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apollo7Flag for United States of America

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When I select "View Code" for an RDL file, I only see XML.

Visual Studio 2015, SSRS

I am having a problem working on RDL files locally.  I was sent some RDL file to review.   When I use  "Add Existing"  to add the reports to a report project, I can see the report design when I right-click and select "View Designer"

However, when I select "View Code", I only see XML.  What am I doing wrong?

Thanks
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lcohan
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No, I dont have access to either the CRM database or SSRS Report Server.  I am trying to review the report locally for conversion to FetchXML.  

I have a local SQL Server and can install SSRS to import the RDL but not sure this is possible without a connection to the CRM 2016 on prem database?

I am going to try Reportbuilder, any other advice on testing the conversion to Fetchxml for a D365 Online CRM system would be very helpful.

Thanks
Do you mean something like this?
http://msxrmtools.com/fetchxml
Did you already tried that?

As far a ReportBuilder is small file https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53613 and easy to install then just right click the RDL and say open in ReportBuilder on your local - I find it its small, intuitive and easy to use comparing to any VS version.
Hi apollo7,

If someone sent you a report based on FetchXML but it is from a compatible version, you can directly import it in CRM Online. Did you give it a try?

Regards,
Chinmay.
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ASKER

Hi Chinmay, thanks for joining the question.  I was provided the rdl and the stored procedure that it is based on.  I dont have access to the dev CRM Online environment so I havent tried to import it.

My task is to review the SQL stored proc and rdl (lots of datasets) and come up with a number of hours needed for the offshore developers to convert this report to Fetchxml.  

Is there any benchmark you have for time to convert a SQL based report to Fetchxml (based on lines of SQL, number of joins, temp tables created in SQL, etc)?

Thanks
Hi apollo7,

:) Any time. It is always a pleasure working with you.

Now first of all, I think you should request a document or at least some definition on what your customer wants from each of the reports.

If the reports are using unsupported queries we will not be able to deliver them at all or will have to setup aux database to support those reports and cost and complexity - both will increase.

And regarding the line numbers question - Not really. It would be really wrong to derive the estimate based on the number of lines. If it is coming from SQL Stored Procedure and if you are comfortable finding out BIG NO NOs (direct reference to the tables, temp tables, DDL statements etc) then I suggest you just try your query here

http://sql2fetchxml.com/ and see if it generates a valid FetchXML, after that you just need to figure out what kind of formulas/functions are used in the RDL file.

IMHO, if you have a valid fetchxml then things should be straightforward.

Regards,
Chinmay.
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ASKER

I installed ReportBuider and it is a nice tool to open an rdl.  When I open the rdl, I need to connect to the MSCRM_Datasource which is currently on a remote CRM server.    It doesn't connect when I test it, is there a way to establish a remote connection to a datasource?

Thanks
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ASKER

Thanks for your help, I have ruled out SP code (writes to temp sql  tables)