Deploying Reporting Services Reports - Damn this sh*t is cool !

1. Its a damn good way to deploy applications
2. It stops 'oh just deploy that file and it will work'
3. Even a monkey could install this solution across 5 servers

Problem being... Visual Studio .NET 2003 has Web Setup Projects, Database Projects etc. so I can easily deploy all my web apps, my sql databases etc. but there is no easy way to deploy SQL Reporting Services Reports...

Guess Again...

With a bit of R&D and some help from Teo Lachev (Author: "Microsoft Reporting Services in Action") I re-configured the ReportPublishing Sample.

The deployment solution consists of:

Base Folder - C:\Deployment\Anguss_Reports

Anguss Timesheets.rdl - a standard Report Definition created with VS.NET 2003
Anguss Phone Bill By Person.rdl - a standard Report Definition created with VS.NET 2003

Deploy.bat
rs -i PublishReports.rss -s http://localhost/reportserver -v parentFolder="Angus's Reports"

PublishReports.rss
Dim definition As [Byte]() = Nothing
Dim warnings As Warning() = Nothing
Dim parentPath As String = "/" + parentFolder
Dim filePath As String = "C:\Deployment\Anguss_Reports\"

Public Sub Main()

    rs.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
    Dim name As String

    'Create the parent folder
    Try
        rs.CreateFolder(parentFolder, "/", Nothing)
        Console.WriteLine("Parent folder created: {0}", parentFolder)
    Catch e As Exception
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try
    CreateSampleDataSource()

    PublishReport("Anguss Timesheets")
    PublishReport("Anguss Phone Bill By Person")

End Sub

Public Sub CreateSampleDataSource()
    Dim name As String = "AngussDatasource"
    Dim parent As String = "/" + parentFolder

    'Define the data source definition.
    Dim definition As New DataSourceDefinition()
    definition.CredentialRetrieval = CredentialRetrievalEnum.Integrated
    definition.ConnectString = "data source=(local);initial catalog=AngussDatabase"
    definition.Enabled = True
    definition.EnabledSpecified = True
    definition.Extension = "SQL"
    definition.ImpersonateUser = False
    definition.ImpersonateUserSpecified = True
    'Use the default prompt string.
    definition.Prompt = Nothing
    definition.WindowsCredentials = False

Try
    rs.CreateDataSource(name, parent, False, definition, Nothing)

Catch e As Exception
    Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
End Try
   
End Sub

Public Sub PublishReport(ByVal reportName As String)
    Try
        Dim stream As FileStream = File.OpenRead(filePath + reportName + ".rdl")
        definition = New [Byte](stream.Length) {}
        stream.Read(definition, 0, CInt(stream.Length))
        stream.Close()

    Catch e As IOException
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try

    Try
        warnings = rs.CreateReport(reportName, parentPath, False, definition, Nothing)

        If Not (warnings Is Nothing) Then
            Dim warning As Warning
            For Each warning In warnings
                Console.WriteLine(warning.Message)
            Next warning

        Else
            Console.WriteLine("Report: {0} published successfully with no warnings", reportName)
        End If

    Catch e As Exception
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message)
    End Try
End Sub
pause