Configure Reporting Services 2008 to use more than one Report Builder version

Question

In the process of deploying Reporting Services 2008, some users get confused with the new Report Builder 3.0 it comes with, especially its differences versus version 2.0 which came with SSRS 2005.

Is there a way to configure Reporting Services so it shows 2 buttons to run Report Builder? One pointing to current version, the other to the previous, so users can continue creating their reports whilst they explore 3.0's new options at their own pace.

If this is not possible, is there a way to configure Rep. Services so it uses Report Builder 2.0 and not 3.0?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You need to set the "Custom Report Builder launch URL" in report manager. To do it go to report manager (usually http://<reportserverhost>/reports) and click Site Settings in the upper right corner. Then you'll see Custom Report Builder Launch URL field in the bottom of the General settings tab. By default it is blank but you can force a specific version of report builder to load from there. For Report Builder 2.0 you should be able to set the value to "/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application".

The Site Settings Page (Report Manager) documentation topic and How to: Set Report Builder 2.0 as the Default ClickOnce Report Builder Version explains more detail.

Answer 2

I guess it is impossible to do some changes on the menu but I you can do a bit of a hack where you overwrite the ReportBuilder.application to an application that you self built which contains button to the version of the ReportBuilder you want to run something like this.

On that button you just define an event to do the following

ProcessStartInfo sInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("http://YourServer/LocationOfYourV2Appplication/ReportBuilder.application");
Process.Start(sInfo);

The following path where the files you need to manipulate is by default here C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer\ReportBuilder