Build tool to convert SSRS projects report RDL schema from 2016 to 2008 version

Question

I have a number of SSRS reports that are currently in 2016 schema and need to be converted to 2008 R2 schema upon build.

Does anyone know how I can achieve this? Is it actually possible to do this? Does Microsoft provide a tool for this purpose?

It is difficult to find information on this, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks all!

If you mean you want to deploy to a 2008R2 server, then I think you can just change the `Target Server Version` in the project settings in Visual Studio. — Alan Schofield, May 19 '17 at 08:23
@AlanSchofield is correct; to expand this slightly, when you're building the project and have set the `Target Server Version` as required, the actual RDL build artefacts file(s) with the 2008R2/2012/2014 schema will be available in the project `bin` folder. This assumes that there are no 2016 specific features in the report or the build/deploy will fail. — Ian Preston, May 19 '17 at 11:09
Seems like about the same issue as https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38902037/ssrs-report-definition-is-newer-than-server/54711646#54711646 — Sevenate, May 01 '19 at 18:38

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 26 '19 at 11:52

12

You can convert 2016 rdls to 2008 r2 version by following below simple steps :

Update Version 2016 to 2008 in first line.
Delete two lines of both opening and closing part of the ReportSection and ReportSections.
Delete complete ReportParametersLayout part.

edited Mar 26 '19 at 11:52

Community

answered Apr 09 '18 at 06:00

Shubham Yadav

1

As for the last step it was *ReportParametersLayout* in my case (notice plural for ParameterS), but it worked at the end, so thanks a lot! – Sevenate Mar 22 '19 at 01:10
Works sometimes. The other answer below works 100%.. – speedinfusion May 16 '23 at 19:12

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '19 at 07:25

5

Using Visual Studio 2017.

Change TargetServerVersion to any of the following then click OK

SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012 or 2014

This step is crucial. when you are done with the design.
- Right click RDL or project and click Build.

depending on build configuration you should have rdl file created for you in the follwing path.

\bin\Release\report1.rdl

\bin\Debug\report1.rdl

answered Mar 15 '19 at 07:25

Masoud R

Thanks for sharing this. This is much easier than messing around manually editing the RDL structure as some other answers suggest. – Alex Jul 16 '20 at 07:38
This is the best solution. Modifying the XML is terrible and doesn't always work. – speedinfusion May 16 '23 at 18:53