Uploading Files to a Folder

Article
12/03/2008

You can upload files from the file system and store them as managed items in a report server database. What happens when you upload a file depends on the file type.

Uploading a .rdl file is equivalent to publishing a report.
Uploading a .smdl file is equivalent to publishing a report model if the .smdl file contains data source view information. If it is missing a data source view reference, an error occurs during the upload. Data source view information might be missing if you upload a .smdl file from a Visual Studio report model project. In report model projects, data source view information is stored in a separate file rather than in the .smdl file itself, and then added to the .smdl file when it is published to a report server.
Model files that do contain data source view information are those that have been previously published to a report server and then saved from the server to a file on the file system. For example, if you open the General Properties page of a model and click Edit to open the model, you can save the model to a file and then upload that file as a new model on the report server. The .smdl file that you subsequently upload will have all of information that is necessary for model publication.
Uploading any other file adds it to the report server database as a single binary object. These files are published to a report server as a resource. Resources can be any file type. If the file extension matches a known MIME type, an icon for that MIME type is used to identify the resource type. Otherwise, a generic file icon indicates a resource.

Note

You cannot upload a report data source (.rds) file to create a shared data source. An .rds file is used only in Report Designer. It cannot provide the content for a shared data source item that you define and manage through Report Manager or Management Studio. As an alternative to uploading, you can write a script that creates a shared data source based on a .rds file. For more information, refer to the sample script PublishSamplReports.rss file described in the topic Script Samples (Reporting Services).

The maximum file size for uploaded items is determined by ASP.NET. By default, the maximum size is 4 megabytes (MB). For more information about maximum file size, see Report and Snapshot Size Limits.

Visually, files that you upload to a report server database are represented in the folder hierarchy with the following icons.

report icon

Report icon

report model icon

Model icon

generic resource icon

When you upload a file, it is always placed in the folder that is currently selected. You can navigate to the folder that you want to contain the item first, or you can upload a file and then move it to a final location later. For more information, see Moving Items.

You can use either Report Manager or Management Studio to upload files. Whether you can upload files to a report server depends on tasks that are part of your role assignment. If you are using default security, local administrators can add items to a report server. If My Reports is enabled, any user who has a My Reports folder has permission to upload items to that folder. If you use custom role assignments, the role assignment must include tasks that support folder management.

To do this	Include these tasks
Upload a .rdl file to a folder	Manage reports
Upload a .smdl file to a folder	Manage models
Upload any file as a binary object	Manage resources
View the contents of a folder	View resources, View reports

Uploading Files to a Folder

See Also

Tasks

Concepts

Help and Information

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