Reporting Services Error: Report must be created with OfficeWriter Designer version 3.8.1.85 or later

Problem

When a report is exported from SSRS 2008 after upgrading to OfficeWriter 4.x, the following error message appears:

OfficeWriter report was deployed to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 must be created with OfficeWriter Designer version 3.8.1.85 or later. This report was created with version [version number] and must be run on SQL Server 2005 or earlier.

Solution

There are two known causes for this message, depending on the [verison number] of the Designer:

Designer version 3.8.x – 3.9.x

Full support for SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 was officially introduced in OfficeWriter 4.x. Exporting reports that were designed with an earlier version of the OfficeWriter Designer to SSRS 2008 will result in the error message above.

This message indicates that the report needs to be upgraded with a later version of the Designer.

To upgrade a report:

  1. Follow the instructions for removing the old version of the Designer and installing the new version of the Designer.
  2. Open the report in the new version of the Designer.
  3. Save or publish the report from the OfficeWriter Designer toolbar.

This will make several changes to the RDL to make it compatible with SSRS 2008.

Designer version 4.x

This is a known issue that occurs when the following conditions are met:

  • The report was created in Visual Studio 2008 for SQL Server 2008
  • OfficeWriter Designer version is 4.5.0
  • OfficeWriter v4.1.0 is deployed on the report server

The solution is to upgrade the OfficeWriter on the server from v4.1.0 to v4.5.0 or later.

NOTE: We generally recommend that the version of OfficeWriter on the server matches the version of the OfficeWriter Designer.

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