SSRS and PowerShell: Get report as Excel - powershell

Question

I'm trying to make PowerShell send a web request to our SSRS server and capture the results. I've hit a wall using the rs:FORMAT=EXCEL parameter in the SSRS url string. I have the following:
First, init the credentials:
$User = "MYDOMAIN\MyUser"
$PWord = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "WooHooStringP$W0rd" -AsPlainText -Force
$c = New-Object –TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential –ArgumentList $User, $PWord
Now, request a report:
Invoke-WebRequest `
-UserAgent ([Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.PSUserAgent]::InternetExplorer) `
-Credential $c `
-Uri "http://myserver/ReportServer_DEV/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?/folder+path/report+name"
This works fine. I can even grab the results (enclosing this request and using ().Content).
Then, specify a format instead of plain rendering:
Invoke-WebRequest `
-UserAgent ([Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.PSUserAgent]::InternetExplorer) `
-Credential $c `
-Uri "http://myserver/ReportServer_DEV/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?/folder+path/report+name&rs:format=HTML4.0"
Note the rs:Format specification? Works like a charm.
Then, for the grande finale, give me an Excel file:
Invoke-WebRequest `
-UserAgent ([Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.PSUserAgent]::InternetExplorer) `
-Credential $c `
-Uri "http://myserver/ReportServer_DEV/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?/folder+path/report+name&rs:format=EXCEL"
No can do, bud:
Invoke-WebRequest : The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.
At line:1 char:11
+ $bytez = (Invoke-WebRequest `
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], WebException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand
Why does the rs:format=EXCEL option throw an Unauthorised exception where all the other URLs are served by SSRS?

Answer 1

I've figured it out! I went about this the wrong way: SSRS offers access through a webservice that PowerShell can consume without the need to hack the URL and capture a response. I found a script that did this and modified it to suit my purpose:
function GetRSConnection($server, $instance)
{
# Create a proxy to the SSRS server and give it the namespace of 'RS' to use for
# instantiating objects later. This class will also be used to create a report
# object.
$User = "DOMAIN\Username"
$PWord = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "Pa$$w0rd" -AsPlainText -Force
$c = New-Object –TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential –ArgumentList $User, $PWord
$reportServerURI = "http://" + $server + "/" + $instance + "/ReportExecution2005.asmx?WSDL"
$RS = New-WebServiceProxy -Class 'RS' -NameSpace 'RS' -Uri $reportServerURI -Credential $c
$RS.Url = $reportServerURI
return $RS
}
function GetReport($RS, $reportPath)
{
# Next we need to load the report. Since Powershell cannot pass a null string
# (it instead just passses ""), we have to use GetMethod / Invoke to call the
# function that returns the report object. This will load the report in the
# report server object, as well as create a report object that can be used to
# discover information about the report. It's not used in this code, but it can
# be used to discover information about what parameters are needed to execute
# the report.
$reportPath = "/" + $reportPath
$Report = $RS.GetType().GetMethod("LoadReport").Invoke($RS, #($reportPath, $null))
# initialise empty parameter holder
$parameters = #()
$RS.SetExecutionParameters($parameters, "nl-nl") > $null
return $report
}
function AddParameter($params, $name, $val)
{
$par = New-Object RS.ParameterValue
$par.Name = $name
$par.Value = $val
$params += $par
return ,$params
}
function GetReportInFormat($RS, $report, $params, $outputpath, $format)
{
# Set up some variables to hold referenced results from Render
$deviceInfo = "<DeviceInfo><NoHeader>True</NoHeader></DeviceInfo>"
$extension = ""
$mimeType = ""
$encoding = ""
$warnings = $null
$streamIDs = $null
# Report parameters are handled by creating an array of ParameterValue objects.
# Add the parameter array to the service. Note that this returns some
# information about the report that is about to be executed.
# $RS.SetExecutionParameters($parameters, "en-us") > $null
$RS.SetExecutionParameters($params, "nl-nl") > $null
# Render the report to a byte array. The first argument is the report format.
# The formats I've tested are: PDF, XML, CSV, WORD (.doc), EXCEL (.xls),
# IMAGE (.tif), MHTML (.mhtml).
$RenderOutput = $RS.Render($format,
$deviceInfo,
[ref] $extension,
[ref] $mimeType,
[ref] $encoding,
[ref] $warnings,
[ref] $streamIDs
)
# Determine file name
$parts = $report.ReportPath.Split("/")
$filename = $parts[-1] + "."
switch($format)
{
"EXCEL" { $filename = $filename + "xls" }
"WORD" { $filename = $filename + "doc" }
"IMAGE" { $filename = $filename + "tif" }
default { $filename = $filename + $format }
}
if($outputpath.EndsWith("\\"))
{
$filename = $outputpath + $filename
} else
{
$filename = $outputpath + "\" + $filename
}
$filename
# Convert array bytes to file and write
$Stream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($filename), Create, Write
$Stream.Write($RenderOutput, 0, $RenderOutput.Length)
$Stream.Close()
}
$RS = GetRSConnection -server "DEVBOX" -instance "ReportServer_DEV"
$report = GetReport -RS $RS -reportPath "folder name/report name"
$params = #()
$params = AddParameter -params $params -name "Month" -val "201311"
GetReportInformat -RS $RS -report $report -params $params -outputpath "i:\test" -format "EXCEL"

Answer 2

Using web request:
[string]$Domain = "DomainUsername"
[string]$Username = "Username"
[string]$Password = "Password"
[string]$ReportServer = "http://ssrsreportserver/ReportServer/ReportExecution2005.asmx" #Report Server
[string]$ReportLocation = "/Report Location/Report Name" #Report Location ON SSRS
$ReportLocation = $ReportLocation.Replace("/", "%2f")
$ReportLocation = $ReportLocation.Replace(" ", "+")
[string]$outputFile = $PSScriptRoot + '\Report.xlsx' #Save location for the file
#If the report has any parameters
[string]$ParamString = "";
$ParamString += "&param1=paramvalue"
$ParamString += "&param2=paramvalue"
[string]$URL = $ReportServer + "?" + $ReportLocation + "&rs:Command=Render&rs:Format=" + "EXCELOPENXML" + "&rs:ParameterLanguage=en-GB" + $ParamString
Write-Host $URL
$Req = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($URL);
$Req.Credentials = new-object System.Net.NetworkCredential($Username, $Password, $Domain)
$Req.Timeout = 30000;
$WebStream = $Req.GetResponse().GetResponseStream();
$MemStream = New-Object System.IO.MemoryStream
$WebStream.CopyTo($MemStream);
[long]$Len = $MemStream.Length;
[byte[]]$outBytes = [System.Byte[]]::CreateInstance([System.Byte], $Len)
$MemStream.Seek(0, [System.IO.SeekOrigin]::Begin);
$MemStream.Read($outBytes, 0, [int]$Len);
$WebStream.Close();
$MemStream.Close();
$MemStream.Dispose();
$Stream = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($outputFile), Create, Write
$Stream.Write($outBytes, 0, $outBytes.Length)
$Stream.Close()
Invoke-Item $outputFile