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TL;DR: Is there a way to see all (visibility) expressions at work on a report?

I'm quite new to SSRS. I'm working on a report which will contain 2 tables, as below:

The 2 tables, simplified

I have one data set, which contains one row for each YearMonth for each KPI.

I wanted to create 2 tables containing KPIs. One would show only the data relating to the KPIs in KPICat1, the other KPICat2.

That seemed straight forward.

- Create one big table with all the KPIs and hide some rows in the middle to give the illusion of 2 tables.

Or

- Create 2 separate tables, and use the show/hide based on expression tool.

I chose to do it the latter way.

My problem now is that both tables are exhibiting conditional visibility behaviour, but when I try to change the behaviour, all of the visibility menus (for every cell, row, column, and tablix) appear to be set to show all by default (and not based on expression).

I know I could start again and likely manage the whole task without any problems. However, is there a way to see all (visibility) expressions at work on a report?, and if not, what would you recommend for troubleshooting this problem?

joshzirinsky
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  • If you just want to find all the expressions that control visibility then open the rdl file (if using visual studio, you can open the report design then hit F7) then just search for the keyword `Hidden` . If this does not help then show the actual report design and the expressions you have used. – Alan Schofield Oct 26 '21 at 13:56
  • To troubleshoot, I would add a separate table with the Hidden expression as the value expression for the new table so I can see the values. – Hannover Fist Oct 26 '21 at 15:13
  • Thanks @AlanSchofield. That was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. – joshzirinsky Oct 26 '21 at 15:47

1 Answers1

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The .RDL is just an XML encoded file. Perhaps you could use this in something like Notepad++ to search for all of the occurrences of the Visibility tag. If a Hidden expression besides False has been placed, then it will appear there, even if it is simply 'true'.

To display the data as shown in the example, I would consider ensuring that the KPI Cat is a value in the result set. Then you could use only 1 Tablix, and use a Group for the Categories and their respective details.

M Ramazoodle
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