Set deployment properties (Reporting Services)

In SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) or Visual Studio, you must specify the report server and optionally the folders for reports and shared data sources so that you can publish the items in a Report Server project to a report server. The properties and values that SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) or Visual Studio need to build, preview, and deploy reports are stored in project configurations of the Report Server project. You can create multiple named sets for these project properties, so that you can conveniently switch between property sets. Each set of properties is a configuration. For example, you can have a configuration for publishing reports to a test server and a different configuration for publishing reports to a production server.

Use Configuration Manager to create and manage sets of project properties in project configurations. Configuration Manager is a feature supported by Visual Studio, on which SQL Server Data Tools is based.

Note

Do not confuse this feature with the Report Server Configuration Manager, which is used to configure Reporting Services after installation. For more information, see Configure and administer a report server (SSRS native mode).

Note

In SQL Server Data Tools, the action of publishing reports from a Report Server project or solution is known as deploying reports.

Set deployment properties

  1. Right-click the report project, and then select Properties.

  2. In the Property Pages dialog box for the project, select a configuration to edit from the Configuration list. Common configurations are DebugLocal, Debug, and Release.

    Note

    You can use multiple configurations to switch quickly between different report servers or settings.

  3. In the OutputPath textbox, enter or paste the path in your local file system to store the report definition used in build verification, deployment, and preview of reports. The path must be different than the path that you use for the project and a relative path that is a child folder under the path of the project.

  4. In the ErrorLevel text box, enter the severity of the build issues that are reported as errors. Issues occurring when building reports, data sources, or other project resources with severity levels less than or equal to the value of ErrorLevel are reported as errors; otherwise, the issues are reported as warnings. Any error causes the build task to fail. The valid severity levels are 0 through 4 inclusive. The default value is 2.

    ErrorLevel can be used to increase or decrease the sensitivity of the build. For example, when a report with a map is built during deployment to a SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) report server an error displays by default and building the report fails. If you lower ErrorLevel the map is removed from the report, a warning displays, and building the report continues.

  5. In the StartItem list, select a report to display in the preview window or in a browser window when the report project is run.

  6. In the OverwriteDataSources list, select True to overwrite the shared data source on the server each time shared data sources are published, or select False to keep the data source on the server.

  7. In the TargetServerVersion list, select SQL Server 2016 version of Reporting Services or select Detect Version to automatically determine the version installed on the server identified by the TargetServer URL property. The default value is SQL Server 2016 or later.

    Use TargetServerVersion to customize the built reports, placed in the path specified in OutputPath, for the version of the report server specified in TargetServer URL.

  8. In the TargetDataSourceFolder text box, enter the folder on the report server in which to place the published shared data sources. The default value for TargetDataSourceFolder is Data Sources. If you leave this value blank, the data sources are published to the location specified in TargetReportFolder.

  9. In the TargetReportFolder text box, enter the folder on the report server in which to place the published reports. The default value for TargetReportFolder is the name of the report project.

    Note

    For a report server running in native mode, you must have Publish permissions on the target folder to publish reports to that folder. Publish permissions are provided through a role assignment that maps your user account to a role that includes publish operations. For more information, see Create and manage role assignments. For a report server running in SharePoint integrated mode, you must have Member or Owner permission on the SharePoint site. For more information, see SharePoint site and list permission reference for report server items.

  10. In the TargetServerURL text box, enter the URL of the target report server. Before you publish a report, you must set this property to a valid report server URL. When publishing to a report server running in native mode, use the URL of the virtual directory of the report server (for example, http://server/reportserver or https://server/reportserver). This virtual directory is on the report server, not the web portal.

    When publishing to a report server running in SharePoint integrated mode, use a URL to a SharePoint top-level site or subsite. If you don't specify a site, the default top-level site is used, for example, https://*servername*, https://*servername*/*site*, or https://*servername*/*site*/*subsite*.

Set Configuration Manager properties

  1. Right-click the report project, and then select Properties.

  2. In the Property Pages dialog box for the project, select Configuration Manager.

  3. In the Configuration Manager dialog box, select the configuration to edit. The currently active configuration is displayed as Active(<configuration>).

  4. In Project Contexts, for each project in the solution, select or clear Build or Deploy.

    Note

    If Build is selected, Report Designer builds the report project and checks for errors before previewing or publishing to a report server. If Deploy is selected, Report Designer publishes the reports to the report server as defined in deployment properties. If Deploy is not selected, Report Designer displays the report specified in the StartItem property in a local preview window.