VS2012 SSRS Cannot See Data Fields - visual-studio-2012

I have a VS2012 SSRS report project with a shared data set. The data set is being created from a SQL Stored Proc. I used to use VS2008, and all of the available data fields would show below the data set, however, in VS2012 I cannot figure out how to get them to show. I've removed the data set, and added it back, I've completely removed the DataSource and added it back, nothing works.
The original report file was built in VS2008, and was converted to a VS2012 project. Not sure if this could be contributing to the problem.
Thank you.

Your screen shot shows the Solution Explorer pane. Data Fields never appeared in this pane, in any version of SSRS.
I suspect what you are looking for is the Report Data Pane, which you should find on the View menu
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc627528(v=sql.120).aspx

Related

SSAS 2012 visual bug?

Has anyone else seen this? missing dsv
Normally when you are looking at a DIM in SSAS you have three sections to work in.
1) Attributes: These are the values you are including in your model
2) Hierarchys: If you build a hierarchy here is where it is viewed
3) Data Source View: This shows the source of the DIM and all the attributes loaded into the DSV are included.
Why is my DSV box empty?
I'm using TFS source control. I've deleted the local project and repulled the latest version but I'm still seeing this issue.
I'll submit an offical bug on microsoft's website.
If you have seen this how have you fixed it? I need to add new attributes to my DIM and I can't do that if I can't see the source table in the DIM...I'd prefer to not have to recreate ever DIM because of some bug.
I found a solution to this if anyone else comes across it. It has to do with having more than one version of Visual Studios installed on the server at a time and using different versions.
This article goes into detail on the issue. The article talks about changing the XLM code for the .dsv file and the .cube file. Specifically for the DIMs you will need to change the code there as well. Quite annoying...at least there is a way to fix it.
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlblog/2015/06/10/ssas-dsv-com-error-from-ssdt-ssas-design-data-source-view/
TLDR: VS 2012 and VS 2014 conflict with each other with their dll files. You will need to go into the XML code and change the leading binary string to the version of VS that you want to use.

Which Visual Studio project types support Shift+Alt+D to open the Data Sources window?

In Visual Studio 2012, it appears that only maybe a third of the 20 or so C# project types support using Shift+Alt+D to open the "Data Sources" window (and none that I've found ever display the mythical "Data" menu bar option).
Is there any sort of guide as to which project types will allow you to work with data sources?
Also, is there any way to "adjust" the features of a project after it's been created?
Update: See my answer below for how to add the Data Sources function to an existing project.
I believe you are looking for this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yft2c9ad.aspx
To quote msdn: "You can add a data source to a project only if it supports creating and working with data sources. For example, you can't open the Data Sources window in a project for a Windows Store app."
Basically, if using a database seems logical in your application, you can probably use one.
To answer your question about the "mythical 'Data' menu bar option", here's how you access it:
You just have to select "View", then "Other Windows", and finally "Data Sources"
And to answer your final question about, "Also, is there any way to 'adjust' the features of a project after it's been created?"
Yes, yes there is. If you mean as a compiled executable, one could simply decompile the project or use an ILcode editor. If you mean as a solution in visual studios, using the solution explorer you can access "My Project" and simply double click that to get a nice little gui for adjusting your project.
EDIT:
For an overload of information about data in visual studios, you can visit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wzabh8c4.aspx
For more information about just the data source window, you can visit:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6ckyxa83.aspx
Aha! There is a way to add data access to a project that lacks it, per: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb907587.aspx. To quote:
To create a class from a database table
If you are working with a Web site project, and the project does not already have an App_Code folder, in Solution Explorer, right-click the project, click Add ASP.NET Folder, and then click App_Code.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the App_Code folder (for a Web site project) or the project (for a Web application project) and then click Add New Item.
Under Installed templates, select Linq to SQL Classes template, type a name for the .dbml file, and then click Add.
-- The Object Relational Designer window is displayed. [Note that this is the window that Shift-Alt-D displays]
In Server Explorer, drag the database tables or other objects (such as views) that you want to use with LINQ to SQL into the Object Relational Designer window.
-- The tables and their columns are represented as a entities in the designer window.
Save the .dbml file.
This creates .designer.cs or .designer.vb file that is located under the .dbml file. The file contains a class that represents the database and a class that represents the table. The parameterless constructor for the database class reads the connection string from the Web.config file.
(Note that, after performing this procedure you may get a message "The type or namespace name 'Linq' does not exist in the namespace 'System.Data'". The solution to this problem is found here.)

VS 2012 EF Designer View not updating Designer

I am having a weird issue that seemed to come out of nowhere with Entity Framework v5 in Visual Studio 2012.
Today, I went to updated my model from my DB, because I added a new row column to a table. After updating it I saw the new column in the view, but when trying to reference it in the code I got errors. Turns out, the view was updated, but the Designer.cs class was not (I recreated the model). I tried this two more times and could not get the designer class to update.
I assumed it was an issue with the .edml file so I deleted it and recreated it. Now I am noticing that any changes I make in the view will not be reflected in the designer. I can change the namespace, tables, ect. and they will change in the view and the view only. I already re-added my references, but no luck. I am also getting connection issues now (which I am assuming are related to nothing but the view updating).
Has anyone else encountered this issue? I could always just go and edit the code on my own, but it is time consuming and less than ideal.
You should save the model (Ctrl+S or the Save button in Visual Studio) to regenerate the *.Designer.cs file (and other model files) after the model is changed.

Update target button is disabled after schema comparison

I have created database project using VS 2012. Once the schema comparison is done, the update target button should be enabled to sync with target.
But it's not getting enabled. Any help plz.
I'm using VS 2012 with sp 3, SQL Server 2012,
Check the Error List if you have any error, I had a non recognized word in VS (but it did in SQL Server), I commented it out, re-compared and it was enabled successfully.
See if you have a "warning" message stating "Cannot generate deployment plan due to an internal error". If so, the Update and Generate Script buttons will be disabled.
Close Visual Studio, navigate to the folder containing the Database project and remove all (*.dbmdl) files. Then restart Visual Studio, re-run the compare schema at which point the Update button should be enabled.
Workaround:
In my case. Fixing Error was not priority task. Also i was not able to find any Error in Error List.
Its just you dont have to use your "Visual Studio Database Project" in source or target. Instead of using project, create a temp DataBase using script already with you.
Select this (or these) temp database(s) in source and (or) other in target.
Button must be Enabled.
For me getting difference was far more important than fixing the issue. Hope it helps you. With some more improvisation.
It seems your database project has sqlcmd variables without default values.
See:
http://www.andrewburrow.net/vs2012-schema-compare-buttons-disabled/
Hope this helps.
I couldn't see any errors in Error List, but I could see the errors in the Output tab
the everytime you open the "options" on "schema comparison" you must click on "compare" button again to activate the "update" button. However if it doesn't work at the first time, just close and reopen the Schema comparison file again.
For me, there were no errors visible in the Error List. This was because I had the "Show Issues Generated" drop down was set to "Build Only"; changing it to "Build + IntelliSense" allowed me to see the SQL errors that needed to be fixed to enable the Generate Script and Update buttons.
In SSDT I had the case where the update button was enabled but the generate script was not enabled. This was because my destination schema was my local solution (the *.sqlproj vs project).
It took a few minutes to dawn on me that the destination needed to be a real database to correctly generate the script.
And after all, when you have the available Update Target button and the disabled Generate Script button.
See if your source is a database and your target is your SSDT project.
If so then click "Switch source and target" button.
The Generate Script button will become available.
I.e. a SSDT project must be the source and a database must be the target in the Schema Compare window.
Workaround 2:
In my case, the Update button was greyed out because of there were errors warnings about a view that I created and added to the project earlier.
The problem was that the view was scripted to use full database qualified object naming. E.g. [databasename].[schemaname].[objectname], which works fine in SSMS, but causes a problem when it is checked in a DB Project.
If you use three part naming for referring an object in same DB project results in a error/warning in Visual Studio.
By changing the code to [schemaname].[objectname] in the definicion of the view removed the error warnings and enable the Update option. Happy days!
Credits:
https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio-ide/suggestions/3577074-allow-three-part-naming-for-referring-a-db-object
https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio-ide/suggestions/17396128-keep-update-and-generate-update-script-buttons
Typically the update button is grayed out when the database objects are available in the separate sql files physically inside the database project but are not included in the database project itself. I simply added those sql scripts into the project and the update button got enabled after comparing the schema.
In my case, the Update button was disabled because there was a scalar function that was modified and that function was used in a computed column definition.
My solution was to:
Manually drop the computed column(s) in the database
ALTER TABLE <your table> DROP COLUMN <your computed column>
Re-run the schema compare
The Update button was enabled, and the update completed successfully

ssis excel source cannot acquire connection manager at DESIGN time

I have an SSIS (super)package that consists of several (about) 40 packages, each of which has several data flow tasks, most of them loading some excel data to a sqlserver database. So I have several excel source connection managers, one per excel file.
This has always worked fine until recently : I have to change an excel source in one of my packages (a column was added in the excel which has to be loaded in the destination sqlserver table) but I cannot edit the excel source in SSIS : when I click on "columns" I get an error box "DTS_E_CANNOTACQUIRECONNECTIONFROMCONNECTIONMANAGER". So this is a design time issue, not a run time problem. I've seen a question like this one on stackoverflow but no answer. Anyone has an idea ?
I' ve already removed office 2007 and reinstalled office 2003 on my machine, but this didn't help
it has nothing to do with 64bit mode, which I've read about here
Is there some limit on the number of connection managers in ssis ?
Most of my connection managers were created with copy/paste and hence they have the same Id, although they point to different excel files. Could this be a problem ?
I should also mention that the package runs without any problems, so it's only "editing/changing" the package that doesn't work. For the moment I circumvent this problem by disabling the data flow that should change and by replacing it with a sql statement that hardcoded inserts the data from the excel into the destination table.
Maybe another intersting thing to mention : I can create a new package and add and change excel sources without problems, but then again, when I try to copy this excel source in my package, I cannot edit it.
Did you try to check the advanced options on the Source Connection?
Right click on the component and select "Show Advanced Editor..."
Select the column mappings tab and press the Refresh button.
This should point out that the XLS connection has some additional columns or that the file that you are pointing at, cannot be pre-validated at runtime.
M.
I'm not sure if this will work but try the Work Offline option in the SSIS menu in BIDS/VS. What this should do is not validate the connection before you edit the component. It might be able to get you into the component.

Resources