SSRS - Compare two versions

of the same report

This article shares the information on how to compare two versions of the same
report .Sometimes we might be in a need to compare the changes in two
versions of the same report.We can observe the changes easily on the report if it
is a color modification or something like this, W

rdl_compare.sql

This article shares the information on how to compare two versions of the same report .

Sometimes we might be in a need to compare the changes in two versions of the same
report.

We can observe the changes easily on the report if it is a color modification or

something like this,
What if , if the change is in terms of sizing ?

So to gather the reports background information and compare the changes in the two
versions of the same report ,
we are going to make use of RDL files of the report in the default location :
C:\Users\Sathya\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Report1\Report1\Version1.rdl
C:\Users\Sathya\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Report1\Report1\Version2.rdl

Two methods to get the XML content of the report :

1.)After the report is deployed,XML content of the report can be fetched from :

SQL

SELECT content FROM ReportServer.dbo.catalog  

 
2.)Bulk insert XML from RDL files in the default location :
C:\Users\Sathya\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Report1\Report1\Version1.rdl
C:\Users\Sathya\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Report1\Report1\Version2.rdl

In this example, we have followed method 2 . After getting the XML of the two versions
of the report ,
using Xquery and nodes() method , we can easily share the values in the XML nodes and
compare the values .

Consider I have two versions of the same report as Version1.rdl and Version2.rdl

Below are the screenshots of the two versions of same report  :

 
Version1 and Version2 report has textbox  with below expression :

="User : "+User!UserID+VBCRLF+"ExecutionTime : "+Globals!ExecutionTime

Version1 report has a table with below query as dataset :

SQL

DECLARE @Tmp TABLE (Id INT,Name VARCHAR(20))  
INSERT @Tmp SELECT 1,'Sathya' 
INSERT @Tmp SELECT 2,'Deepak' 
SELECT * FROM @Tmp 

Version2 report has a table with below query as dataset :

SQL

DECLARE @Tmp TABLE (Id INT,Name VARCHAR(20))  
INSERT @Tmp SELECT 1,'Sathya' 
INSERT @Tmp SELECT 2,'Deepak' 
SELECT * FROM @Tmp  
WHERE Name = @Name 
 

Difference between version1 and version2 reports :

1.)Version2 has textbox with background color .

2.)Version2 has table with background color for header and text centre aligned .
3.)Version2 has input parameter .
4.)Version2 has textbox and table inside rectangle container with background color .

Below Stored procedure can be used to get the compared resultset of two versions of
the same report :
USE AdventureWorks2012
GO
  
CREATE PROCEDURE RDL_Compare
  
@RDLFileName1 NVARCHAR(256), --File path of the version1 of the RDL
@RDLFileName2 NVARCHAR(256) --File path of the version2 of the RDL
   
AS
  
BEGIN
  
SET NOCOUNT ON
SET XACT_ABORT ON
  
BEGIN TRY
  
/*Bulk inserting XML from RDL file */
  
  
 DECLARE @Query NVARCHAR(MAX)
  
  
 CREATE TABLE #Version1_Rdl(XMLData XML)
 CREATE TABLE #Version2_Rdl(XMLData XML)
   
  BEGIN TRANSACTION
  
  
  
 SET @Query = 'INSERT INTO #Version1_Rdl(XMLData)
    SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(
    BULK '''+@RDLFileName1+''',
    SINGLE_BLOB) AS x;'
  
EXEC (@Query)
  
 SET @Query = 'INSERT INTO #Version2_Rdl(XMLData)
    SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(
    BULK '''+@RDLFileName2+''',
    SINGLE_BLOB) AS x;'
  
EXEC (@Query)
  
/*Bulk inserting XML from RDL file */
  
  
SELECT 
tmp1.ColumnHeader ColumnHeader_V1,
tmp1.ColumnName ColumnName_V1,
tmp1.ColumnValue ColumnValue_V1,
tmp2.ColumnHeader ColumnHeader_V2,
tmp2.ColumnName ColumnName_V2,
tmp2.ColumnValue ColumnValue_V2,
ISNULL(tmp1.ColumnHeader,tmp2.ColumnHeader)  Header1Compare,
ISNULL(tmp1.ColumnName,tmp2.ColumnName)  Header2Compare,
ISNULL(tmp1.ColumnValue,tmp2.ColumnValue)  ValueCompare
  
 FROM (
  
SELECT 
       i.value('local-name(..)','varchar(max)') ColumnHeader,
       i.value('local-name(.)','varchar(max)') ColumnName,
       i.value('.','varchar(MAX)') ColumnValue
FROM #Version1_Rdl V1
CROSS APPLY V1.XMLData.nodes('//*[text()]') x(i) ) tmp1
  
FULL OUTER JOIN 
  
(
SELECT 
       i.value('local-name(..)','varchar(max)') ColumnHeader,
       i.value('local-name(.)','varchar(max)') ColumnName,
       i.value('.','varchar(MAX)') ColumnValue
FROM #Version2_Rdl V2
CROSS APPLY V2.XMLData.nodes('//*[text()]') x(i)
) tmp2 
ON tmp1.ColumnHeader = tmp2.ColumnHeader AND tmp1.ColumnName = tmp2.ColumnName
AND tmp1.ColumnValue = tmp2.ColumnValue
WHERE (tmp1.ColumnHeader IS  NULL AND tmp1.ColumnName IS  NULL AND tmp1.ColumnValu
e IS  NULL)
OR (tmp2.ColumnHeader IS  NULL AND tmp2.ColumnName IS  NULL AND tmp2.ColumnValue I
S  NULL)
  
  
  
  
   COMMIT TRANSACTION
  
  
END TRY
  
BEGIN CATCH
  
DECLARE @ERROR_MESSAGE NVARCHAR(256)
  
SELECT @ERROR_MESSAGE = ERROR_MESSAGE()
  
IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0
  
BEGIN
  
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION 
  
END
  
RAISERROR(@ERROR_MESSAGE,16,1)
  
END CATCH
  
END

Execute above created Stored procedure to get the compared resultset of two versions
of the same report :
USE AdventureWorks2012
GO
  
EXEC RDL_Compare 'C:\Users\Sathya\Documents\Visual Studio
2010\Projects\Report1\Report1\Version1.rdl',
'C:\Users\Sathya\Documents\Visual Studio
2010\Projects\Report1\Report1\Version2.rdl'