The designer tool - exploring SSDT
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is the main interface for working with SQL Server Business Intelligence projects, including Reporting Services. It offers a full suite of utilities to not only author your reports but also assist you in doing so. It is worth taking time to explore SSDT.
Getting ready
In Chapter 1 , Getting It Ready - Configuring Reporting Services, Installing Reporting Services-related tools recipe, describes how to install SQL Server Data Tools. If these instructions were completed successfully, you should be able to launch SSDT. On Windows 10, simply click on the Start menu, pick All apps, and scroll to SQL Server Data Tools 2015, as shown in figure 2.01:
Figure 2.01
Don't confuse the version number of SSDT with the version of SQL Server. The version for SSDT is based on Visual Studio (more on that later). By default, SQL Server Data Tools 2015 comes already installed as part of Visual Studio 2015. If you don't have Visual...