Question

I’m using the XML data source feature in Reporting Services 2005 but having some issues with missing data. When there is no value for the first column in a row, it appears that the entire column is ignored by SSRS!

The web method request is very simple:

<Query>    <Method Name='GetIssues'  Namespace='http://www.mycompany.com/App/'>    </Method>    <SoapAction>http://www.mycompany.com/App/GetIssues</SoapAction>    <ElementPath IgnoreNamespaces='true'>*</ElementPath> </Query> 

Equally, the response is very simple:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/' xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>   <soap:Body>     <GetIssuesResponse xmlns='http://www.mycompany.com/App/'>       <GetIssuesResult>         <Issue>           <Title>ABC</Title>           <RaisedBy />           <Action>Do something</Action>         </Issue>         <Issue>           <Title>ABC</Title>           <RaisedBy>Jeff Smith</RaisedBy>           <Action>Do something</Action>         </Issue>       </GetIssuesResult>     </GetIssuesResponse>   </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope> 

In this example the RaisedBy column will be completely empty. If the ‘Issues’ are reversed so RaisedBy first has a value, there is no problem. Any ideas?

Answer 1

In the Query itself, try to define your columns explicitly, instead of letting SSRS determine them for you.

In other words, where you have:

<ElementPath IgnoreNamespaces='true'>*</ElementPath> 

Replace the * with something like:

<ElementPath IgnoreNamespaces='true'>GetIssues/GetIssuesItemsResult/listitems/data/row{@Title,@RaisedBy,@Action}</ElementPath> 

Of course, that exact XPath may not be correct for your example.