How to modify old rdlc in Visual Studio 2022 without changing its structure?

Question

How to modify old rdlc in Visual Studio 2022 without changing its structure?

George Waters 21

Hi,

I have lots of rdlc report viewer files from .Net Framework 4.5, they were created using VS2015.

Now that I have updated the app to 4.8 and Visual Studio 2022, if I try to modify any rdlc, it changes its schema, from 2008 to 2016 and makes a mess of errors. I also tried using Report Builder as a separate download, but it does the same.

Any idea how to modify the old rdlc in VS2022 without changing its original structure?

Thanks in advance.

3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Michael Taylor 60,326

Can I ask what the actual issue is with upgrading the reports to a newer schema? The reports should continue to behave the same, you're going to be using a newer version of the reportviewer library to load them and, since it is RDLCs, there are no server side components that might run into issues. Updating data files to newer formats is a very common thing that happens so the only way to prevent this would be to revert to a tool that uses the older format. However at some point it is possible that the report viewer may no longer support the older schema.

George Waters 21 Reputation points

2023-02-09T17:20:21.9533333+00:00

Thank you for your time, Michael.

These rdlc's are used in a winforms system. If I modify any old rdlc, it updates the schema to 2016 and it changes its internal structure, at first there are no visible problems, but when compiling, it throws lots of errors related to the structure, that's why I was looking for a possible solution.
Michael Taylor 60,326 Reputation points

2023-02-09T18:03:28.2866667+00:00

Are you sure the schema change is what is causing this. If you drop an RDLC file into your project but don't open it in the editor then you're saying it works fine but if you open the file and save it then things fail? Can you show us some compiler errors you're getting along with the corresponding report structure?
Michael Taylor 60,326 Reputation points

2023-02-09T18:06:06.6466667+00:00

To clarify what I'm getting at, compilation errors are related to the code you write. Since you're using LocalReport in your code that would have nothing to do with the underlying RDLC as the report itself isn't loaded until runtime. I'm wondering if the issue is just with changes to the reporting library to work with the newer framework version.

George Waters 21

This is the report with the old structure, it runs fine if I don't modify it:

Now, if I make a small change on the report using VS2022 or Report Builder, both change it to this:

And when trying to run it, the error comes up: "The definition of the report is not valid"

Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.LocalProcessingException: Se ha producido un error durante el procesamiento local de informes. ---> Microsoft.Reporting.DefinitionInvalidException: La definición del informe '' no es válida. ---> Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ReportProcessingException: La definición de este informe no es válida o no la admite esta versión de Reporting Services. La definición del informe puede que se haya creado con una versión posterior de Reporting Services, o que contenga contenido que no tiene el formato correcto o que no es válido según los esquemas de Reporting Services. Detalles: La definición de informe tiene un espacio de nombres de destino no válido 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2016/01/reportdefinition' que no se puede actualizar.
   en Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportPublishing.ReportPublishing.CreateInvalidReportDefinitionException(Exception e)
   en Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportPublishing.ReportPublishing.Phase1(Stream definitionStream, String& description, String& language, DataSourceInfoCollection& dataSources, DataSetInfoCollection& sharedDataSetReferences, Boolean& hasExternalImages, Boolean& hasHyperlinks)
   en Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportPublishing.ReportPublishing.InternalCreateIntermediateFormat(Stream definitionStream, String& description, String& language, ParameterInfoCollection& parameters, DataSourceInfoCollection& dataSources, DataSetInfoCollection& sharedDataSetReferences, UserLocationFlags& userReferenceLocation, ArrayList& dataSetsName, Boolean& hasExternalImages, Boolean& hasHyperlinks, Byte[]& dataSetsHash)
   en Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportPublishing.ReportPublishing.CreateIntermediateFormat(Byte[] definition, String& description, String& language, ParameterInfoCollection& parameters, DataSourceInfoCollection& dataSources, DataSetInfoCollection& sharedDataSetReferences, UserLocationFlags& userReferenceLocation, ArrayList& dataSetsName, Boolean& hasExternalImages, Boolean& hasHyperlinks, Byte[]& dataSetsHash)
   en Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ReportProcessing.CompileOdpReport(PublishingContext reportPublishingContext, IDataProtection dataProtection, PublishingErrorContext errorContext, String& reportDescription, String& reportLanguage, ParameterInfoCollection& parameters, DataSourceInfoCollection& dataSources, DataSetInfoCollection& sharedDataSetReferences, UserLocationFlags& userReferenceLocation, ArrayList& dataSetsName, Boolean& hasExternalImages, Boolean& hasHyperlinks, Byte[]& dataSetsHash)
   en Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ReportProcessing.CreateIntermediateFormat(PublishingContext reportPublishingContext, IDataProtection dataProtection)
   en Microsoft.Reporting.ReportCompiler.CompileReport(ICatalogItemContext context, Byte[] reportDefinition, Boolean generateExpressionHostWithRefusedPermissions, ControlSnapshot& snapshot)
   --- Fin del seguimiento de la pila de la excepción interna ---
   en Microsoft.Reporting.ReportCompiler.CompileReport(ICatalogItemContext context, Byte[] reportDefinition, Boolean generateExpressionHostWithRefusedPermissions, ControlSnapshot& snapshot)
   en Microsoft.Reporting.LocalService.GetCompiledReport(PreviewItemContext itemContext, Boolean rebuild, ControlSnapshot& snapshot)
   en Microsoft.Reporting.LocalService.CompileReport()
   en Microsoft.Reporting.LocalService.Microsoft.Reporting.ILocalProcessingHost.CompileReport()
   en Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.LocalReport.EnsureExecutionSession()
   --- Fin del seguimiento de la pila de la excepción interna ---
   en Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.LocalReport.EnsureExecutionSession()
   en Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.LocalReport.SetParameters(IEnumerable`1 parameters)

Michael Taylor 60,326 Reputation points

2023-02-09T18:40:40.8+00:00

OK, so it is a runtime error, not a compiler error. In order to render the reports you must be using the newer report viewer library. You'll want this anyway as you're targeting .NET 4.8. Verify that you are using the Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportViewerControl.Winforms package from NuGet. Remove any legacy references to the versions of SSRS that shipped with early versions of .NET. They were deprecated in lieu of the newer libraries.
George Waters 21 Reputation points

2023-02-09T19:12:09.4533333+00:00
Yes, it is a runtime error, my bad.

I've tried removing local dependencies for Microsoft.ReporViewer.* and installing the new package as suggested, but now I have multiple runtime errors on the code:

bytes = rp1.LocalReport.Render("PDF", deviceinfo, mimeType, encoding, extension, streamids, warnings) Dim fs As New FileStream(pdfFile, FileMode.Create) fs.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length) fs.Close()

It seems I have to adapt the code to the new version, and hope to see if that fixes rdlc error. I'll be back as soon as I fix it.

Thanks for your time.

Answer 2

Olaf Helper 47,441

and makes a mess of errors

What for errors? And why don't you fix the errors?

Any idea how to modify the old rdlc in VS2022 without changing its original structure?

No.

Answer 3

Hi @George Waters

When you open a paginated report in Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), the report definition is upgraded to the currently supported RDL schema. When you specify a SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x), SQL Server 2008 R2 (10.50.x), SQL Server 2012 (11.x), or SQL Server 2014 (12.x) report server in the project properties, the report definition is saved in a schema that is compatible with the target server.

For more details, you can refer to this link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/install-windows/upgrade-reports?view=sql-server-ver16.

Best regards,

Aniya

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How to modify old rdlc in Visual Studio 2022 without changing its structure?

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