that is integrated with Reporting Services. For more information, see Generating Data Feeds from Reports (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

c)               Report Pagination

Page breaks on tablix data regions (table, matrix, and list), groups, and rectangles give you better control of report pagination. Report pages, delimited by page breaks, can have different page names and reset page numbering. By using expressions, the page names and page numbers can be dynamically updated when the report is run. You can also disable page breaks entirely, or based on expression values.

d)              Rotating Text 270 Degrees

Text boxes can now be rotated 270 degrees. Standalone text boxes in a report header or footer, the report body, or text boxes in the cells of tables and matrices can display text written vertically and bottom to top. This rotation helps you create more readable reports, fit more columns on a printed report with fixed page size, and create reports with more graphical appeal. For more information, see Text Boxes (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

6)   Aggregates, Expressions, and Functions

a)              Calculating Aggregates of Aggregates

You can create expressions that calculate an aggregate of an aggregate. For example, in a cell in the row group header that is associated with a group based on year, you can calculate the average monthly sales for year by using the expression =Avg(Sum(Fields!Sales.Value,"Month"),"Year").

By using this feature for charts and gauges that are nested in a table, you can align horizontal and vertical axes for charts and scales for gauges. You do this by calculating the maximum and minimum of aggregated values so the nested items use the same ranges.

 

b)              Enhanced Support for Expressions

New globals and a new property for report variables are introduced in this release.

The following additional items have been added to the built-in globals collection.

·        OverallPageNumber and OverallTotalPages   Support for page numbering for the entire rendered report. New properties that are related to page breaks control how the page numbering occurs over page breaks that are set on report items. For more information, see Report Pagination later in this topic.

·        PageName   Support for naming pages. For more information, see Naming Excel Worksheet Tabs later in this topic.

·        RenderFormat   Support for information that is specified for the renderer.

For more information, see Using Built-in Globals and Users References (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

Report variables now have a read-only property that is set by default. Advanced expression writers can clear this option to preserve the value of a report variable throughout a report session. This is the equivalent of setting the Writable property for a report variable in RDL. Report variables are still calculated once, and then recalculated every time the report is reprocessed. This property provides a way to persist data across report rendering, page changes, and some types of user interaction. The value of the variable is set when the report is reprocessed, but is maintained in the current session. In custom code, you can specify the variable value by using the SetValue function.

For more information, see Using Report and Group Variables Collections References (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

c)               Lookup Functions

Expressions in data regions can now include references to Lookup Function (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS), LookupSet Function (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS), and Multilookup Function (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS). These lookup functions can retrieve values from a dataset that has name/value pairs and that is not bound to the data region. For more information, see Understanding Expression Scope for Totals, Aggregates, and Built-in Collections (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).

7)   Report Authoring Tools

Report Builder and Report Designer includes a number of new and enhanced features.

a)              Creating Queries

The updated graphical query designer used to create queries that retrieve report data from Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Azure, and Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse databases provides a user interface to create custom relationships between related and unrelated tables. The query designer also makes it easy to include aggregates and grouping that summarize data in queries. For more information, see Relational Query Designer (Report Builder 3.0).

 

The new graphical query designer for the Microsoft SharePoint List data source type makes it easy to create queries that retrieve report data from SharePoint lists. The query designer lists the fields in each SharePoint list item on a SharePoint site for you to include in the query and enable you to define filters to apply to limit the data that the query returns. For more information, see SharePoint List Query Designer.

b)              Previewing Reports in Report Builder 3.0

Report Builder 3.0 provides a better preview experience. The introduction of edit sessions enables the reuse of cached datasets when previewing reports. This means that reports render more quickly when using the cached datasets. Edit sessions are bound to a report, which makes it possible to use relative references and subreport references in reports.

c)               Making It Easier to Design and Edit Reports

The run-time credentials, specified in the data source properties of a report, might not work for design time tasks such as creating queries and previewing reports. Report Builder 3.0 provides a user interface for changing credentials when it is unable to connect to the data source.

8)   Cache Refresh Plans

Cache refresh plans let you cache reports or shared dataset query results on first use or from a schedule. You can schedule the cache by using an item-specific schedule or a shared schedule. By creating cache refresh plans for commonly used parameter combinations, you can help improve data retrieval and report viewing response times.

 

In previous releases, scheduled caching was achieved by using the NULL delivery provider. By using cache refresh plans, you can manage and schedule report caching separately from report subscriptions.

9)   Report Manager Enhancements

Report Manager has been updated in this release to provide a better user experience, and an improved look and feel. The most dramatic change for Report Manager is the updated color scheme and layout, which provides easier navigation to manage report properties and report server items. You can use a new drop-down menu on each report or report server item in a folder to access the various configuration options for the report or item you choose.

The tool maintains the familiar text and same management tasks, but offers an improved user experience by:

·        Improving the workflow for viewing and managing reports and report server items by using a new drop-down menu to access various configuration options for each report or report server item in a folder.

·        Eliminating the need to render a report before accessing and configuring report properties when in default view.

·        Allowing more room for Report Viewer when rendering reports.

·        An updated Report Viewer toolbar, which includes some updates to the toolbar controls, as well as the ability to export report data to an Atom service document and data feeds.

For more information about Report Manager, including navigational procedures and UI option descriptions, see the topics under Report Manager F1 Help.

10)       Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio supports working with both SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 reports, and with Report Server projects in the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Business Intelligence Development Studio. You can open, save, preview, and deploy either version of reports or Report Server projects. You set Report Server project properties to specify the version of the report server to deploy reports to and how to handle warnings and errors which might occur when up either upgrade a report from SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server 2008 R2, or revert a report from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2008. For more information, see Building Reports in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

11)       New Web Service Endpoint

The report server includes a new management endpoint named ReportingService2010. This endpoint merges the functionalities of both the ReportingService2005 and ReportingService2006 endpoints, and can support management operations of the report server in both native mode and SharePoint integrated mode. It also includes new features that are introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2, such as shared datasets and cache refresh.

12)       New Report Definition Language Schema

The Report Definition Language schema includes a new <ReportSections> element and elements that define the map report item. In this release, only reports that have one report section can be opened in Report Builder 3.0 or Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio.

 

4.            SSRS 2012

      I.          Power View

Power View, a feature of SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition, is an interactive data exploration, visualization, and presentation experience. It provides drag-and-drop ad hoc reporting for business users such as data analysts, business decision makers, and information workers. Power View reports are in a new file format, RDLX.

 

Power View expands on the self-service BI capabilities delivered with PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint by enabling customers to visualize and interact with modeled data in a meaningful way, using interactive visualizations, animations, and smart querying. It is a browser-based Silverlight application launched from within SharePoint Server 2010 that enables users to present and share insights with others in their organization through interactive presentations.

1)   Based on Tabular Models

With Power View, customers start from an SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS) tabular model to build their reports. Tabular models use metadata to present an underlying data source to end users, with predefined relationships and behaviors, in terms they understand. For more information about tabular models, see What's New (Analysis Services) and Tabular Modeling (SSAS Tabular).

2)   Coexists with Report Builder

Power View does not replace Report Builder, the report authoring tool for richly designed operational reports. Power View addresses the need for Web-based, ad hoc reporting. It co-exists with the latest version of Report Builder, which also ships in SQL Server 2012.

For more information, see the following:

·        Power View (SSRS)

·        Power View and PowerPivot HelloWorldPicnic Samples for SQL Server 2012 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219108)

·        Tutorial: Create a Sample Report in Power View (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=221204)

Arrow icon used with Back to Top link Back to Top

   II.          SharePoint Mode

SharePoint integration has been re-architected to greatly improve the SharePoint IT administrator experience, the end user experience, and supportability. The new architecture is implemented as a SharePoint 2010 shared service. The shared service architecture allows Reporting Services to leverage many of the IT features of SharePoint products. The following is a list of some of the benefits from this release:

·        Configuration of Reporting Services SharePoint mode is now completely supported through SharePoint Central Administration using management pages for Reporting Services service applications or using Reporting Services SharePoint mode PowerShell cmdlets.

 

Note: Reporting Services Configuration Manager no longer supports Reporting Services SharePoint mode. Configuration of SharePoint mode is completed using SharePoint Central Administration

 

·        Leverage SharePoint scale-out functionality for Reporting Services Service Applications.

·        The new Reporting Services shared service is hosted in SharePoint Shared Service Application pool.

·        The new Reporting Services service applications support Claims based authentication.

·        SharePoint cross-farm support for viewing reports.

·        Support for SharePoint backup and recovery and end-to-end SharePoint ULS logging.

 III.          Data Alerts

Reporting Services data alerts are a data-driven alerting solution that informs you about changes in report data that are of interest to you, and at a relevant time.

 

Imagine a sales report that contains information such as year-to-day sales, average monthly sales, and sales targets for sales persons by territory. As a sales person, you would like to know how you are doing. By creating a data alert on the sales report, you can receive messages whenever year-to-date sales exceed or fall below a specified value or contain data that you consider noteworthy. Rules in the data alert definition specify the data values to trigger the data alert. By using AND and OR operators in the rules you can combine many clauses into complex rules that define precisely the report data values you want to be notified of.

 

In some cases, the presence of any data in a report is of interest. For example, a report that lists cancelled orders becomes interesting when the first cancellation occurs. You can create data alerts on reports in which the presence of data, rather than specific data values, is important.

Data alerts messages are sent by email. Depending on the importance of the information, you can choose to send alert messages more or less frequently and only when results change. You can specify multiple recipients for the alert messages and this way keep others informed and enhance efficiency and collaboration. If you want to send alert messages immediately, you can run data alerts directly instead of waiting for them to run automatically at the scheduled time.

 

The following summarizes the key areas of data alerting:

·        Define and save data alert definitions—User views a report, adds a data alert, creates rules that identify interesting data values, defines recurrence patterns for sending the alert, and specifies the recipients of the data alert message.

·        Run data alert definitions—Alerting service runs data alert definitions at a scheduled time, retrieves report data, and triggers data alerts based on the rules in the alert definition.

·        Deliver data alert messages to recipients—Alerting service creates an alert instance and sends data alert messages by email to recipients.

 

Data alerts provide the following tools for creating and managing data alert instances and definitions:

·        Data Alert Designer—Users create and edit data alert definitions.

·        Data Alert Manager for users—Users view information about their data alerts, delete their data alert definitions, or open alert definitions for editing.

·        Data Alert Manager for alerting administrators—Alerting administrators view a list of data alerts created by all users on the SharePoint site and delete alerts.

 IV.          Report Server Projects in SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio

In SQL Server 2012, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is an add-in to Visual Studio. Report server projects created in SQL Server 2008 R2 can be opened directly into SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). Projects created in SQL Server 2008 are automatically upgraded when opened in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). For ease of managing your existing and new report server projects, you can continue to add projects created in SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 to a SQL Server 2012 business intelligence solution.

 

You can also continue to open and edit reports that use the 2005 and 2008 RDL schemas in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). However, if you add a report item that is not compatible with the schema used by a report, the report will be automatically upgraded to the 2010 RDL schema.

   V.          Excel Renderer for Microsoft Excel 2007-2010 and Microsoft Excel 2003

The Reporting Services Excel rendering extension, new in SQL Server 2012, renders a report as an Excel document that is compatible with Microsoft Excel 2007-2010 as well as Microsoft Excel 2003 with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint installed. The format is Office Open XML and the file extension is XLSX.

 

This Excel-rendering extension removes limitations of the earlier version, compatible with Excel 2003. The following lists the improvement in the rendering extension:

·        Maximum rows per worksheet is 1,048,576.

·        Maximum columns per worksheet is 16,384.

·        Number of colors allowed in a worksheet is approximately 16 million (24-bit color).

·        ZIP compression provides smaller files sizes.

 VI.          Word Renderer for Microsoft Word 2007-2010 and Microsoft Word 2003

The Reporting Services Word rendering extension, new in SQL Server 2012, renders a report as a Word document that is compatible with Microsoft Word 2007-2010 as well as Microsoft Word 2003 with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint installed. The format is Office Open XML and the file extension is DOCX.

 

In addition to making the features that are new in Word 2007-2010 available to exported reports, *.docx files of exported reports tend to be smaller. Reports exported by using the Word renderer are typically significantly smaller than the same reports exported by using the Word 2003 renderer.

For more information, see Exporting to Microsoft Word (Report Builder and SSRS).

5.            SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

      I.          Power View:

Support for Power View in Microsoft Excel 2013 and Power View in Microsoft SharePoint 2013. For more information on what is new in Power View, see What’s new in Power View in Excel 2013 and in SharePoint 2013(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/whats-new-in-power-view-in-excel-2013-and-in-sharepoint-2013-HA102901475.aspx?CTT=1).

   II.          SharePoint mode report server:

A SQL Server 2012 SP1 Reporting Services report server in SharePoint mode supports SharePoint 2013. For more information, see Install SQL Server BI Features with SharePoint 2013 (SQL Server 2012 SP1).

 III.          Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint products:

A new version of the Reporting Services add-in for SharePoint that supports SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010. For more information on the supported combinations of the add-in, SharePoint, and report servers, seeSupported Combinations of SharePoint and Reporting Services Components.

 IV.          View and interact with reports on iOS devices:

Interactively view reports in Apple Safari on iOS devices. Features support includes expand/collapse, the parameter pane, and interactive sorting. For more information, see View Reporting Services Reports on Apple iOS devices (SSRS iPad).

.

6.            SSRS 2014 – Support Google Chrome

The SQL Server 2014 release of Reporting Services adds support for the Google Chrome browser. 

7.            SSRS 2016

      I.          Supports the current versions of Microsoft .NET Framework 4

·        [CTP 2.0] SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services (SSRS) supports the current versions of Microsoft .NET Framework 4. This includes version 4.0 and 4.5.1. If no version of .Net Framework 4.x is installed, SQL Server setup installs .NET 4.0 during the feature installation step.

   II.          Supports High DPI (Dots Per Inch) scaling and devices

·        [CTP 2.0] Report Builder for SQL Server 2016 supports High DPI (Dots Per Inch) scaling and devices. For more information on High DPI, see the following:

o   Windows 8.1 DPI Scaling Enhancements

o   High DPI and Windows 8.1

 III.          Subscription Enhancements

·        [CTP 2.0] Enhancements to Reporting Services Subscription features:

1)   Enable and disable subscriptions

2)   Subscription description

3)   Change subscription owner

4)   Shared credential for file share subscriptions

Feature

Supported server mode

Enable and disable subscriptions. New user interface options to quickly disable and enable subscriptions. The disabled subscriptions maintain their other configuration properties such as schedule and can be easily enabled.

reporting services subscription ribbon

For more information, see Disable or Pause Report and Subscription Processing.

Native mode

Subscription description. When you create a new subscription, you can now include a description of the report as part of the subscription properties. The description is included on the subscription summary page.

SharePoint and Native mode

Change subscription owner. Enhanced user interface to quickly change the owner of a subscription. Previous versions of Reporting Services allow administrators to change subscription owners using script. Starting with the SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) release, you can change subscription owners using the user interface or script. Changing the subscription owner is a common administrative task when users leave or change roles in your organization.

SharePoint and Native mode

Shared credential for file share subscriptions. Two workflows now exist with Reporting Services file share subscriptions:

o   New in this release, your Reporting Services administrator can configure a single file share account, which is used for one to many subscriptions. The file share account is configured in the Reporting Services native mode configuration manager Specify a file share account, and then on the subscription configuration page, users select Use file share account.

o   Configure individual subscriptions with specific credentials for the destination file share.

o   You can also mix the two approaches and have some file share subscriptions use the central file share account while other subscriptions use specific credentials.

Native mode