Dreamy (Reporting Services at TechEd)

Unlike previous years, I decided not to attend the first day of TechEd. This means that I missed BobMu's keynote but you can read about the details from many of the TechEd bloggers.

If you read the press release from TechEd today, we announced the official name for the next release of SQL Server - SQL Server 2008 (so long, Katmai). You can also download the first CTP. While I would encourage you to try some of the new features in the CTP, you are going to be a little disappointed if you are looking for new Reporting Services features. We have scheduled our first set of new features for the next CTP - so stay tuned for a few more months. If you attend one of our TechEd sessions, you will get a preview of what is coming.

Our second big announcement from TechEd was that we have acquired the data visualization products of Dundas Software. Many of you have been using the enhanced chart for Reporting Services along with the gauge and map custom report items. We realized the importance of data visualization components for reporting so we purchased this codebase for inclusion in future versions of SSRS. We are working on the integration right now so I can't promise how much will make it into SQL Server 2008.

As for TechEd itself, I'm heading out tomorrow. Feel free to stop by the Business Intelligence part of the Learning Center and say hi. If you are looking for some Reporting Services related content, try these sessions:

• BIN 305 - Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
• DAT 201 - The Next Release of Microsoft SQL Server: Overview
• BIN 202 - Third Annual Business Intelligence Power Hour
• BIN04-TLC - Reporting Services Rendering Tips and Tricks
• BIN 306 - Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services: Advanced Report Design
• BIN 318 - Reporting Services Futures: Report Authoring for Information Workers
• BIN05-TLC - Integrating Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• BIN15-TLC - Reporting Services Programmability
• BIN 306R - Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services: Advanced Report Design