Test and troubleshoot reports

After you have created a report, test it to see if it produces the results that you want.

Test a report

  1. Test the report in Visual Studio within the Preview tab.

  2. If any errors are reported, correct the cause of the errors, and then run the test again.

  3. When the report works correctly, publish the report to the report server. To do this, in Customer Engagement (on-premises), go to Sales > Reports. Click New, and then fill out the requested information.

  4. Run the published report to verify the report's operation.

Suggestions for testing a report

The following list of suggestions is provided as a guide for testing your reports:

  • Verify that report filters are specified for the correct entities. After uploading the report, open it and check whether any entities designated for Advanced Find filtering should be exposed for report pre-filtering.

  • If the report queries a custom entity, make sure that the entity can be correctly filtered. and that the report returns data based on user roles with user-level security on entities, custom security roles, and other roles.

  • Some reports are context sensitive and can be run against selected records in a list. For those types of reports, verify that the report can be run against system views, custom system views, user queries, and selected records.

  • Verify that you can take snapshots of the report through the Scheduling Wizard in Customer Engagement (on-premises).

  • Verify that you can save the report as a PDF file. Reports frequently print better with PDF formatting.

  • Verify that detailed sub-reports are hidden when you publish the report, so they’re not run directly by users.

Report drill-through fails in Visual Studio Report Viewer

Some parameters in the reports that are generated by the Report Wizard are marked internal (read-only). Therefore, when you upload the reports into Visual Studio, and try to drill through, the Visual Studio Report Viewer doesn’t display the reports. To correct this, use Visual Studio Report Designer to change the parameters from internal to hidden. Clear the Internal check box, and make sure that the Hidden check box is selected for each of the following parameters:

  • CRM_Drillthrough

  • CRM_DrillthroughFilterBy

  • CRM_FilterText

  • CRM_URL

    The parameters that are prefixed with CRM_Filtered, such as CRM_FilteredAccount or CRM_FilteredContact, also have to be marked as hidden and not internal.

Note

Your report may not contain all the parameters listed here.

See also

Reporting and Analytics Guide
Publish Reports
Use Parameters in Reports
Create Custom Reports Using SQL Server Data Tools