SSRS – Download all RDL files from Report Server in one go.

Introduction

People working on SSRS are well aware that “Report Manager” does not support downloading all the report files (.rdl files) at one go out-of-box. And I am sure that many of you might have come across this requirement some day or other. Hence, today I will share a simple handy script which would help you to download all the required report files at once.

Implementation

SSRS uses SQL Server to store it’s details as a backend and the Catalog table is used to store the report file in binary form. The below script simply pulls the report definition from the Catalog table & uses BCP utility to export the same at a pre-defined path as a .rdl file.

To use the BCP utility from TSQL, we need to execute  “xp_cmdshell” command; it is disabled by default. So, first you need to execute the below script to enable it -

-- Allow advanced options to be changed.

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1

GO

-- Update the currently configured value for advanced options.

RECONFIGURE

GO

-- Enable xp_cmdshell

EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1

GO

-- Update the currently configured value for xp_cmdshell

RECONFIGURE

GO

-- Disallow further advanced options to be changed.

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 0

GO

-- Update the currently configured value for advanced options.

RECONFIGURE

GO

Once successfully executed, the below script with the required changes could be executed to download the files -

--Replace NULL with keywords of the ReportManager's Report Path, 

--if reports from any specific path are to be downloaded

DECLARE @FilterReportPath AS VARCHAR(500) = NULL 

--Replace NULL with the keyword matching the Report File Name,

--if any specific reports are to be downloaded

DECLARE @FilterReportName AS VARCHAR(500) = NULL

--Replace this path with the Server Location where you want the

--reports to be downloaded..

DECLARE @OutputPath AS VARCHAR(500) = 'D:\Reports\Download\'

--Used to prepare the dynamic query

DECLARE @TSQL AS NVARCHAR(MAX)

--Reset the OutputPath separator.

SET @OutputPath = REPLACE(@OutputPath,'\','/')

--Simple validation of OutputPath; this can be changed as per ones need.

IF LTRIM(RTRIM(ISNULL(@OutputPath,''))) = ''

BEGIN

  SELECT 'Invalid Output Path'

END

ELSE

BEGIN

   --Prepare the query for download.

   /*

   Please note the following points -

   1. The BCP command could be modified as per ones need. E.g. Providing UserName/Password, etc.

   2. Please update the SSRS Report Database name. Currently, it is set to default - [ReportServer]

   3. The BCP does not create missing Directories. So, additional logic could be implemented to handle that.

   4. SSRS stores the XML items (Report RDL and Data Source definitions) using the UTF-8 encoding. 

      It just so happens that UTF-8 Unicode strings do not NEED to have a BOM and in fact ideally would not have one. 

      However, you will see some report items in your SSRS that begin with a specific sequence of bytes (0xEFBBBF). 

      That sequence is the UTF-8 Byte Order Mark. It’s character representation is the following three characters, “”. 

      While it is supported, it can cause problems with the conversion to XML, so it is removed.

   */

   SET @TSQL = STUFF((SELECT

                      ';EXEC master..xp_cmdshell ''bcp " ' +

                      ' SELECT ' +

                      ' CONVERT(VARCHAR(MAX), ' +

                      '       CASE ' +

                      '         WHEN LEFT(C.Content,3) = 0xEFBBBF THEN STUFF(C.Content,1,3,'''''''') '+

                      '         ELSE C.Content '+

                      '       END) ' +

                      ' FROM ' +

                      ' [ReportServer].[dbo].[Catalog] CL ' +

                      ' CROSS APPLY (SELECT CONVERT(VARBINARY(MAX),CL.Content) Content) C ' +

                      ' WHERE ' +

                      ' CL.ItemID = ''''' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(MAX), CL.ItemID) + ''''' " queryout "' + @OutputPath + '' + CL.Name + '.rdl" ' + '-T -c -x'''

                    FROM

                      [ReportServer].[dbo].[Catalog] CL

                    WHERE

                      CL.[Type] = 2 --Report

                      AND '/' + CL.[Path] + '/' LIKE COALESCE('%/%' + @FilterReportPath + '%/%', '/' + CL.[Path] + '/')

                      AND CL.Name LIKE COALESCE('%' + @FilterReportName + '%', CL.Name)

                    FOR XML PATH('')), 1,1,'')

  --SELECT @TSQL

  --Execute the Dynamic Query

  EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @TSQL

END

Conclusion

Hope, this helps & save a lot of your valuable time.

Happy Reporting!