SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP – What’s New In Reporting Services?

Some very cool updates in the new Reporting Services November CTP, read them all here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlrsteamblog/archive/2009/11/09/sql-server-2008-r2-november-ctp-what-s-new-in-reporting-services.aspx

Some changes that have potential:

Shared Data Sets
Datasets can now be shared, stored, processed and cached externally from the report.  Cache refresh plans let you cache reports or shared dataset query results on first use or from a schedule.

Pretty neat feature and could be very elegant

New Data Visualization Report Items
DVEnhancementsData Bars – each bar is scaled based on the maximum value of the immediate group (a default which can be adjusted).
Sparklines are data-intense, word-sized graphics.  These visualizations make it possible for report consumers to quickly see things like trends over time at a glance.
Indicators are small icons that are often used to depict the status or trend for a given value.  Setting up indicators based on a number of pre-configured sets is now very easy.
Furthermore, this CTP includes improvements to the Map wizard.

I like em ! the indicator comes as a suprise but a very welcome one !

Aggregates of Aggregates
This enables report authors to nest RDL aggregate expressions inside other RDL aggregate expressions with unlimited nesting levels.  For example, the expression =Avg(Sum(Sales, “Month”), “Year”) would compute the average total monthly sales.

This is very cool ! could be very handy !

Enhanced SharePoint Integration for SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010
This includes support for multiple SharePoint Zones, the SharePoint Universal Logging service, and Report Parts.  We added a new SharePoint List data extension with query designer support.  Furthermore, support for right-to-left text with Arabic and Hebrew was added in the SharePoint user interface.

Dont know what this really means.. what are SharePoint zones.

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