How to use SSRS 2017, 2019 REST API to render report and save as pdf programmatically

Question

I have a UIAPI project which use to generate SSRS reports and save as PDF file programmatically by using reportexecution2005.asmx web service with user credentials.

It works for SSRS 2016, but failed to SSRS 2017 or later.

I understand that the SSRS 2017 has provided a new feature: REST API to access SSRS objects. But I couldn't find how to use it to render reports and save as PDF file with users credentials.

Could you please give me some guidance how to make it work?

Many thanks

Answer 1

Thank you very much @Joyzhao-MSFT for your reply. That is helpful, but haven't resolved my issue completely.

There are still two issues which haven't clear.

1. How to pass user's credential with URL access, such as reportexecution2005.asmx using to?
   ReportExecutionService rs = new ReportExecutionService();
   rs.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(
   SsrsServiceAccountActiveDirectoryUserName,
   SsrsServiceAccountActiveDirectoryPassword,
   SsrsServiceAccountActiveDirectoryDomain);

       rs.Url = ReportExecution2005EndPointUrl;  
       rs.ExecutionHeaderValue = new ExecutionHeader();  
   

2. How to save this PDF file as byte[], such as
   private static byte[] RenderReportBytes(ReportExecutionService rs)
   {
   string deviceInfo = "<DeviceInfo><Toolbar>False</Toolbar></DeviceInfo>";
   string mimeType;
   string encoding;
   string[] streamId;
   Warning[] warning;

       var result = rs.Render("PDF", deviceInfo, out mimeType, out encoding, out encoding, out warning, out streamId);  
       return result;  
   }  
   

   ?

Many thanks

Answer 2

Hi OlafHelper-2800,

Thank you for your reply. I did read samples, but couldn't find any examples to resolve my issue.

Answer 3

Hi @Pengxin Fan ,
As far as I know, there is no method available in RestAPI provided by Microsoft available here.
There is an alternative to generate report by utilizing Url Access (SSRS)

URL access to the report server in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) enables you to send commands to a report server through a URL request.
URL Access Syntax
URL requests can contain multiple parameters that are listed in any order. Parameters are separated by an ampersand (&) and name/value pairs are separated by an equal sign (=).
Export a Report Using URL Access
You can optionally specify the format in which to render a report by using the rs:Format URL parameter. The HTML4.0 and HTM5 formats (rendering extension) will render in the browser and for other formats, the browser will prompt to save the report output to a local file.

For example, to get a PDF copy of a report directly from a native mode report server:

http://myrshost/ReportServer?/myreport&rs:Format=PDF  

You can also provide parameters to this using syntax

http://myrshost/ReportServer?/activeusers&UserStatus=true&rs:Format=PDF  

For more details, please refer to: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/export-a-report-using-url-access
Best Regards,
Joy

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Answer 4

You can find the REST documentation at https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/microsoft-rs/SSRS/2.0
and some examples at https://github.com/Microsoft/Reporting-Services

Answer 5

HI Joyzhao-MSFT,

Looks like that will work. I will try it and let you know shortly.

Many thanks,