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I was wrong when I wrote part of my article “A First Look at the VS2008 ReportViewer.” Actually, I was mislead and believed what I was told about Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and SQL Server 2008 (Katmai) RTM. Apparently, the Katmai report processor was not incorporated into the ReportViewer (or as they now call it the “MicrosoftReportViewer”) control during SP1. although it might look like Microsoft had upgraded the ReportViewer, it hasn’t—only a few bug fixes were applied. This means that the RDL generated by the newly released Katmai RDL code generators is NOT compatible with the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 version of the ReportViewer control. This means you can’t take that set of reports you’ve generated with the new Katmai BI tools and import them into VS 2008 like you could take Yukon reports and import them into VS 2005 BI tools. They tell me that it’s going to be another six months before the updated ReportViewer control hits the streets. By then, we should have plenty of Katmai reports to import!
Sure, you can still run Katmai reports in the ReportViewer Server mode, but you can’t expect to import them into your Visual Studio 2008 applications until they are finished with the conversion to the new reporting engine. I also expect this to be implemented as a Visual Studio 2008 service pack that might further delay its introduction.
Frankly folks, this is kinda irritating. If you just bought a new car and got home only to find that it had a hole where the glove compartment was supposed to be, wouldn’t you be mad? Even though it’s only a minor feature in the bigger scheme of things, how is one to know what features are not shipping with a new product? One would normally assume that if the feature was implemented with the old version, it would be in the new—but perhaps improved, but included nontheless. I think Microsoft should have a list of unsupported or deprecated functionality for these products. That’s so when we get home, we have somewhere to put our maps and proof of insurance. Well actually, they do. It’s here, but it does not include information about Visual Studio tools, like the ReportViewer.
About the Author
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William (Bill) Vaughn is an industry-recognized author, mentor, and subject-matter expert on Visual Studio, SQL Server, Reporting Services, and data access interfaces. He’s worked in the computer industry for over thirty-five years—working with mainframe, minicomputer, and personal computer systems as a developer, manager, architect, trainer, marketer, support specialist, writer, and publisher. In 2000, after 14 years at Microsoft, Bill stepped away to work on his books, mentoring, and independent training seminars. He’s written seven editions of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server and three editions of ADO.NET and ADO Examples and Best Practices for Visual Basic (and C#) Programmers. He and Peter Blackburn also wrote the critically acclaimed Hitchhiker’s Guide to SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services. Bill is a top-rated speaker and frequents conferences all over the world, including TechEd, Visual Studio/SQL Connections, DevTeach, and many others. He’s also written a wealth of articles for magazines such as MSDN, SQL Server Magazine, Visual Basic Programmer’s Journal, .NET Magazine, and many others as well as a regular editorial for Processor magazine. Bill spends considerable time answering questions on the public newsgroups and speaking at INETA user group meetings all over the country and at other speaking venues all over the world. He’s available for consulting, mentoring, or custom training. See www.betav.com or www.betav.com/blog/billva for his current schedule and course catalog. |
