SSRS how to change value in report

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SSRS how to change value in report

chris 95399

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Points: 425
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March 21, 2011 at 12:38 pm

#233508

Hey all,
first time poster here and an ssrs noob. I am just trying to change the value of one of the fields in a report someone else created but i cant find out where to do it.
I posted my question here:
http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=158067
(the website was one of the first results when i googled for help the other day)
Feel free to post here, there or send me a message.
Any help would be much appreciated. Its got to be something simple I am missing...
thanks!
Here is my initial post there (although theres a couple of posts there you may want to see):
I am new to SSRS and although I have some SQL Server knowledge I feel I am missing something basic here. Someone else designed our reports and now I am trying to look into them to change a couple of values. There is one report called: Invoice.rdl and its inside a project called: Timmons Reports.rptproj
On that Invoice.rdl file I want to change the description of one of the fields from "Great Product" to just "Product". i have tried this 3 different ways:
1) opened up the Invoice.rdl file as xml and searched changed the value and saved the file
2) opened up the Invoice.rdl in design view, right clicked on the cell i wanted to change, clicked Properties and then changed the value, clicked ok and saved the .rdl file
3) opened up the project Timmons Reports.rptproj, double clicked on Invoice.rdl and tried to change it both in design view (as mentioned above) and the xml way too.
There are many duplicates of this project and file in different folders (backups and copies on different drives) on the server. I have changed it everywhere on every file but when i run the report to generate an invoice it still says "Great Product".
So then I started thinking well maybe its getting that value from the database. When the report opens in a web browser the url looks something like: http://sqlserver/ReportServer$TIMMONSTEST/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?..... (and some other parameters that follow)
So I open up SQL Server Management Studio, choose sqlserver/TIMMONSTEST and connect. Then i click on Databases and I see ReportServer$TIMMONSTEST but when i open up the tables i dont see anything besides system tables. Am i just missing it in one of the tables or do these values not come from any database?
Thats kind of where I am. Just want to change the value of one of the cells in one of the reports.

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Dan.Humphries SSChampion Points: 12125 More actions · Answer 1

When you have tried to make the changes are you using visual studio? I do not recommend changing the XML file directly unless you are an advanced user as it is very easy to render the RDL useless. Once you changed the report did you publish the report back out to the report server? Visual studio or BIDS is where you should be making these changes.

Dan

If only I could snap my figures and have all the correct indexes apear and the buffer clean and.... Start day dream here.

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 2

I tried both.

I tried changing it in the xml file (first), saved, no change

Then I opened up the .rds in Visual Studio. tried changing it in the cell itself (right click properties) and then also tried changing it over to the left in the data set area, saved but still no change.

I did not publish the report back through the report server (dont know what that means sorry, I know SQL well enough to do views, stored procedures and use as db for my ASP pages but very new to ssrs).

Dan.Humphries SSChampion Points: 12125 More actions · Answer 3

when you say no change are you saying that when you open it the next time it is still not changed, When you preveiw the report in VS or BIDS you do not see the new field, or when you publish the report it is not update?

Dan

If only I could snap my figures and have all the correct indexes apear and the buffer clean and.... Start day dream here.

Daniel Bowlin SSC-Dedicated Points: 34566 More actions · Answer 4

Is the change visible in the Preview in BIDS (Visual Studio)?

Have you deployed the report after you successfully changed the column name?

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 5

its changed when i open the report back up in designer (in VS), but when i run the report, it still says Great Product instead of Product.

here is a quote from the other thread:

"...Something weird is in the report designer it shows something like this for all the values:

=Fields!DateOfSale.Value

But in the field I'm trying to change it just says "Great Product" - almost like its hard coded. But again, I changed the value and saved it but it does not reflect my change when I run the report.."

have not deployed or p[published anything, just saved it and tried to re-run the report.

Dan.Humphries SSChampion Points: 12125 More actions · Answer 6

If you have not deployed the report then the report has not been updated on the server and therfore will always hold the old value. based on what you are saying yes the value is hard coded.

Dan

If only I could snap my figures and have all the correct indexes apear and the buffer clean and.... Start day dream here.

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 7

chris 95399

SSC-Addicted

Points: 425

March 21, 2011 at 1:13 pm

#1301514

so where and how would I change that value??

Dan.Humphries SSChampion Points: 12125 More actions · Answer 8

It sounds like you already changed it you just have to deploy the updated report to the report server from VS

Dan

If only I could snap my figures and have all the correct indexes apear and the buffer clean and.... Start day dream here.

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 9

under the Build menu i see "Build company Reports" and "Deploy company Reports"....

again, since i am a noob here, will it hurt anything if I deploy them? I dont want to mess up any other reports on the server.

thanks again Dan

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 10

actually i guess i just need to look at some sort of SSRS tutorial that involves deployment....

thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Daniel Bowlin SSC-Dedicated Points: 34566 More actions · Answer 11

If it is not showing properly in preview in BIDS it won't be better when you deploy it (with almost no exceptions).

Can you post a screen shot of the Text Box Properties General tab, and a screen shot of the expression you are using for the value?

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 12

it does show properly in VS

I changed product order from "Local Advertisement" to just "Advertisement" but when i run the report it still says Local Advertisemtnt

Daniel Bowlin SSC-Dedicated Points: 34566 More actions · Answer 13

I am a little confused is Local Advertisement text or a field value in your query?

It looks like you are using it as just text. If that is true click the FX button next to the field and use the following expression

="Advertisement"

chris 95399 SSC-Addicted Points: 425 More actions · Answer 14

I imagine just text. I didn't create this report, just trying to modify that one value on our invoice.

I clicked the FX thing and edited the value to ="Advertisement" and saved it. Ran the report and still says Local Advertisement. Do I have to deploy it as Dan had suggested?

thanks again