Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

If you're tempted to uninstall Visual Studio 2005 after installing Visual Studio 2008 (I've done that immediately), a word of caution... There is currently no support for SQL Server 2005 BI projects in Visual Studio 2008. This means that with uninstalling VS2005 you'll lose the ability to, for example, edit Reporting Services 2005 Reports. Support for RS Reports in VS2008 are planned with the SQL Server 2008 release (due next year), but currently there's no plan to support RS 2005 Reports, only 2008.

So... to continue working with SQL Server 2005 projects, you'll have to have Visual Studio 2005 installed, but... not necessarily the whole thing. If you already uninstalled VS2005, but need it just for SQL2005 BI projects, you can now install the VS2005 shell only. Bring out your SQL2005 installation, look for the file vs_install.msi and run it. After a minute or two of silence, the installer should report that installation was successful. SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio, together with VS BI templates, is now back [Without all the clutter that "regular" VS2005 installation brings along].

I can't figure out why Microsoft didn't include SQL2005 BI Projects support in VS2008. I mean - with VS2008 you get all these new and improved designers for wide range of technologies, but for BI projects you'll still have to use the old VS2005 shell. I Hope that changes soon.

Published Thursday, November 29, 2007 3:41 AM by Andrej Tozon
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Thursday, November 29, 2007 6:11 AM by Mladen

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

install sql server 2008 ctp :)
Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:13 AM by Andrej Tozon

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

Mladen, installing SQL2008 won't help if your current target is SQL2005, will it?
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 8:17 AM by Dave

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

No classic asp support, no BI 2005 support...Microsoft really doesn't want us using 2008 does it? I was about to deploy this to my staff, but now I'm not going to until they address some of these shortcomings. Guess we will stick with 2.0 features for now.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 1:04 AM by Kamran Shahid

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

Same is the case here. Because of shortcoming of BI project development targetting sql server 2005 in VS2008. It is really disappointing
Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:13 AM by Richard Bailey

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

I have earned my living working with Microsoft products since 1994. They have pulled some short-sighted stunts in the past, but this one really takes the cake. Somebody explain to me why I shouldn't uninstall vs 2008!! Or, better yet, get a job as a PHP/My SQL/Perl programmer.
Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:40 PM by Kiran

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

I am wasting my computers main memory due to microsoft as i have to install both VS2005 and VS2008 for my work. Is SQL 2008 released
Saturday, March 15, 2008 8:19 PM by Doug

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

I hope that VS2008 extensions for BizTalk and SharePoint will soon follow.
Friday, April 25, 2008 11:33 AM by Urvija

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

Yes.. You need to run VS 2005 side by side with VS 2008 to use Business Intelligence Project
Wednesday, June 04, 2008 1:08 AM by Ted

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

So far, I have noticed the following major short comings in VS2008 - No BI projects (Use VS2005 side by side for BI projects) - No template and web layout design for mobile web applications (work around will bring templates but still no UI support) - No WSE support (work around will solve for WSE 3, but I expected a lot more from MS) There might be a lot more, but above are of matters for me.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 11:34 PM by Pablo

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

Now imagine, that you really are an honest developer, and have to BUY both products.
Monday, July 28, 2008 5:52 AM by Expecho's .Net corner

# Visual Studio 2008 and SQL 2005 BI Projects

Visual Studio 2008 and SQL 2005 BI Projects

Monday, September 29, 2008 1:44 AM by Andrej Tozon's blog

# Developing for ASP.NET mobile

Visual Studio 2008 introduced a lot of new features to support new technologies, adding some cool new

Monday, September 29, 2008 2:24 AM by Zunanji viri

# Developing for ASP.NET mobile

Visual Studio 2008 introduced a lot of new features to support new technologies, adding some cool new

Friday, October 03, 2008 7:50 AM by Brad

# re: Visual Studio 2008 and Business Intelligence Projects

I am lost, I did install "vs_install.msi", from I believe was the 2nd SQL Server 2005 disk, however I am still not seeing the BI tools and it did exactly what you described... nothing then a completion dialog box showed up stating success. I have Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 installed and even SQL Server 2008 installed. I had upgraded the 2005 SQL Server install to 2008. I am going to try to install 2005 again. I do not see the BI tools in either VS2005 or 2008. Any suggestions? A little confused here. Thanks!

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