Reporting Services multiple report folders, same data source name, but want different DB

Question

TThanks, for reading, I'll try to explain my issue in a detailed format as the question I'm asking is a bit high-level for my experience-level.

I'm using VS2005 and SQL Server 2005 with Reporting Services. All of my reports are built in VS2005. The reports are deployed to folders named "Amort" or :Amort_Test" on the Report server depending on the configuration I choose when I deply (Production delpoys to "Amort", Test deploys to "Amort_Test").

In Reporting Services Report manager, I have a data source setup call AMORT (and that is the datasource in my VS2005 reports). The datasource is of type Microsfot SQL Server and the connection string is "Data Source=uslibsql310;Initial Catalog=AMORT_P".

What I'd like to do is have the ability for the reports in the "Amort" folder point to a database called AMORT_P on my server (uslibsql310) while the reports in the folder "Amort_Test" point to the database called AMORT_T on the same server (uslibsql310). Obviously my current configuration, where reports in both folders point to the same datasource, says that reports point to the AMORT datasource which currently points to AMORT_P.

My initial thought was that I could create a new datasources, call it AMORT_Test and have its connection string be ""Data Source=uslibsql310;Initial Catalog=AMORT_P". However, every time I'd deploy my reports, I'd have to change the datasource in VS2005 to read AMORT_Test instead of AMort and then deply, which would be abit of a hassle.

Can anyone think of a more user-friendly solution to this? I'm one who normally finds the quickest solution and goes with it, but in this case I think there must be a way to set this up so that the reports in one folder know to pick one DB and the reports in another folder know to pick a different DB, but my current setup doesn't allow that. I'm not sure where to start in trying to figure this out as I'm a bit of an RS novice.

Answer 1

You're almost there, I think. If I understood correctly, here's your current setup:

• One shared datasource
• Reports all use that shared datasource for datasets
• Two configurations: test and production, each with its own target folder

What you can do now is set OverwriteDataSources to False. Manual labor is required to set the connection string for deployed reports only:

• For initial deployment of reports
• When you want/choose to change the connection for deployed reports

This manual labor can be either:

• Changing the connection string, temporarily enable OverwriteDataSources, and re-deploy
• Going to the report manager web frontend to change the connection string

However, your default setup would be to deploy reports to both configurations, without having to worry about connecting test reports to production databases and vice versa.