atxgeek 


just one more geek in a sea of austin techies

February 8, 2015

Set SSRS export options for individual reports #ReportGeek

File type export options in
Microsoft SSRS
If you work with Microsoft's SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) then you've probably run across a certain irritating limitation:  no ability to define the export file type options for individual reports.

Although the Reporting Services product is now over a decade old, Microsoft has failed to add some of the more obvious features any small startup would likely jump to support.  One of those features is granular control over export options.  You would expect that the file types provided in a report's export options could be defined specifically for that report.  Barring that, you might expect that the export options could be defined at the report folder level such as is done for security rights.

Alas, no, Microsoft has to be difficult by providing only a system-wide setting for report file type export options.  That means that, if you rely on the default Microsoft ReportViewer control, every report in the entire SSRS server is bound by the same export configuration.

Take Control
I'm going to show you how to easily control the mix of export options in the ReportViewer control using a handy bit of CSS (only one line of code!)  From there I'll point you towards a solution for controlling export options on individual reports.