SSRS 2016 - stand alone Report Builder gets an update

As part of the significant, and ongoing enhancements to both Power BI and SSRS 2016, the stand-alone SSRS Report Builder has received some enhancements.  All this, along with the underlying changes to SSRS, including support for HTML5, and mobile support - Use Power BI mobile apps to view SSRS 2016 reports.

With earlier versions of SSRS, we had two different, but similar Report Builder tools. The real time tool was typically accessed from the SSRS web portal that called the Report_Builder_3_0_0_0.application file, which started up the report builder. And with CTP 3.2 or 3.3, you can still access this report builder from the original reporting portal.

The new SSRS web portal [http://localhost/Reports/], directs you to a download site, where you can download the updated Report Builder standalone application. 

The URL is https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53613  (old link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51615) which takes you to a download page (as of June 13, 2016). With the GA version (RC1), the file name remains ReportBuilder3.msi, but it installs the latest stand alone report builder.

  

At first review, the overall functionality is similar to the earlier version, but with a cleaner UI, more in line with the Power BI look and feel. And you can still download the older 2008 R2 Report Builder 3.0 at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6116. Here is a comparison between the earlier stand-alone Report Builder and the CTP 3 Report Builder. The look is different, but the functionality, at least for now, appears much the same.

SSRS 2016 - Report Builder - NEW style ribbon

SSRS 2008 R2 - Report Builder - OLD style ribbon