Reporting Services Deployment

Question

I need to create a repeatable process for deploying SQL Server Reporting Services reports. I am not in favor of using Visual Studio and or Business Development Studio to do this. The rs.exe method of scripting deployments also seems rather clunky. Does anyone have a very elegant way that they have been able to deploy reports. The key here is that I want the process to be completely automated.

Answer 1

I know you say that you're not in favor of the Business Development Studio to do this, but I've found the built-in tools to be very reliable and easy to use.

Answer 2

Well not really elegant. We created our own tool that uses the reportingservices2005 web service. We found this to be the most reliable way of getting what we want.

It's not really that difficult and lets you expand it to do other things like creating data sources and folders as required.

Answer 3

Have you looked into any Continuous Integration solutions such as CruiseControl.NET? If you are able to deploy Reports using rs.exe then you can setup an automated process in CruiseControl to build and deploy your Reports on a timer or whenever a report is modified.

Answer 4

We use rs.exe, once we developed the script we have not needed to touch it anymore, it just works.

Here is the source (I slightly modified it by hand to remove sensitive data without a chance to test it, hope I did not brake anything), it deploys reports and associated images from subdirectories for various languages. Also datasource is created.

'=====================================================================
'  File:      PublishReports.rss
'
'  Summary: Script that can be used with RS.exe to 
'           publish the reports.
'
'  Rss file spans from beginnig of this comment to end of module
' (except of "End Module").
'=====================================================================

Dim langPaths As String() = {"en", "cs", "pl", "de"}
Dim filePath As String = Environment.CurrentDirectory

Public Sub Main()

    rs.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials

    'Create parent folder
    Try
        rs.CreateFolder(parentFolder, "/", Nothing)
        Console.WriteLine("Parent folder created: {0}", parentFolder)
    Catch e As Exception
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try

    PublishLanguagesFromFolder(filePath)

End Sub

Public Sub PublishLanguagesFromFolder(ByVal folder As String)
    Dim Lang As Integer
    Dim langPath As String

    For Lang = langPaths.GetLowerBound(0) To langPaths.GetUpperBound(0)
        langPath = langPaths(Lang)

        'Create the lang folder
        Try
            rs.CreateFolder(langPath, "/" + parentFolder, Nothing)
            Console.WriteLine("Parent lang folder created: {0}", parentFolder + "/" + langPath)
        Catch e As Exception
            Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
        End Try

        'Create the shared data source
        CreateDataSource("/" + parentFolder + "/" + langPath)

        'Publish reports and images
        PublishFolderContents(folder + "\" + langPath, "/" + parentFolder + "/" + langPath)
    Next 'Lang
End Sub

Public Sub CreateDataSource(ByVal targetFolder As String)
    Dim name As String = "data source"

    'Data source definition.
    Dim definition As New DataSourceDefinition
    definition.CredentialRetrieval = CredentialRetrievalEnum.Store
    definition.ConnectString = "data source=" + dbServer + ";initial catalog=" + db
    definition.Enabled = True
    definition.EnabledSpecified = True
    definition.Extension = "SQL"
    definition.ImpersonateUser = False
    definition.ImpersonateUserSpecified = True
    'Use the default prompt string.
    definition.Prompt = Nothing
    definition.WindowsCredentials = False
    'Login information
    definition.UserName = "user"
    definition.Password = "password"

    Try
    'name, folder, overwrite, definition, properties 
        rs.CreateDataSource(name, targetFolder, True, definition, Nothing)
    Catch e As Exception
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try

End Sub

Public Sub PublishFolderContents(ByVal sourceFolder As String, ByVal targetFolder As String)
    Dim di As New DirectoryInfo(sourceFolder)
    Dim fis As FileInfo() = di.GetFiles()
    Dim fi As FileInfo

    Dim fileName As String

    For Each fi In fis
        fileName = fi.Name
        Select Case fileName.Substring(fileName.Length - 4).ToUpper
            Case ".RDL"
                PublishReport(sourceFolder, fileName, targetFolder)
            Case ".JPG", ".JPEG"
                PublishResource(sourceFolder, fileName, "image/jpeg", targetFolder)
            Case ".GIF", ".PNG", ".BMP"
                PublishResource(sourceFolder, fileName, "image/" + fileName.Substring(fileName.Length - 3).ToLower, targetFolder)
        End Select
    Next fi
End Sub

Public Sub PublishReport(ByVal sourceFolder As String, ByVal reportName As String, ByVal targetFolder As String)
    Dim definition As [Byte]() = Nothing
    Dim warnings As Warning() = Nothing

    Try
        Dim stream As FileStream = File.OpenRead(sourceFolder + "\" + reportName)
        definition = New [Byte](stream.Length) {}
        stream.Read(definition, 0, CInt(stream.Length))
        stream.Close()
    Catch e As IOException
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try

    Try
   'name, folder, overwrite, definition, properties 
        warnings = rs.CreateReport(reportName.Substring(0, reportName.Length - 4), targetFolder, True, definition, Nothing)

        If Not (warnings Is Nothing) Then
            Dim warning As Warning
            For Each warning In warnings
                Console.WriteLine(warning.Message)
            Next warning
        Else
            Console.WriteLine("Report: {0} published successfully with no warnings", targetFolder + "/" + reportName)
        End If
    Catch e As Exception
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try
End Sub

Public Sub PublishResource(ByVal sourceFolder As String, ByVal resourceName As String, ByVal resourceMIME As String, ByVal targetFolder As String)
    Dim definition As [Byte]() = Nothing
    Dim warnings As Warning() = Nothing

    Try
        Dim stream As FileStream = File.OpenRead(sourceFolder + "\" + resourceName)
        definition = New [Byte](stream.Length) {}
        stream.Read(definition, 0, CInt(stream.Length))
        stream.Close()
    Catch e As IOException
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try

    Try
    'name, folder, overwrite, definition, MIME, properties 
        rs.CreateResource(resourceName, targetFolder, True, definition, resourceMIME, Nothing)
        Console.WriteLine("Resource: {0} with MIME {1} created successfully", targetFolder + "/" + resourceName, resourceMIME)
    Catch e As Exception
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try
End Sub

Here is the batch to call the rs.exe:

SET ReportServer=%1
SET DBServer=%2
SET DBName=%3
SET ReportFolder=%4

rs -i PublishReports.rss -s %ReportServer% -v dbServer="%DBServer%" -v db="%DBName%" -v parentFolder="%ReportFolder%" >PublishReports.log 2>&1

pause

Answer 5

I strongly recommend RSScripter. As noted in the overview:

Reporting Services Scripter is a .NET Windows Forms application that enables scripting and transfer of all Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services catalog items to aid in transferring them from one server to another. It can also be used to easily move items on mass from one Reporting Services folder to another on the same server. Depending on the scripting options chosen, Reporting Services Scripter can also transfer all catalog item properties such as Descriptions, History options, Execution options (including report specific and shared schedules), Subscriptions (normal and data driven) and server side report parameters.

Answer 6

I used the script @David supplied but I had to add some code (I'm typing this up as an answer, as this would be too long for a comment.

The problem is: if there is already a "shared datasource" attached to a report in the report definition, this is never the same datasource as the one that is created in the script.

This also becomes apparent from the warning emitted by the "CreateReport" method:

The data set '' refers to the shared data source '', which is not published on the report server.

So the data source has to be set explicitly afterwards. I've made the following code changes:

I added a global variable:

Dim dataSourceRefs(0) As DataSource

At the end of the CreateDataSource method, that variable gets filled:

Dim dsr As New DataSourceReference
dsr.Reference = "/" + parentFolder + "/" + db
Dim ds As New DataSource
ds.Item = CType(dsr, DataSourceDefinitionOrReference)
ds.Name = db
dataSourceRefs(0) = ds

And in the PublishReport method, that data source gets explicitly set (after CreateReport has been called):

rs.SetItemDataSources(targetFolder + "/" + reportName.Substring(0, reportName.Length - 4), dataSourceRefs)

Note that this last call is only RS 2005 or higher. If you want to load your reports onto a RS 2000 server, you have to use SetReportDataSources in stead:

rs.SetReportDataSources(targetFolder + "/" + reportName.Substring(0, reportName.Length - 4), dataSourceRefs)