Tag Archives: SSRS

SSRS: Auditing Report Queries

Want to view a list of queries used in reports deployed on a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) server?

While SSRS’s web service exposes the functionality necessary to assemble this information, using that service requires programming/scripting skills or third-party software. Thankfully, these requirements can be bypassed by fetching this information directly from the report server database. Continue reading

SSRS: Referencing Data Contained in Other Textboxes

Did you know that the content of other textboxes can be referenced in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services expressions?

In the example below, the expression for Destination (the lower textbox) is set to =ReportItems!Source.Value. When report rendering occurs, Destination is populated with Source‘s content.

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Placeholders for SSRS Expressions

How could I have missed it?! Only recently did I discover the placeholder concept in  Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

In the report design interface, a text box containing an expression more complex than a single field reference (e.g. [FirstName]) or single field aggregate function call (e.g. [Count(Orders)]) is displayed as <<Expr>>. Continue reading

SSRS – Updating Linked Report Page Properties

Page property changes made to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports are not passed on to linked reports. For example, changing a parent report’s page size from letter to legal will not change child linked reports’ page sizes to legal.

Sometimes, it’s desirable to synchronize child report page settings to their parents. Brian Welcker posted a code sample showing how to automate this property copying using the now old-style .Net 2.0 Web Reference approach. Let’s implement the same functionality using the modern (though, unfortunately, more verbose) Service Reference approach. Continue reading

SSRS: Dataset Field List Is Empty Even After Refresh Fields

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Problem: Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services won’t populate the data set’s field list. Clicking Refresh Fields does nothing—the field list remains empty.

Is something wrong with the query? Is there a database permissions issue? Let’s check. Click the Query Designer button, then the red “!” (execute) icon. The query runs and…a normal result set is returned. Since the query executes correctly, the query and permissions must be fine. So, the blank field list indicates an SSRS bug—correct? Not necessarily. Continue reading