Using Images from the Report Server

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External Images in SSRS Reports Part two of a two-part series of blogs
In an SSRS report you can display images stored in an external location. This blog explains how to show images from both the report server and external websites in your SSRS reports. Using Images from External Websites Using Images from the Report Server (this blog)

External Images in SSRS Reports

Part two of a two-part series of blogs

In an SSRS report you can display images stored in an external location. This blog explains how to show images from both the report server and external websites in your SSRS reports.

Using Images from External Websites
Using Images from the Report Server (this blog)

Posted by Andrew Gould on 09 December 2024

In this blog

Creating a Folder
Uploading Image Files
Referring to Images on the Report Server
Viewing the Images
Calculating the Image Path
The End Result

Storing images on a report server gives you control over the files meaning that you don't have to rely on an external website to never change. This part of the blog series shows you how to upload images to a report server and how to reference them in your reports.

Image files stored on an SSRS report server

A report server can store more than just reports!

Creating a Folder

It makes sense to organise your images into folders on the report server. To create a folder, navigate to the SSRS web portal in a web browser and choose the menu option shown below:

Choosing to create a new folder in the SSRS web portal.

From the menu, choose New | Folder.

Give the folder a sensible name then click Create to create it.

Entering a name for a new folder in the SSRS web portal

Enter a name for the folder then click this button.

Your new folder will appear in the web portal.

You can click on the folder to see its contents.

You can create as many folders as you need. For this example, I've added a Certificates folder inside the Images folder.

The Certificates folder is a subfolder of Images.

Uploading Image Files

Navigate to the folder you want to upload your files to and then select the menu option shown below:

Choosing to upload a file in the SSRS web portal

Click Upload to begin choosing files to upload.

Select an image file (annoyingly, you can pick only one at a time) and click Open to upload it.

CHoosing a file to upload to an SSRS report server

Note that the image files have the same name as the certificate names stored in the database.

The image file will appear in the web portal.

An image file in a folder in the SSRS web portal.

You can click on the image to view it in your browser.

Repeat this process for each image you want to upload.

You can read this blog to find out how to upload multiple images at the same time.

Referring to Images on the Report Server

To refer to an image stored on the same report server as a report, you need to provide the path to the image. Here's what this looks like for the 12A.png file:

/Images/Certificates/12A.png

You could store these paths in the database, as we did for the images stored on an external website.

Image file paths stored in a SQL Server database

The ImageServerPath column contains the path to each certificate's image.

You can then configure an image to refer to this path in the same way as for images stored on an external website.

Configuring an external image in an SSRS report

Set the image to use the path stored in the database.

Viewing the Images

If you preview the report in Visual Studio, you'll find that the images appear to be broken.

Broken image objects in an SSRS report in Visual Studio

The local copy of the report file doesn't display the image files correctly.

To see the images working correctly, deploy the report to the same report server as your images and view the report in the web portal.

An SSRS report displaying external images stored on a report server.

The deployed report can access the images on the same report server.

You can also see the images working correctly if you preview the report in Report Builder, providing that Report Builder is connected to the report server containing your images.

Calculating the Image Path

Rather than storing the image path in the database, you could use an expression to calculate it. This example relies on the names of the image files matching the names of the certificates in the database. To calculate the path in the SQL query which populates the dataset, you could do something like this:

select

f.Title

,f.ReleaseDate

,c.Certificate

,concat('/Images/Certificates/', c.Certificate, '.png') as ImageServerPath

from

dbo.Certificate as c

join dbo.Film as f on c.CertificateID = f.CertificateID

Alternatively, you could calculate the image path in the report. To do this, use the Expression Builder when configuring the image object.

Opening the Expression Builder tool in an SSRS report in Visual Studio

Click the fx tool to open the Expression Builder.

You can then create an expression like this:

Writing a Visual Basic expression to reference the path of an image file in an SSRS report

Expressions in a report are written in Visual Basic.

The End Result

Storing images on a report server provides a more reliable way to display images in an SSRS report. You can repeat the process to display as many images in a report as you like.

Multiple images displayed in an SSRS report

Perhaps this is a little over the top!

Parts of this blog
Using Images from External Websites Using Images from the Report Server (this blog)

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

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Creating a Folder

Uploading Image Files

Referring to Images on the Report Server

Viewing the Images

Calculating the Image Path

The End Result

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