Downloading Reports from an SSRS Server

Overview¶

This article provides a means of downloading all the reports from an SSRS by way of a C# Console Application.

Prerequisites¶

You must have credentials to the SSRS (i.e., the "ReportServer") database with at least read access
The IP address where this code runs must be whitelisted (or at least not blocked by a firewall) on the SSRS server.

Code¶

Program.cs¶

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var asm = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly();

        var pathItems = Path.GetDirectoryName(asm.Location).Split('\\');

        var rootFolder = Path.Combine(string.Join('\\', pathItems.Take(pathItems.Length - 3)), "Reports");

        var ssrs = new SsrsEngine();

        ssrs.DownloadReports(rootFolder);
    }
}

SsrsEngine.cs¶

/*
    Packages Required
    (1) Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json
    (2) System.Data.SqlClient
    */
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.IO;

public class SsrsEngine
{
    public void DownloadReports(string rootFolder)
    {
        var config = GetConfiguration();

        var cs = config.GetConnectionString("SsrsCatalog");

        var dbServer = GetConnectionStringServerName(cs);

        using (var conn = new SqlConnection(cs))
        {
            conn.Open();

            var sql = @"
                    select 
                            SsrsPath = [Path]  
                        ,RdlContent = convert(varchar(max), content)
                    from 
                        dbo.[Catalog]
                    where 1=1
                        and [Type] = 2";

            using (var cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, conn))
            {
                var reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                while (reader.Read())
                {
                    var ssrsPath = reader.GetString(0);

                    if (ssrsPath.Length > 0)
                    {
                        ssrsPath = ssrsPath.Substring(1).Replace("/", "\\");
                    }

                    var rdlContent = reader.GetString(1);

                    /* The first three bytes of the content seem to be garbage. */
                    var searchFor = "<?xml";

                    var pos = rdlContent.IndexOf(searchFor);

                    if (pos > 0)
                    {
                        rdlContent = rdlContent.Substring(pos);
                    }

                    var absPath = Path.Combine(rootFolder, dbServer, ssrsPath + ".rdl");

                    var folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(absPath);

                    if (!Directory.Exists(folder))
                    {
                        Directory.CreateDirectory(folder);
                    }

                    File.WriteAllText(absPath, rdlContent);
                }
            }
        }
    }


    static IConfiguration GetConfiguration()
    {
        var currDir = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

        IConfigurationRoot config = new ConfigurationBuilder()
            .SetBasePath(currDir)
            .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json")
            .Build();

        return config;
    }



    static string GetConnectionStringServerName(string cs)
    {
        var csb = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder(cs);

        return csb.DataSource;
    }
}

appsettings.json¶

TODO: Fill in your server name and credentials in this database connection string.

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "SsrsCatalog": "Server=ServerNameOrIpAddress;Initial Catalog=ReportServer;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=DbUsername;Password=REDACTED;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;Connection Timeout=30;"
  }
}