Business Intelligence Development Studio Express

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Toolkit (SQL Server Express Toolkit) provides tools and resources to manage SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express), and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services (SQL Server Express). It also allows creating reports by using SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS).

The toolkit includes:

• Connectivity components
  Installs components for communication between clients and server. These include network libraries for OLE DB and ODBC.
  
• Business Intelligence Development Studio
  Installs tools that are used in a development environment. These include Business Intelligence Development Studio, Report Designer, and software development kits.
  
• Software development kit
  Installs software development kits for programmers.
  
• Management Studio Express
  Installs tools to access, configure, manage, administer, and develop components of SQL Server Express.
  

SQL Server Express Toolkit Setup installs Business Intelligence Development Studio. This is required to create and modify reports that can be hosted on Reporting Services. There is a different setup program that you must run to install Reporting Services. The setup program, SQL Server Express with Advanced Services (SQL Server Express) Setup, guides you through the Reporting Services installation.

When Reporting Services is installed, you can view reports by using your report server. However, to create reports, you must use Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Business Intelligence Development Studio is the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 environment with enhancements that are specific to SQL Server 2005 business intelligence solutions. The following project templates are available in Business Intelligence Development Studio. You can use either of these templates to create reports that run on a Reporting Services report server:

• Report Server Project
  
• Report Server Project Wizard
  

By default, SQL Server 2005 Books Online is not installed with Business Intelligence Development Studio. Therefore, if you press F1, the MSDN online Help opens. Pressing F1, you can access all F1 Help topics, but you do not see a table of contents or have access to the rest of the SQL Server 2005 documentation. To access entire SQL Server 2005 documentation, install SQL Server 2005 Books Online from this Microsoft Web site. After installing, in the Contents pane of the Books Online, you can use the SQL Server Express filter to hide the content that does not apply to SQL Server Express edition.

When you press F1, the topics that open may refer to user interface elements or features that are not supported by SQL Server Express. This is because the documentation was written for the full version of SQL Server 2005.