Confused about differences between SSRS in Visual Studio and Microsoft Report Builder

Question

I have some questions regarding the differences between working on reports in Visual Studio (SSRS) and Microsoft Report Builder. When first starting up Report Builder, I connect to a report server, connect to a data source, and then add datasets. This is what the screen usually looks like below:

On visual studio, when starting a new reporting services project, I am not prompted to connect to a report server. I can navigate to the report file and open it to design the report, but cannot add any data. When adding a data source, I am prompted to select the type of data source (SQL Server, Report Server Model, etc) and I have tried to connect to the same data source I had connected to in Report Builder, but I cannot access the shared datasets. Here is the visual studio prompt below:

Why am I unable to connect to a report server in visual studio and pulled the shared datasets in that report server?

Answer 1

what you need to do in visual studio is to create a Shared Data Source first

Under your report project (right hand side) , right click on your Shared data Sources and create a new one

Once you have created and tested the connection here you can use this for new reports in this project.

When you create a report, under report data, right click Sata Sources -> Add new Data Source then give it a suitable name and then select "Use Shared Data Source Reference" and then select the Data Source you created in the previous step

Once you have done this, you can then create a Data Set using the Data Source created above. (Embedded in the report)

But if you want to use shared Data Set, then the Shared Dataset needs to have this data source assigned.

Hope that made sense.