SQL: Checking in SQL Reports (Azure DevOps)
In this tutorial, we will cover how SQL Reports can be checked into source control (Git) with Azure DevOps. This is a general, lower level guide to doing this using user credentials, Visual Studio, and Git via Visual Studio.
Requirements
- Visual Studio
- SQL Reports Server / Reports
- SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
- SQL Reports Visual Studio Extension
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
Follow the directions here to make sure SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is installed.
SQL Reports Visual Studio Extension
This is necessary for Visual Studio to recognize the SQL Reports Server Projects.
Visual Studo: Cloning Repository
This is the initial step to get the source code locally on your machine. We will need to clone a copy of the remote Git Repository. We will not set up SSH Keys and use user credentials to access the repository.
You will need to get the HTTPS url from Azure DevOps for the Repository.
In Visual Studio you will need to select the “Clone Repository” menu option.
This will open a dialog where you will paste the url to the repository. Make sure you set the path to where you want to clone the repository.
Then click “Clone”. This will pull all of the source code down locally.
Branching
I want to mention branching and what this means. In this example we will have only one branch, which is main. However, branches can be created off the trunk branch, in this case main and sometimes developer create dev or feature-4322 feature branches. Then code has to be merged. This part gets a big complicated for new users or business users.
Copying in Your Changes
If you’ve made changes to a SQL Report you can download this report from the report server. Then drop this file into the SQL Reports Folder in the locally cloned repository.
