How to use Dynamic data sources in your SSRS report.

You can have situations in which your report should be executed on multiple databases. The user should be able to select the desired database on which the report should run. In this blog post I will explain how you can do this.
To be able to select to different database you need to make use of a dynamic data source. A data source makes use of a connection string. It is possible to pass the connection string of a data source as an expression. By using an expression, you can make use of parameter values to pass the servername and database name to the connection string. There is only one restriction of a dynamic data source. The data source should be embedded within the report. It can not be implemented with a shared data source. In this blogpost I will use a second database in which I retrieve the available SQL server\databases on which my reports should be executed.

• Open your report
• Add 2 report parameters
• ServerName
• DatabaseName
• Add datasource named: DynamicDataSource. Use the a 'hard coded' connection string. For instance:  Data Source=MySQLServer1;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase1.

• Add datasource to the database with all SQL Server\databases. In my example named: Synergy
• Add a embedded dataset to retrieve SQL Server and Database information.
  
  
• Configure the available values for the report parameters: ServerName and DatabaseName.
  
  
• Add all datasets and report items to your report.
• Test your report using the 'hard coded' connection string.
• If everything works fine, change the 'hard coded' connection string with next expression
  ="data source=" & Parameters!ServerName.Value & ";initial catalog=" & Parameters!DatabaseName.Value
  
  
• Run the report and select a value for the report parameters ServerName and DatabaseName 

Enjoy it.

Bluescreen caused by CIPCDDDP.SYS after rebooting Windows 7 Enterprise X64

After rebooting my laptop which runs Windows 7 Enterprise edition (64 bits) I got blue screens (BSOD) caused by driver CIPCDDDP.SYS. I could only boot in safe mode. On another computer I found that the CIPCDDDP.SYS driver is part of the Cisco IP Communicator V7. In Safe mode it was not possible to unistall this driver. This driver is loaded when network drivers are loaded. To avoid this process

• I undocked my laptop
• Disabled my wireless network using the wireless network swith on my Dell Latitude E6410.
• Now I was able to boot without a bluescreen. 
• After booting I enabled the wireless network card.
• Update my Cisco IP Communicator client to version 8.6.2.

After booting I did not get a BSOD but after a while my laptop did not respond to any keyboard input. Therefor I disabled again my wireless network. After booting successfully, I enabled my wireless network card and started Cisco IP Communicator 8.6.2. successfully and was able to make a phone call.

So everything is working again after 90 minutes. I hope this workaround will also help for you if you experience this Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 available for download

Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 R2 is available for download, it includes product improvements based on requests from the SQL Server community and hotfix solutions provided in SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Cumulative Updates 1 to 5. A few highlights are as follows:

• Reporting Services Charts Maybe Zoomed & Cropped Customers using Reporting Services on Windows 7 may sometime find charts are zoomed in and cropped. To work around the issue some customers set ImageConsolidation to false. 
• Collapsing Cells or Rows, If Hidden Render Incorrectly Some customers who have hidden rows in their Reporting Services reports may have noticed rendering issues when cells or rows are collapsed. When writing a hidden row, the Style attribute is opened to write a height attribute. If the attribute is empty and the width should not be zero.

You can download SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 from here.
Succes with upgrading your SQL Server with this Service Pack.