Data driven subscription feature not available on standard edition???

Rick A. Anderson 20

I've developed a few reports on a test server where we have SQL Server 2019 developer edition installed with the intent to migrate them over to our production server. I used the data-driven subscription feature to timestamp the file name for one report saved to the file system. Turns out our production server is standard edition and for some inexplicable reason, the data-driven subscriptions feature isn't available.

Does anyone know of an alternate way to time stamp a report file that doesn't rely on the data-driven subscription feature? Or is there maybe a way to enable that on the standard edition? I'm really confused about why such a trivial feature is missing from the standard edition but available on the dev edition. Really frustrating.

RatheeshKNair 6 Reputation points

2023-03-16T07:38:47.3+00:00

Developer edition is full fledged version just like enterprise but not supposed to use in Production environment. Standard edition dont support all features of enterprise\developer.
AniyaTang-MSFT 12,311 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-20T01:24:53.4933333+00:00

Hi @Rick A. Anderson

I'm glad your problem was solved. If you like, you can publish your answer in the answer and mark it as "accept answer" so that more people can quickly find a solution.

There's a suggestion for your filename timestamp, and we'd love to get your feedback. You can submit a request https://feedback.azure.com/d365community/forum/04fe6ee0-3b25-ec11-b6e6-000d3a4f0da0. If the customer mentions the requirement more than once, the product team can consider adding this feature in the next release. Your feedback is valuable for us to improve our products and improve our service levels.

Best regards,

Aniya
Rick A. Anderson 20 Reputation points

2023-03-20T15:07:50.5633333+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion but honestly, I don't consider this a answer/solution. What I came up with was an unnecessarily convoluted workaround for a ridiculous shortcoming in an otherwise great DBS. There's no reason SSRS--standard edition or otherwise--shouldn't be able to customize the name of a report. It doesn't make any sense that such a basic feature would only be available on the enterprise edition. What I'm doing is not really a solution.

I will submit it as feedback however but since it's already been deemed a "high-end" feature, I don't expect it to show up any time soon.

1 answer

AniyaTang-MSFT 12,311 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-14T02:08:34.1366667+00:00

Hi @Rick A. Anderson

According to the official documentation, the Standard edition of SQL Server Reporting Services does not support data-driven report subscriptions. I recommend you use the Developer version.

If you don't want to change the version, then you can try adding "@timestamp" to the file name, like this:

Result:

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,

Aniya
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Rick A. Anderson 20 Reputation points

2023-03-14T15:05:29.12+00:00

That's helpful but is there a way to time stamp it with yesterday's date? I'm outputting a report at 2 AM that shows data for yesterday and is being published for public use. The date needs to reflect the previous day's date.

AniyaTang-MSFT 12,311 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-15T05:54:34.5766667+00:00

Hi @Rick A. Anderson

I didn't find a way to go back to the previous day's date, maybe changing the version to the developer edition is the best way to do it.

Best regards,

Aniya

Rick A. Anderson 20 Reputation points

2023-03-15T14:57:58.68+00:00

It's a production server so I don't think using the developer edition is allowed for use that way. And downgrading a production server to access one feature is just not realistic anyway.

I was just hoping for some alternate way to accomplish this.

AniyaTang-MSFT 12,311 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-16T07:05:50.3366667+00:00

Hi @Rick A. Anderson

Perhaps changing the system time is a workaround. You can try it. My current time is March 16th, and I changed the time of the test machine to March 15th, and the same time it was executed to the day before.

Hope this can help you.

Best regards,

Aniya

Rick A. Anderson 20 Reputation points

2023-03-16T14:52:06.6266667+00:00

Aniya, that's really clever! :) Unfortunately, I don't have access to change the time on the server, but I appreciate the response.

AniyaTang-MSFT 12,311 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-17T06:47:31.8533333+00:00

Hi @Rick A. Anderson

Regarding filename date modification for standard subscriptions, I didn't find any other way to add the previous day's date to the filename. Perhaps you could create a batch job or some process to rename all files.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,

Aniya

Rick A. Anderson 20 Reputation points

2023-03-17T17:47:54.2733333+00:00

Yeah, I ended up writing a vbs script yesterday to handle this which is utterly ridiculous given that a powerful system like SQL Server Reports should be able to handle simple things like specifying file names and timestamps. Why that's considered a "high-end" enterprise feature makes absolutely no sense. It seems arbitrary and makes things needlessly frustrating for those of us developing on the platform.
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