Tag Archives: visual studio

SSRS

Scripting Deployment of Reporting Service Reports with Stored Credentials

When developing SSRS reports, it’s convenient to deploy data sources and reports to the Report Server using Visual Studio. However, when it comes to production, using Visual Studio is not practical or even possible.

A common solution is to use a tool such as RSBuild, which lets you specify deployment parameters in, appropriately, an XML file.

Alternatively, you can use the SSRS Web service API directly by writing a console application in your favorite .NET language. You can also create a Visual Basic script that can be run on the command line by the RS utility that comes with SSRS.

The problem

I had to deploy a report with stored credentials. The report is deployed correctly from Visual Studio. For production, I wrote a console application to deploy the report based on the Microsoft Reporting Service samples. However, when the report is viewed, it always prompts the user to enter data source credentials, as seen below. Continue reading Scripting Deployment of Reporting Service Reports with Stored Credentials →

Excel, Programming

Things I’d like in an IDE

I wish Resharper had a feature which pointed out where exceptions are being created but aren’t being thrown (ie, new Exception() instead of throw new Exception()). I also wanted a feature which automatically sets breakpoints where exceptions are thrown, although after thinking about that for a bit I’m not sure about that. I do really like the syntax checking for the most part, even if it messes up sometimes. And I still do go back to Emacs for anything repetitive; I haven’t seen anything in Resharper or VS that allows for Emacs-like macros.

Programming

Debugging XAML and Prism

The biggest frustration in my Silverlight development is debugging errors in my XAML code.  Since our app uses Prism, there are often three different .xaml files involved in any one change to the app: App.xaml for global styles, Shell.xaml for the main layout and a .xaml file for whatever view I’m working on.  If something goes wrong, knowing what file it’s in is half the battle.

Unfortunately, the errors that Silverlight throws when you have malformed XAML can be pretty obtuse.  Through trial, error and a little intuition I’ve figured out that there are some patterns:

  • If nothing at all renders, the problem is likely in App.xaml.  That gets loaded first, and if something goes wrong then you get bupkus.  Check for syntax errors in App.xaml.
  • If the only thing that renders is the spinny loady thing (I actually don’t know if this is a Silverlight default or a StockTraderRI thing) then I think that usually means the problem is in Shell.xaml.  App.xaml has loaded at this point, but something is keeping the rest of it from going.  Often this can happen if you’re referencing something in App.xaml that’s syntactically valid but semantically nonsense.  Check especially for mis-spelled values inside Setter tags, or badly structured ContentTemplates. Continue reading Debugging XAML and Prism →