Reporting Service 2016 Unplugged

This month’s SQL Server Pro Magazine article:

In SQL Server 2016, my favorite report tools get some love with a few cool new features including, a little polish added to a few existing features, and a complete Report Portal overhaul.

Reporting Services reached a certain maturity as a rock-solid reporting platform somewhere just after 2008 – or at least it got past puberty.  Most report developers would agree, the versions that followed SQL Server 2008 R2 were more like a midlife crisis for the product, because the feature set stalled for about five years.  The latest version is not a complete product rebirth by any means, but it is a good indication Reporting Services is not headed for retirement any time soon; it now plays an important role in the larger Microsoft reporting ecosystem.

Rather than rehashing information posted about new and upcoming reporting features available elsewhere, I’ll share my experience thus far with the latest community technical preview (CTP 3.2) and some insights from the product developers.  As with any preliminary software build, your experience may differ.

Design Tools…