Web Improvements in Reporting Services SP2

A pair of SharePoint Web Parts and a report-printing feature will accompany a handful of bug fixes in an upcoming service pack (SP) for SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services, a component for designing and distributing reports from a variety of data sources. Reporting Services SP2 will let users format and print reports directly from Internet Explorer (or other browsers that support ActiveX controls) and view reports from within SharePoint sites.

Fixes and New Features

SQL Server Reporting Services provides native SQL Server support for creating and managing human-readable reports. The feature has quickly gained popularity among organizations that need to distribute reports to large numbers of users on an ongoing basis and among software vendors (including Microsoft) that want to publish reports that can easily be read in a Web browser. According to Microsoft, Reporting Services has been downloaded more than 150,000 times since its introduction in Jan. 2004. Microsoft has also been shipping Reporting Services support for its own applications. (See the sidebar “New Report Packs on the Way“.)