In previous versions of SQL Server we have used sp_makewebtask procedure to generate HTML output for a query. From SQL Server 2008 MS has depreciated web assitant procedures. You can find this option under surface area configuration (SAC) in SSMS 2008 however if you enable this option for SQL Server 2008 you will be thrown with the below error message.
TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
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This method cannot be called on the server version 10. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)
For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=10.0.1600.22+((SQL_PreRelease).080709-1414+)&EvtSrc=Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.ExceptionTemplates.UnsupportedVersion&LinkId=20476
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BUTTONS:
OK
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This parameter is provided in SSMS 2008 for backward compatibility. i.e If you connect to SQL 2005 and then you can use this option.
Ok Now comes the question. How can I generate HTML output in SQL Server 2008 without using web assistant stored procedure?
The only option is to use reporting services to generate HTML output in SQL Server 2008. As an alternate you can also write your own T-SQL statements to print HTML tags while generating the output thereby creating a HTML page.