Disappearing Parameter Defaults

I ran into an interesting problem today with default parameter values.
I had a report with 6 parameters. One of them, it happened to be Language, had a default value of 1 in the parameter window. The rest had values from datasets. Once deployed, if you chose a data driven parameter, the language default would disappear and ask you to select a value. This was very inconvenient, as it was a hidden parameter in this report.

After googling and looking in the forums, I realized this is an ongoing issue in SSRS. So I had to come up with a workaround.

I played around with it for a while, and figured out a way to make it work. I created a dataset called DefaultLanguage, with the SQL:

Select 1 as ID

I then set the default for the language parameter to that dataset.

Now when any other parameter is changed, the default language stays selected!

peace

Parameter Prompts Go Prime Time

I just was reading Teo Lachev's blog and saw this entry: Parameterized Parameter Prompts.

SQL 2008 will allow expressions on the parameter prompts!!! This means that in my article Multi Language Reports, you will be able to update the prompts to different languages. :-D

Check out Teo's other blogs too... He has been working with the new features in SQL2008, something that I hope to be able to get around to soon.

peace