Overriding SQL Server Reporting Service Hourly Subscription

Question

Users want to set up SSRS reports to be emailed to them. After a little googling i found this link that shows the subscription interface of Report Manager. This has almost every feature they need except, the hourly report subscription does not give them enough control. By default, they are able to set up hourly reports, and provide the desired start time, but at first glance, I don't see how they specify an end time. What I need is a way to say "Send me a report every hour between 5 and 10."

So I'm looking for one of two answers:

1. Is there really an end time that I'm just missing?
2. If not, how can I override the hourly subscription page and get and end time.

Thanks

Answer 1

You can write your own subscription service using the SQL Reporting Service Web Services.

You can schedule a subscription to run the job hourly and then write your own service that will pause the jobs at the time they do not want the reports.

More info here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms154066(SQL.90).aspx

Answer 2

Alternatively, you could also try editing the SQL Server job parameters. When reporting services creates a "subscription" a SQL Server job is created. There are starting and ending time parameters in that interface. I haven't verified that this provides the functionality you are looking for though.

Also, if that doesn't work and you don't want to code your own subscription service as mentioned, you could try creating 5 different jobs that run daily spaced an hour apart. I know it's kind of a kludge but maybe the extra job maintenance is preferable to the extra time for coding your own service.