[wpeter]

Hi Everyone,

I went to the Blackbaud conference in 2007 and there was a session about SQL Server 2005 reporting services. I got the impression that RE was going to start veering away from Crystal Reports and start using SQL reporting services. So, I thought I would try and create some reports in SQL Server reporting services. Does anyone have any experience with it and setting it up? I am a bit lost and not sure what to do next. Basically, how do I connect to the RE database? Also, when creating reports, how do set things up that I can create the reports on my workstation?

Thanks,

Wendy

[Tcassi]

Wendy - You are correct! When v8.0 is released, it will not integrate with Crystal Reports any longer. I am curious, too, about how we are going to "convert" all our Crystal 8.5 reports to the new MS Report Writer. Look forward to some responses to your post...Drew, Doug - any thoughts?

[Tcassi]

Wendy - You are correct! RE v8.0 is not going to be compatible with Crystal Reports. I am also curious to know how we are going to "convert" all our Crystal 8.5 reports over to the new MS Report Writer, so I'm looking forward to more responses on this topic...Drew, Doug - any thoughts?

[DrewAllen]

You will still be able to use Crystal, it just won't be integrated with RE. Since Doug is not using the integration right now, this won't affect him at all. However, this is a MAJOR change for the vast majority of shops. I think that you'll see many of them staying on RE 7.x for that reason alone.

I'm actually dying to try writing reports in Reporting Services, but I can't even get our IS department to install SQL 2005 on our TEST server. I'm not sure that BB realizes how much inertia there is in large organizations or how many small organizations don't have the technical expertise to make this abrupt a change. On the other hand, maybe they're counting on it ($$$$).

Drew

[Doug Creek]

Drew's right, I gave up on the integration between CR and RE a long time ago

I have 2005 enterprise installed on both test and production, but I have 0 time right now to experiment with the reporting services... I have been able to make the SSIS (replacement for DTS) do some VERY nice things, like script matching of my downloads for alumni and employees from banner into RE (instead of having to trust import to actually look at things correctly, which it doesn't)...

As far as making it so you can connect to your server, you need to get a hold of the install CD/DVD for whatever version of SQL server 2005 you have, and run it on your desktop. Once you've done all the prequisites, you should end up at a prompt that says "We can't install SQL Server 2005 Database Services on your machine because we don't support this OS" or something to that affect. If you tell it you want to continue the install, it will allow you to install the reporting and analysis tools. All you need after that is an ODBC connection to your server and it should work like charm.

I can't do development from my desk because of how our server is firewalled, but I'm just as anxious as Drew to clear my plate and work with the reporting services...

It'll be interesting how BB sells this because they have to completely rebuild ALL of their reports to work with this, because as far as I can tell, almost every report is written in crystal, and those won't port directly over to MS Reporting Services.

Doug

[nisaac]

Thanks, Doug, for the quick how to on getting started. I just upgraded one of my servers to 2005 and I'm ready to start with reporting services. No time to read, study or anything - but what the heck - got to get going.

I love this forum for discussing the move to reporting services. If I make any headway - I'll definitely post here.