SSRS report definition is newer than Server

Question

I created some reports in Visual Studio 2015 with all the latest updates. However, when I try to deploy the reports I get this message:

The definition of this report is not valid or supported by this version of Reporting Services.
11:40:28 Error
The report definition may have been created with a later version of Reporting Services, or contain content that is not
11:40:28 Error
well-formed or not valid based on Reporting Services schemas. Details: The report definition has an invalid target
11:40:28 Error
namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2016/01/reportdefinition' which cannot be upgraded.

The first lines of the .rdl file are set up like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Report MustUnderstand="df" 
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2016/01/reportdefinition" 
xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner" 
xmlns:df="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2016/01/reportdefinition/defaultfontfamily">

Can I change the schema definition? If so, to what? I tried just changing 2016 to 2014 or 2012, but neither worked.

Is there a place I can go to see valid definitions?

Answer 1

I recently ran into this issue as well. I found that I only needed to change two items in the .rdl file in question.

1. Change FROM:

   Report xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2016/01/reportdefinition" xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner"

   TO:

   Report xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner" xmlns:cl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2010/01/componentdefinition" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2010/01/reportdefinition"

Unlike other responses, I needed 2010 instead of 2008. I would check an .rdl file that you have already deployed.

2. Remove the "ReportParametersLayout" block.

Note: If I removed ReportSections block, it did not work as others have noted.

Answer 2

I have automated this task.

create a form with a textbox named "TextBoxFile" and a button. In the code of the click button:

    Dim xmlDoc As New XmlDocument()
    xmlDoc.Load(TextBoxFile.Text)
    Dim root = xmlDoc.DocumentElement 

    For Each elel As XmlNode In root.ChildNodes
        Debug.WriteLine(elel.Name & " " & elel.NodeType)
    Next

    If root.Attributes()("xmlns").Value <> "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition" Then
        root.Attributes()("xmlns").Value = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition"
    End If

    Dim nsmgr = New XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable)
    nsmgr.AddNamespace("bk", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition")

    Dim autoRefreshElements = root.GetElementsByTagName("AutoRefresh")
    While autoRefreshElements.Count > 0
        root.RemoveChild(autoRefreshElements(0))
    End While

    Dim ReportParametersLayout = root.GetElementsByTagName("ReportParametersLayout")
    While ReportParametersLayout.Count > 0
        root.RemoveChild(ReportParametersLayout(0))
    End While

    Dim ReportSections = root.GetElementsByTagName("ReportSections")

    If ReportSections.Count > 0 Then
        ' Move content of ReportSections just below the block.
        Dim ReportSection = ReportSections(0).ChildNodes()

        ' First, copy the elements after
        Dim precedent = ReportSections(0)
        For Each child As XmlNode In ReportSection(0).ChildNodes
            Dim clone = child.Clone
            root.InsertAfter(clone, precedent)
            precedent = clone
        Next

        ' After deleting the existing block
        While ReportSections.Count > 0
            root.RemoveChild(ReportSections(0))
        End While
    End If

    xmlDoc.Save(TextBoxFile.Text) 

    MsgBox("Ok")

Answer 3

The settings below should be set to your sepecific version of SSRS, and then take the RDL from the \bin directory

Or, after updating the TargetServerVersion, simply use right click | deploy from the rdl.

The accepted answer is significantly more difficult/prone to error/unlikely to work across multiple versions of ssrs, and needs to be applied each time you change the rdl.

Answer 4

I ran in to same problem and this is how I solved it,

1. Set the "TargetServerVersion" property on report project properties to be your old version of reporting server.
2. Build the project.
3. Get the report in the bin folder and deploy to the old reporting server.

Your source reports format and namespace will be updated to latest version. But bin folder reports will be build to be compatible with targeted reporting server version.

Answer 5

I actually ran into a similar problem where a change I needed to make resulted in an "Undocumented Error/Invalid RDL Structure" error in 2016, so I edited the RDL file so I could open it in an earlier version and make my changes. Not too hard, but you need to make a couple of tag edits.

For new reports you should probably just use an older version, but for existing reports you can do this: (I reverted to 2008)

• Change the Report tag:
  • Remove MustUnderstand="df"
  • Change the xmlns value to "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition"
  • Delete the xmlns:df attribute.
• Delete the entire "ReportParametersLayout" block.
• Delete the "df" tag and its content.
• Delete the "ReportSections" and "ReportSection" opening and closing tags (not the content).

Actually wrote some superhackish code to do this as part of a blog post, but the manual edit is simple enough.