Using the Visual Studio XML Editor on RDL files - visual-studio

When using Visual Studio to edit Reporting Services *.rdl files, the default designer used is from the "Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Designers" installed product.
When viewing the RDL code, this code is displayed as plain text and I want to take advantage of the XML Editor in visual studio.
Linking the *.rdl extension to the XML editor in Tools>Options>Text Editor>File Extension has the nasty side effect that while the rdl is now shown in the XML editor, the original report designer completely disappears.
Is there some other way to do this?
thanks

For any file you can click the arrow on the size of the open button in the open file dialog and select open with... From there you can select the XML editor. There are some other useful open with items in there as well.

You should be able to view and modify the XML by doing a view source on the RDL file. That way you'll still be able to use the designer when needed.

It would seem that the Report Designer for Visual Studio 2005 did not provide XML Editor support when you click "View Source"; where the 2008 version does.
While "solved", this is just a little inconvenient when you still need to develop RDL in 2005 compatibility mode.

Related

Cant save BIML file in Visual Studio

I have just started trying to use BIML to generate my SSIS packages. Im currently using VIsual studio 2015 to do everything.
When I add a new BIML file to the project it appears in the Solution explore and I can open the file and edit it. But when I save and close and reopen none of the changes where saved. Is there a setting that i need to change in Visual Studio? Currently I have to edit this file through the use of Notepad++ or something similar.
Visual Studio ScreenShot
As a work around to this issue, you could right click on the file you wish to edit and choose XML (Text) Editor.
Sadly you'll loose intellisence for the C# code
If you open a file twice, once in the BIML editor and once in the XML editor then you can view side by side making your changes in XML but viewing nice formatting in BIML...

Visual Studio - Change default "View Code" editor while keeping default editor

I have a project in Visual Studio 2017 (Professional) in which I'm editing an SSRS .rdlc file.
I have it such that the default editor for the file is, as I'd want it to be, the Report Designer.
However, I'm often editing the source XML for that file. So, I'm often right-clicking the file and selecting View Code. When I do that, it opens the file up in a standard Text editor rather than the XML editor.
What I'd like to have happen is:
Have Report Designer be the standard default editor.
Have XML Editor be the default editor for when I want to view code.
Is there any way to set that up to be the case (just change the default View Code editor)?
Right click on your report and open with it will show you something like this
and you can choose what you want

I cannot open a SSRs RDL file in designer view. Why is this happening?

I have just opened up a project that contains SSRs reports and yet I am unable to view them in Design Mode. When I click on them, only the XMLS appear and I am not sure how to resolve this in VS 2012 ?
In a version of Visual Studio that includes SQL Server Report Services, create a new Report Server Project.
In the new Report Server Project, right-click the project node in the Solution Explorer and choose "Add" > "Existing Item...". Then browse to and select the RDL file. Once it is in a Report Server Project, you can right-click the report and choose "View Designer" to see it in Design View. By default, it ought to open in Design View anyway.
If the file is not part of a Report Server Project, you'll only be able to view the XML text. Depending upon the Version of Visual Studio you may (or may not) get XML highlighting and intellisense.
Rename report as '.rdlc' it will open in design mode in Visual studio 2012
In Visual Studio 2015:
First make sure you have installed Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools, then rename your reports to .rdls, right click on reports > Open With > Report Designer
If you are not able to create / add Report Server Project download and install Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012 from the location here (if you VS is 2012). Then create an new report server Reproting server project project Report Server Project and do as "add Existing Item" as my RDL report which need to be opened and go for design view. Then it will open the report in design mode.
You are missing Report Template in visual studio
Got to Control Panel->Programs->Programs and Features.
Select you Visual Studio Version, right click and 'Change'.
The Visual Studio Setup splashscreen should appear, Click on Modify at the bottom left, and then under 'Windows and Web Development' select Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools. The Reporting option should then appear in your installed updates.
After installing Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools, you would need to install Report Viewer for Visual Studio 2017 (or which ever version you are using)... that worked for me from link below:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/SqlServer/en-US/99b217d0-63b2-48a7-bfe0-423e56963e21/rdlc-report-designer-in-visual-studio-community-2015?forum=visualstudiogeneral
You can force open it by Right click on RDL file and click on View Designer to see the RDL in design mode.
Once you have the needed extensions (Microsoft Reporting Services, Report Designer) installed and everything updated, what worked for me was to open the .rptproj project, and then open the needed .rdl.

How to enable open XML Package Editor power tool for Visual Studio

I want to create customized ribbon on my excel sheet. I saw some of the tutorial (e.g, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn3Qkp4Jw34) where they used Open XML package editor power tool for visual studio 2010 and worked on some xml configuration file to add ribbon. Hence I downloaded the tool and installed it. But when I drag and drop the excel file to the VS-2010, the file instead of opening in the VS editor it is opening in its new excel window. I tried to do same thing for a word file but still it is opening in new word window instead of opening in VS editor. Anybody could you please help me regarding this. I was using Visual Studio 2012 but then I came to know that Open XML package editor power tool for visual studio 2010 won't work for VS-2012 hence Installed VS-2010 but still getting same problem.
Thank you
Anup, Have you tried going to File->Open from Visual Studio?
If that opens it from an Office client application as well, then the Visual Studio Package Editor is not the default option for opening documents of that file extension.
If the document is a part of a solution (you can just create a new blank solution and add it in) you can right click on the file from Solution Explorer and choose "Open With", from there you can choose to open that file as a "Package File", and you can also select this as the default way to "open" files of that extension in Visual Studio.
I work for Microsoft and have just updated this plugin to work with VS2012 and 2013. Drag and drop should work in all the VS versions (I just tested it) but perhaps it's worth trying downloading the updated extension from the Gallery and seeing if it works for you in the newer VS version.

How do I get triple click to work in Visual Studio's Text Editor

Go into Notepad, Internet Explorer or most other applications that display or edit text. Triple click on some text. Windows will select the entire paragraph under the cursor.
This doesn't work in Visual Studio 2005.
How do I get triple click support in the Visual Studio text editor?
do VS 2008 or VS 2010 solve this?
Is there a macro, setting or plugin that will solve this?
I wrote an extension for this for Visual Studio 2010 that you can download from the VS Gallery or directly from the extension manager in Visual Studio, by searching for "triple click" or my name.
You can also read the blog post I wrote about it and check out the source, on github.
I haven't used it, but CodeProject has an article on SmartHelp 3.04 which mentions that you can triple click to select a whole line.
Also, from Craig Shoemaker's blog.
About VS 2010.
Further enhancements include the
ability to triple-click an expansive
element like a table and the editor
selects the entire table’s markup.
Want to surround that table with some
additional markup? Just start typing
with the table selected and your
markup is inserted around the selected
code.

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