Backwards Compatible
The following question was posted in the SSWUG group on Linked-In: “How we do deploy a RDL developed using Visual Studio 2008 environment in SQL Server 2005 Reporting server?”
This is really a very good question. It is worthy of some discussion should you, our reader, have time to respond with your ideas and experience.
The issue for this particular developer is that their company has moved forward with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2008. However, they have a product they market to companies still using SQL Server Reporting Services 2005.
There are many enhancements in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 that are not supported in the older version.
SSRS 2008 supports reports defined in SSRS 2005. Of course the reverse is not true.
This company is experiencing problems developers have been solving for decades. What options are possible when dealing with this kind of situation? Do they simply tell their customers they have to upgrade? Do they use only features supported in SSRS 2005? What do they do when Denali is released? Now their product would be three versions behind the current production version of SSRS.
How about some input from you? What have you done in similar situations? We have faced this issue many times in many different ways. Remember when we had to support multiple browsers, and multiple versions of multiple browsers (hey, like today)?
If you would like to respond to this particular question, you can join the SSWUG group on linked in and review the discussions.
Reader Comment:
Norman writes:
You keep sending out the SSWUG SQL Server Reporting Services Intro webinar as being Aug. 25! Of course, tomorrow is Aug. 30.
My deepest apologies. I hope you clicked on the link to sign up. This is much more than a one day webinar. This is thirty day access to an online self paced instruction course granting you access for the entire month of September. There are 11 online sessions, all for one great price. Access starts today, August 30. So, be sure to register now to get the most bang for your buck.
Send your ideas, experiences and war stories to share with us all by sending an email to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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