Tips when working with SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services)

Some tips when working with SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) are as follows:

Tip 1: Following are some steps we need to take when migrating from one Report server to another instance

a. Backup All Files and Data

b. Install SQL Server Reporting Services (another instance)

c. Move the Report Server Database to the newly created instance

d. Configure the Report Server as required

e. Check Windows Service Group

f. Confirm and check your Deployment

Tip 2: Report server periodically monitors the schedules known to the system and checks the corresponding SQL Agent Jobs for

a. Existence

b. Changes

If the Agent job does not exist, a new one is created. If any changes were made to the Agent job, it is updated with the original settings as saved in the SSRS server.

Tip 3: You should not recreate Report Model from scratch unless you want to start over completely with the model. It also is true for all reports that use the model. Since models use GUID identifiers, recreating the model from scratch always results in a model that is unusable by all existing reports.

Tip 4: Report Models do not support SQL queries. You need to use Query Builder to create queries. The language is XML based, difficult to write and edit queries.

Tip 5: A Textbox can have a maximum of characters up to 32,000

Tip 6: When you are using Custom Code and want to debug the report from BIDS, you need to add the assembly in the location ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE’

If not added then the report cannot be debugged.

You need to add reference to Microsoft.ReportingService.ProcessingObjectModel.dll