Last November, I was interviewed by Sr. Technical Evangelist John Weston on the MVP program, Office 365, Cloud Computing, Business Intelligence, and how these things all tie together. The entire interview was conducted online using Lync online, available in Office365. It’s now online, and can be seen below.
You can see other Technet Radio episodes by visiting the Edge site here
Year: 2012
One of the unsung heroes of the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack is Report Builder. Report Designer has been part of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) for quite some time, but BIDS is more of a designer tool. In order to get report design into the hands of power users, Microsoft provided Report Builder initially with a reduced set of functionality SQL Server 2005, but with Report Builder 3.0 which ships with SQL Server 2008 R2, it’s just as capable as BIDS. When running in SharePoint Integrated mode, you can design reports as if they were any other type of Office document.
Unfortunately, if you edit a report, you may be greeted with the message: “To use Report Builder, you must install .Net Framework 3.5 on this computer.”
Report Builder does require .Net Framework 3.5, but you’ll see this message even when you have it installed. Clicking on the “Install .Net 3.5” will reinstall it, but won’t help.
This only happens when using Internet Explorer 9, and is due to the fact that it doesn’t correctly detect the Framework’s presence. This doesn’t happen with any other browser, including previous versions of IE. It can be worked around by setting the browser’s compatibility mode.
To do that, either press the F12 key, or turn on developer tools from IE’s Tools menu:
Doing so will bring up the developer tools window, where you can set the broswer mode. Setting it to anything other than IE9 will work.
Just the act of setting it should start the Report Builder download process. The setting will persist for the life of the browser window, so you’ll need to do it again the next time that you edit the report.
I’d love to hear of any better fixes to the problem, but for now, this lets you get the job done.
2 CommentsWhile the blog has been quieter than usual for the past couple of months, owing to a hectic schedule, I do have a number of speaking engagements coming up that I wanted to promote. All of them are related to SharePoint Business Intelligence in one way or another, and all are in the Toronto/South Western Ontario area. If you’d like to come out and talk SharePoint, Business Intelligence, or just indulge in a SharePint or two, I would love to see you there.
| Hamilton SharePoint User Group |
| Thursday, Feb 16 2012 |
| SQL Server Reporting Services with SharePoint SQL Server Reporting Services provides a rich reporting environment, and integration with SharePoint makes it seem seamless to end users. How does Reporting Services impact the SharePoint environment? This presentation will walk through the basic features of Reporting Services, and architectural considerations when installing in a SharePoint farm. In addition, some of the differences included in the upcoming SQL Server 2012 version of Reporting Services will be discussed. |
| Toronto SharePoint User Group |
| Wednesday, April 18, 2012 |
| What’s new in SQL Server 2012 for SharePoint SQL Server 2012 brings a wealth of new features to the core database used by SharePoint. However, it also brings a number of exciting new Business Intelligence features right to your SharePoint users. This session will walk through a number of the new features that have a direct impact on SharePoint administrators, designers and end users, with in depth demonstrations of how to configure and use them. These features include significant architectural changes to Reporting services, the new BISM or tabular engine for Analysis Services and PowerPivot, and the new end user focused reporting tool, PowerView. |
| SharePoint Summit |
| May 15, 2012 |
| Reporting for Duty – Best Practices for Reporting Services with SharePoint
Reporting Services and SharePoint have been working together since SharePoint 2003. SQL Server 2005 SP1 brought the ability to use Reporting Services in Integrated Mode through a SharePoint Add in, and with SQL Server 2012, Reporting Services is a fully fledged SharePoint Service Application, and some features, the new PowerView in particular, are only available through SharePoint Integrated Mode. Reporting Services bring a wealth of benefits to your SharePoint farm, but can also have a significant impact on it. This session will discuss the do’s and don’ts for a successful Reporting Services implementation. It will cover architectural considerations through to Report design, for both the Reporting Services Add In (SQL Server 2005-2008) and the new Reporting Services Service Application (SQL Server 2012). |
It’s been quite some time since I blogged anything substantial, so why not start the New Year off with a dive report? Two days after New Years, we packed up the family and headed back to the Mayan Riviera. We stayed at the same resort that we did last year, the Azul Sensatori just outside of Puerto Morelos. If you have children (or even if you don’t) it’s a fantastic place. I have to make a shout out to Miguel, who worked at the bell stand, and went out of his way to make our stay a good one.
My only complaint about the resort was that it was a bit far from Playa Del Carmen, and when in the area, I always dive with the Abyss Dive Center – I originally certified there, and have done all of my certifications there since. Also diving with me this time was my son John, and our good friends Allyson and Rich.
Around December-March every year, bull sharks can be found right off the beach in Playa Del Carmen, and last year, I had hoped to see a few of them. Alas, at the time, they had left the area for some inexplicable reason, only to return after I had come home. This year it was different. This time I got to dive with them twice, and each time there were between 10-20 checking us out. One morning we saw 5 at one of the regular dive sites. All of my diving pictures for the trip can be found here but just to highlight a few…
To celebrate my reconfirmation as MVP on Jan 1, I had my son take the shot of me below
A few other shots of the attractions in question:
In addition to the photos, I wanted to try out the video capabilities of my Canon T2i. From the footage, I was able to put this video together:
Swimming with the sharks
In addition to the sharks, on our last diving day, we headed inland to the cenotes. For those of you that don’t know, cenotes are underground rivers that only exist in the Yucatan peninsula, and you can dive in them. Since there are frequent openings into air, it’s not quite cave diving, but it’s close, and on a nice sunny day, like the one we had, the light show can be spectacular.
That pretty much wraps up the fun for this year – now it’s back to work. I have a mountain in front of me and a lot of writing to do to!
Happy New Year
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