Sometimes when you improve things, something breaks. One such thing occurred with the new release of ActiveReports Server, so I'm sharing the fix here. Breaking Change: The format of links to shared resources in ActiveReports Server version 11 is different from that in version 10. Symptoms: For reports with shared resources that you have saved locally in ActiveReports Server version 10, when you try to preview them in version 11, you get the following error.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Shared resources include images, data sets, subreports, and style sheets.
Quick Fix
If you only have a couple of reports using shared resources, updating is not a big deal.
- Open each report in the designer.
- Delete and re-add each shared resource.
Batch Fix
If you have a lot of local reports using shared resources, the quick fix is not so quick, so we've made a utility to fix batches of reports all in one shot. Here is the updater utility, plus the required Newtonsoft.Json.dll: Shared Resource References Updater Utility To extract and run the utility:
- Extract the two files to the folder where your reports reside, or you can extract them anywhere and enter the path to the reports later.
- Double-click to run the utility. A command window appears.
- Enter the path to the reports or just click Enter to update all the reports in the current folder. The updated reports are listed and it lets you know when it is finished.
- Click q to quit.
DIY
Here is the source code for the utility in case you want to tweak it for some other use or just want to have a look under the hood. Shared Reference Updater Project
MESCIUS inc.