Hi Steve.

We are trying to get away from shared data source. You cannot use a shared datasource with this expression based connection string, it defeats the purpose of making it dynamic.

You pass in the server name and database name in the parameters or in the url to dynamically generate report against the database and server you are sending in. so your expression based connection string replaces the parameter names with actual name of the server and database like this.

="data source=" & Parameters!Server.Value & ";initial catalog=" & Parameters!Database.Value

Data Source=(local);initial catalog=Northwind

Hope i answered your question.

Bottom line is , You cannot use shared datasource in this case.

Bilal

I got real excited when I saw the article as this is something we need, but it is unfortunate that you cannot use it with shared datasources... We only work with shared datasources in SSRS...

Anyone has any ideas around manipulating connection information for shared datasources?

I've just tried this process and it works great for datasets that do not use stored procedure.  When I use a stored procedure, RS cannot validate the procedure when I deploy and changes command type from stored procedure to text.  Once on the server, the report can't execute the stored procedure(s) since they are now text. 

Suggestions?

OK.  I stopped fighting RS and left the command as text and used the syntax

I still get an error, before I get to enter the server/database details, how does one stop this from happening?

• An error has occurred during report processing.
  • Cannot create a connection to data source 'ClientDB'.
    • For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors

Sorry, I meant to ask, does this also work for embedded (Jump to) reports and if so, how do I get the embedded report to run using the same server/database parameters?

Thx,

Rosey.