Duplicate SSRS reports [Dynamics AX 2012]

Friends,

We all know that we will have requirements to modify an existing SSRS report but would not like to alter the original, rather create a duplicate and work on it.

But, Do we have the option in AX 2012? The answer is “NO” and it’s a real problem/hectic job for a developer to create it from scratch. Even when we try to do this from visual studio 2010, it is not allowed to change the report name as it says it exists in another layer.

Well, I have created a utility to duplicate the SSRS reports from AX. It works all fine and gets built successfully and was able to render the data as well. Once the report is duplicated, you can change the design in Visual studio.

[Note: I have posted a recent article on Duplicating SSRS with the help of wizard with all its artifacts (DP classes, Contract, UIBuilder and CSharp project)] – Here is the link

This really helps the developer in not creating the DP classes, contract classes etc. and can customize the existing DP classes by adding the new fields in temp tables.

Below is them new utility walk through:

Go to Tools >> Business Intelligence Tools >> Create duplicate SSRS reports

This will open all existing SSRS reports in the picker

Select any report : a new dialog will open with the new report name as “CopyOf” select report Name, you can modify the report name here
based on your requirements.Click on Ok button.

A new report gets created in SSRS reports as shown below

Nice right! Now lets us open this in Visual studio 2010 and you can play with the design.

You can see the new report in the Application Explorer as shown below:

Add this report to your project and build it. It builds successfully and is ready for preview as well.

Interested ones, please shoot me an email. I will send the XPO.

[I got some requests to even duplicate DP, Contract, UIBuilder and Controller classes. I am working on it. I will post the same soon]

Happy Dax6ng,