SSRS 2016 - the basic user interface for creating reports

When so much else has changed in Reporting Services 2016, it would be easy to lose sight of just how much hasn't!  There are only a few tweaks to the basic Visual Studio report creation process.

Creating a report in SSRS 2016

I've just created the following report in SSRS 2016:

A fairly typical grouped report.

I found the process to be more-or-less identical to that in SQL Server 2012.  In particular, the following irritations seem still to be there!

So much for what hasn't changed; let's now look at what's new in the basic report design interface.

Yukky new icon style

In common with other SQL Server 2016 applications, the toolbar icons have had all the colour stripped out of them:

An example of the new icons.

More control over parameter layout

I have to admit, this wasn't quite what I was expecting!  You can now position parameters in a grid pattern:

Here I've got two parameters, and am about to add a column to shift them over to the left.

So here's the sort of effect you can create:

Hmmm ... I was expecting a bit more flexibility than this!

Incidentally, you can hide the parameters panel easily enough:

Right-click on your report and choose the option shown to hide the parameters panel.

Strange behaviour if not using print layout

I don't know if this is my laptop or not, but previewing a report doesn't show any data:

Until I click on the Print Layout button shown, I don't see any data.

As soon as I click on Print Layout, everything's hunky dory:

Normal service is resumed ...

New chart types

There are two new chart types in SSRS 2016.  Tree:

An example of a tree chart

And Sunburst:

Sunburst charts look a bit doughnutty to me ...

Here are all the chart types, since I'm sure some of these are new too!

The full range of chart types in SSRS 2016.

Gauges have got funkier!

The gauge templates are much jazzier:

The default gauge templates.

Report parts are now built-in

This was something you could do in Report Builder, but not in SSRS itself.  However ... now you can!

You can choose this option from the menu to save one or more report items as a report part.

Client-side printing uses PDF format

I'll be honest, I don't quite get this, so here's a summary of the change from the horse's mouth (the Microsoft website):

I'm sure this will change someone's life!

Those are all the changes I could find in the way you design reports in SSRS 2016.  However, the way people view your reports is profoundly different, as the next part of this blog will show.