I had an issue this week in Report Manager. I was generating a report (we’ll call it General Widgets Report), and from there clicking a link to generate and export a subreport (say, Individual Widget Report). The problem with this is that it wipes out initial report and its parameters…so every single time, I had to

1. Enter parameters and run the General Widgets Report
2. Click the link of the Widget for which I wanted an Individual Widget Report.
3. Export the Individual Report.
4. Go BACK and re-enter params and run the General Widgets Report.

ANNOYING!  And also potentially resource-consuming, as I had to run the same report again and again (okay yes, that data was probably cached and all, but it’s still another call to the server).  I thought at first I could get around this by simply right-clicking and opening the subreport in a new tab or window, but no go…that would just bring up a blank page.

But!! I figured out a little workaround:

1. Enter parameters and run the General Widgets Report
2. Export the General Widgets Report as MHTML (web archive). That opens in a separate window, and keeps the links intact.
3. Right-click the link (“open in new tab”) of the Widget for which I wanted an Individual Widget Report.
4. Repeat step 3 as necessary.

Yaaaaaay workarounds!

Now, there’s probably (possibly) a way to modify Report Manager/Reporting Services so that those original parameters don’t get wiped out…but frankly, (A) this is more efficient (as we’re not rerunning that first report again and again), and (B) I don’t know what it is.

Ta-ta, all, and happy days to you!

-Jen McCown

www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen