Read from SQL Server Reporting Services with C#

Question

My company has lots of SQL Reports located at http://server/ReportServer and I want to make a WinForms app to read from them on a periodic schedule and do stuff with the information.

I've done some research with this and found this page: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155362.aspx but I'm still not sure how to get started. Any tips?

Answer 1

Reporting Services is normally accessed via http://SERVER/reports

This is the main web front end access for humans.

Your example is the back end access for machines. The same access levels are required.

So walk in the front door and browse your way to your target report. Change to detail view (top right) now when you hover over a report link a drop down menu is available. Select download or edit in report builder where you should be able to design the report and access the code.

But the reports could be accessing a sql database or SSAS or tabular. An extra complication could be that the report runs against a shared dataset on the server. Again though can navigate to the file and edit it. Note the folder may be hidden in which case just ensure you are in detail view

All of this requires access to be granted to you. Once you have the SQL you will still need access directly to the database which may be more difficult to allow than giving moderated access through reports.

I suggest that you make friends with your DBA and explain what you would like to do