The next phase of our reporting project is about to take off, and I had a little down time while waiting on requirements.
So, using the ReportingService2005 web service, I created a report deployment application in C#.
It allows me to select the directory of my RDL/RDS files, and then select my report server and any folder on that server.
Then it deploys the selected reports to the report server with the one button click.
I can then change the report server, and deploy the same reports to that server. This is helpful if you have multiple systems that should stay in sync. Using dynamic web service connections allows me to change the target server within code.
Working with the web service was rather straightforward, and allowed me to do everything I needed to do as far as deploying reports and data sources.
However, what I wanted to write about was a catch that had me stumped for a few minutes.
When you use the CreateReport method of the web service, the data sources are not linked to the server data sources. So what I did was use the GetItemDataSources method to get the report data sources, built a new data source in code, representing the server data source, and then used the SetItemDataSources method to update the report data sources.
DataSource[] dataSources = rs.GetItemDataSources(TargetFolder + "/" + ReportName);
foreach (DataSource ds in dataSources)
{
if (ds.Item.GetType() == typeof(InvalidDataSourceReference))
{
string dsName = ds.Name.ToString();
DataSource serverDS = new DataSource();
DataSourceReference serverDSRef = new DataSourceReference();
serverDSRef.Reference = "/Data Sources/" + dsName;
serverDS.Item = serverDSRef;
serverDS.Name = dsName;
DataSource[] serverDataSources = new DataSource[] { serverDS };
rs.SetItemDataSources(TargetFolder + "/" + ReportName, serverDataSources);
}
}
This nicely updated the report data sources to use the server shared data sources.
All in all, the 1½ days I spent writing this app were well worth it. I learned about the deployment methods of the web service, and kept my coding skills up, plus I have a nice deployment utility for reports!
peace
