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Deploying a custom assembly

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To deploy a custom assembly in SQL Server Reporting Services, place the assembly in the application folders of both Report Designer and the report server. By default, custom assemblies are granted Execution permission in Reporting Services. To grant custom assemblies privileges beyond Execute permission, you need to edit the rssrvpolicy.config configuration file for the report server and the rspreviewpolicy.config configuration file for the Report Designer preview window. Alternatively, you can install your custom assembly in the global assembly cache (GAC).

Note

There are two preview modes for Report Designer: the Preview tab and the pop-up preview window that is launched when your report project is started in DebugLocal mode. The Preview tab executes all report expressions using the FullTrust permission set and does not apply security policy settings. The pop-up preview window is meant to simulate the report server functionality and therefore has a policy configuration file that you or an administrator must modify to use custom assemblies in Report Designer. This pop-up preview also locks the custom assembly. Therefore, you need to close the preview window in order to modify or update your custom assembly code.

Deploy a custom assembly in Reporting Services

  1. Copy your custom assembly from your build location to the report server bin folder or the Report Designer folder.

    Placing your custom assembly in the report server bin folder enables you to publish reports that reference your custom assembly. The default location of the bin folder for the report server is:

    Reporting Services 2016

    %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin

    Reporting Services 2017 and later

    %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services\SSRS\ReportServer\bin

    Placing it in the Report Designer folder enables you to run and debug reports that reference your custom assembly in Report Designer. The default location of the Report Designer is:

    Visual Studio 2012

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies

    Visual Studio 2013

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies

    Visual Studio 2015

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies

    Visual Studio 2017

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS

    Visual Studio 2019

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS

  2. Open the appropriate configuration file. The default location of rssrvpolicy.config for the report server is:

    Reporting Services 2016

    %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS13.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer

    Reporting Services 2017 and later

    %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services\SSRS\ReportServer

    The files to update for the Report Designer are:

    Visual Studio 2012

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\PreviewProcessingService.exe.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSPreviewPolicy.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportDesigner.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportHost11.exe.config

    Visual Studio 2013

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\PreviewProcessingService.exe.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSPreviewPolicy.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportDesigner.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportHost.exe.config

    Visual Studio 2015

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\PreviewProcessingService.exe.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSPreviewPolicy.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportDesigner.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportHost.exe.config

    Visual Studio 2017

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\PreviewProcessingService.exe.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\RSPreviewPolicy.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\RSReportDesigner.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\RSReportHost.exe.config

    Visual Studio 2019

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\PreviewProcessingService.exe.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\RSPreviewPolicy.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\RSReportDesigner.config
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\SSRS\RSReportHost.exe.config

  3. Add a code group for your custom assembly. For more information, see Secure Development (Reporting Services).

Update custom assemblies

At some point, you might need to update a version of a custom assembly that's referenced by several published reports. If that assembly already exists in the bin directory of the report server or Report Designer, and the version number of the assembly is incremented or changed in some way, the currently published reports won't work properly. You'll need to update the version of the assembly that is referenced in the CodeModules element of the report definition and republish the reports. If you know that you'll frequently update a custom assembly, and your currently published reports need to reference the new assembly, you might want to consider using the same version number across all updates of a particular assembly.

If you don't need your currently published reports to reference the new version of the assembly, you can deploy your custom assembly to the global assembly cache. The global assembly cache can maintain multiple versions of the same assembly, so that your current reports can reference the previous version of your assembly and your newly published reports can reference the updated assembly. Yet another approach would be to set the binding redirect of the report server to force a redirect of all requests for the old assembly to the new assembly. You would need to modify the report server Web.config file and the report server ReportingServicesService.exe.config file. The entry might look like the following example:

<configuration>  
   <runtime>  
      <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">  
         <dependentAssembly>  
            <assemblyIdentity name="myAssembly"  
                              publicKeyToken="32ab4ba45e0a69a1"  
                              culture="neutral" />  
            <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0"  
                             newVersion="2.0.0.0"/>  
         </dependentAssembly>  
      </assemblyBinding>  
   </runtime>  
</configuration>

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