What is New in SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Reporting Services

Enhancements to Reporting Services Features with new SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview (CTP)

The November CTP of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 provides the below listed enhancements and improvements to SQL Server Reporting Services features that were released in previous builds of MS SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP 's and MS SQL Server 2008.

270 Degree Text Rotation
Reporting Services developers (BI developers) can now rotate text 270 degrees by rotating a textbox in 270 degrees.
This simple improvement in MS SQL Server Reporting Services is important for me especially, since I remember I had to work to find a work-around for text rotating problem in SSRS once. I had then blogged my problem with text rotation at Can not Rotate Text so Set Writing Mode is from Bottom to Top.

Aggregation of Aggregates
Working with aggregation of aggregates was a problem in Reporting Services expressions just as it was once in SQL Server Analysis Services.
But now Reporting Services expressions can handle calculating aggregates of aggregates.
BI developers will be able to build Reporting Services reports which uses aggregation of an aggregate in their expressions.

Pagination in Reporting Services Reports
SQL Server Reporting Services BI Developers have more control over page breaks and pagination on tablix (table-matrix) data control, groups, rectangles, etc which will enable report developers to have customized reports.

Excel Worksheet Tab Naming
SSRS developers will be able to naming Excel worksheet tabs with SQL 2008 R2 November CTP.
This is a common case where many SQL Reporting Services developers experience, just to give a name to the Excel Worksheet tab when report users export data to Excel.
Now it is possible to set report properties for naming the Excel worksheet when report data is exported to Excel.

Map Layer Configuration Ability
Developers can configure map layers using Map Wizard in order to display data from spatial data sources and/or analytical data sources.

Improved Expressions
With SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP, new global variables and new report variable properties are supplied for use of Business Intelligence developers and report builders with SSRS 2008 R2.
This enhancement will provide support and more control over page naming, page numbering and renderer based properties.

You can download What's New in SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technology Preview (CTP) documentation from Microsoft Downloads in order to see what brings MS SQL Server 2008 R2 in all components of SQL Server.