Report Definition/Metadata extract? 1

[DietSquirt]

Is there a way to export the report definition similar to what you can do with Crystal Reports? I need to extract metadata for each report to our metadata database. This is a new data warehouse project not gone live yet and we're on a learning curve.
TIA!

 

[SgtJarrow]

Open up the Reports view on your server. Navigate to the report you want to export. Go to the Properties page for the report. There is a Report Definition section near the bottom. Click the Edit button and you should get the option to Save or Open. This will give you the rdl file the report is based on.

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People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. (Calvin from Calvin And Hobbs)

Robert L. Johnson III
CCNA, CCDA, MCSA, CNA, Net+, A+, CHDP
VB.NET Programmer

 

[DietSquirt]

That's the same html as I can see in report designer by using View/Code, isn't it? I was hoping for something a little more readable...OK, now I know.
Thanks!

 

[SgtJarrow]

The rdl file, in all it's glorious length, is the actual definition for the report. It is an XML document... it includes the report layout, the data definitions, and everything else needed to produce and render the report.

You can export this rdl file and on the main page of your Reports server import it to another server with little to no trouble, as long as the second server has the same connection capabilities to the data sources. This is extremely flexible and efficient.

As a side note, this is very similar to how the Office 2007 products now work....all your Excel, Word, etc files are actually stored as XML documents if you are using the 007 file formats.

Glad to help.

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People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. (Calvin from Calvin And Hobbs)

Robert L. Johnson III
CCNA, CCDA, MCSA, CNA, Net+, A+, CHDP
VB.NET Programmer

 

[DietSquirt]

Thanks for your help.
I all ready made good use of it the other day, when SSRS crashed and trashed my project. Every report was glitched and couldn't be opened. I set up a new project, copied the html into new reports one by one, set the data source, and was back in business...whew!