Reporting Control''s Roadmap?
I posted this as part of another thread in the ReportViewer area but this forum will probably provide me with a better anwser:
I'm kind of concerned about the ReportViewer roadmap because it’s really confusing.
On one hand, it sounds like there aren't many updates to reporting in VS2008. Some wizards and some reportviewer bug fixes is all that I have seen or heard about.
On the other hand SQL2008 which is shipping at the same time features a new designer that will be integrated with VS2008. SQL2008 RS ,which includes a number of major enhancements, apparently doesn't require the SQL2008 to run for clients who want to upgrade RS but not the engine.
To make matters more confusing there was talk about a post VS2008 release that fixed the AJAX updatepanel issue.
It seems like Reporting is getting cut into 2 products without distinct names that may or may not work together.
[1419 byte] By [
akula] at [2008-2-25]
The first thing to understand is that SQL2008 is not shipping at the same time as VS2008. We are launching the products together, which is simply a way to save some marketing money. 
VS2008 will probably be out for close to six months before SQL2008 is out.
The second thing to understand is that local mode and server mode are two very different things. The VS2008 control in server mode will work against a 2005 server or a 2008 server.
The third thing to understand is that although you get a relational database in the same package as you get Reporting Services, the two products are not tied together. You can run RS2008 against RS2005 (just as you could run RS2005 against SQL2000).
Given all of this, here is the roadmap.
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ReportViewer in VS2008 is an updated version of the RS2005 report engine. In addition to bug fixes, it has some minor enhancements like PDF compression, and print in ASP.NET local mode.
- SQL2008 ships with the RS2008 report engine. This has a whole new RDL format, a new designer, and the Dundas data visualization code.
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After SQL2008 ships, we will look to release a new version of the ReportViewer for VS2008. This would have the RS2008 report engine as well as some other potential enhancements (AJAX support, for example).
Hope this makes things a little clearer.
