I am no SQL Server architect. Normally I don’t blog about topics like this. I volunteered recently, however, to create an end-to-end solution on the company’s new Microsoft 2008 BI platform.

After I migrated almost everything from the 2005 platform to 2008 platform, and ready to deploy my Reporting Services reports, I was told that we do not have the Reporting Services 2008 ready yet.

I was also told that reports developed in BIDS 2008 will not be deployable on Reporting Services 2005. As stubborn as I was, I tried anyway.

Reports developed in BIDS 2008 will not be deployable on Reporting Services 2005

The message is very clear.

The report definition is not valid. Details: The report definition has an invalid target namespace ‘http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition’ which cannot be upgraded. (rsInvalidReportDefinition)

Getting SharePoint 2010 and Reporting Services 2008 Integrated

The next thing I was told is that the architecture team is getting SharePoint 2010 and RS 2008 to work together. Although it’s not my job to make the integration work, I am interested in this topic from a developer’s point of view.

I searched on Internet, and found many information on this topic. Most of them are tips on how to configure both the SharePoint 2010 and RS 2008 to work together in the integration mode.

I, however, am interested in knowing how the integration will change how I publish and manage my Reporting Services reports and models.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find many examples. But this article on MSDN, although short, helped me to understand the topology of the integration. I can “almost” imagine what’s like to publish and manage my reports on SharePoint site.

Overview of Reporting Services and SharePoint Technology Integration

From this diagram, I can see the components that will work together to make the integration happen. It also showed that report viewing, publishing and other report management activities will now be on SharePoint site.

Report items and properties will be stored in SharePoint content databases. This will allow us to publish reports to SharePoint libraries and secure them using the same permission levels and authentication provider that controls access to other business documents hosted on the SharePoint site.

The report server, however, will continue to provide all data processing, rendering, and delivery. It also supports all scheduled report processing for snapshots and report history.

Sounds exciting?