Custom Assemblies in SSRS 2008

October 14, 2011 DB

Visual Studio can compile a report just fine, but then report that the report definition is invalid when you try to deploy.

In addition to putting the custom assembly SSRS’s bin folder: C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSRS10_50.MSSQLSERVERReporting ServicesReportServerbin

You have to put the assembly in VS’s private assemblies folder: C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual Studio 2008Common7IDEPrivateAssemblies

Otherwise you’ll get this completely worthless error message that tells you nothing about the problem.

Also, keep in mind that VS seems to cache the assembly so if you make any changes to it, you have to reload VS.