October 28th Technical Preview for SSRS – Including Power BI in SSRS

Today at the Pass Summit, Microsoft announced some cool new features that are coming into SSRS 2016.   I attended the ‘SQL Server Reporting Services: What’s New and What’s Next’ session (presented by Chris Finlan and Riccardo Muti and there was certainly some very exciting news for anyone in the BI sector.

There will be a technical preview available from 28^th October, in which you can download a pre-configured Virtual Machine in the Azure Marketplace.  This includes sample reports and data, enabling you to try the features whilst Microsoft work on a complete preview for on premise R&D. This blog lists the new feature from a high level.  I will announce more information as and when it is available.

Features

1.       Power BI reports in SQL Server Reporting Services.

a.       I won’t steal Microsoft’s thunder and instead, redirect you to their blog written on October 25^th:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2016/10/25/announcing-a-technical-preview-of-power-bi-reports-in-sql-server-reporting-services/

b.      In essence, you can create a Power BI desktop report and hook it straight into your on premise SSRS reporting solution. Amazing, right?!

2.       Report Manager.

a.       List View is back!  You can again view reports the old fashioned way.

b.      Show Hidden Items is now unchecked by default.  Sounds insignificant, but it is the little things that sometimes matter.

3.       Report Comments Section

a.       This is really cool.  A user can write a comment against a given report and even ‘snapshot’ the report as an image and upload it.  This is a good way to start an internal company discussion, as well as trace how a visualization has changed over time.

b.      All comments and images are stored in the Report Server db, which helps for auditing or plugging the data into an external tool/text file.

4.       Other – More information to be announced soon

a.       Direct URL link from a KPI.  If you click a KPI, it will take you to a specified link, without the need to select it form an option.

b.      Mobile Reporting auditing.

c.       Better support for generated MDX.  The current date workaround will no longer be needed and make everyone’s life easier. 

d.      General performance.

Current Preview Limitations

As this is an interim SSRS Preview release, there are some current limitations.  These are more specific to the Power BI reports in SSRS:

–          Power BI reports that connect “live” to Analysis Services models – both Tabular and

        Multidimensional  (cubes). No other data sources are currently available.

–         Custom Visuals not supported.

Coming Soon

As soon as I get back from the Pass Summit (and over my jet lag), I will be downloading the preview and trying out the cool features.  Please come back to my blog page to check out my findings and more importantly, feel free to comment on any quirks/issues/limitations that you have come across yourself.

It is certainly exciting times for the on premise enthusiast out there.  I had lost all hope for SSRS, but with 2016, Microsoft have rekindled my love for enterprise data visualisation.