How to add an image to an SSRS report with a dynamic url?

Question

I'm trying to add an image to a report. The image src url is an IHttpHandler that takes a few query string parameters. Here's an example:

<img src="Image.ashx?item=1234567890&lot=asdf&width=50" alt=""/>

I added an Image to a cell and then set Source to External and Value to the following expression:

="Image.ashx?item="+Fields!ItemID.Value+"&lot="+Fields!LotID.Value+"&width=50"

But when I view the report, it renders the image html as:

<IMG SRC="" />

What am I missing?

Update

Even if I set Value to "image.jpg" it still renders an empty src attribute. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but I'm using this with a VS 2008 ReportViewer control in Remote processing mode.

Update

I was able to get the images to display in the Report Designer (VS 2005) with an absolute path (http://server/path/to/http/handler). But they didn't display on the Report Manager website. I even set up an Unattended Execution Account that has access to the external URLs.

Hasidism

If you add a new text box on the report and get it to display the result of the same expression (online debugging!!) what does it show? – Lapel

Good idea, but it displays the correct url. – Hasidism

Are ssrs and iis for the image on the same box? – Bield

No, the images are on a separate web server. – Hasidism

Answer 1

I have a SSRS Report that displays the information about the countries of the users of a site that we support at work. This is based on the IIS log data. On this report, in the first column of the table is an image field that holds a small .gif of the flag for each country. I was running into the same exact issue described in the question above. The path to the external image was calculated in the report’s query based on the country code. I initially setup the URL to point to something like http://www.mystaticcontent.com/fotwimg/us.gif for a United States flag and so forth. All I got was a red X broken image displayed in the report. Then I found this MSDN article that shined some light on the issue for me.

This is what I did with the report to make it work:

1. Moved the fotwimg folder that has all the gifs from the static content server to the local SSRS machine, which also has a web server running on it.
2. Setup a virtual directory on the default web site in the local SSRS machine IIS Manager.
3. Then I changed the report query to refer to the image in the local SSRS machine, by machine name, like this http://mylocalssrsmachine/fotwimg/us.gif
4. Voila, it works… or at least it worked for me.

Circumscription

Thanks for the answer! I was trying to avoid putting the images on the report server. I wanted to display thumbnails that linked to the full size images, but I ended up using the hyperlink action on a normal text field instead. I'll have to remember this for the next time it comes up. – Hasidism

In SQL Server 2008, Report Server no longer uses IIS. Do you guys know how/where to install the images on the report server? – Rod

Answer 2

Have you tried using a fully qualified path?

http://<servername>/images/image1.jpg

More Info

Bield

Yes, I was able to get the images to display in the Report Designer (VS 2005) with an absolute path. But they didn't display on the Report Manager website. – Hasidism

Answer 3

I have this problem too..

I have looked at the SSRS error logs, and the IIS server logs. Some findings:

1. External images with URLs to static images work. (e.g. http://intranet/site/logo.jpg)
2. I can add parameters to static image URLs and it still works. (e.g. http://intranet/site/logo.jpg?foo=1) The parameter will be ignored, and the image displays. This suggests that SSRS is not choking on the ?.
3. If I link the external image to an ASPX page that returns a report with no parameters (e.g. http://intranet/site/image.aspx), it still doesn't work.
4. IIS logs show the report server requesting the image, and getting a 200 OK response.
5. Report server logs show this:

   webserver!ReportServer_0-116!14cc!01/09/2012-12:20:29:: i INFO: Processed report. Report='/Path/ReportName', Stream='' ui!ReportManager_0-115!7b8!01/09/2012-12:20:29:: Unhandled exception: System.Web.HttpException: File does not exist. at System.Web.StaticFileHandler.GetFileInfo(String virtualPathWithPathInfo, String physicalPath, HttpResponse response)
   at System.Web.StaticFileHandler.ProcessRequestInternal(HttpContext context) at System.Web.DefaultHttpHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext context, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

I wonder if SSRS is doing something boneheaded like adding the "correct" file extension before saving the file?

i.e. something like (1) SSRS downloads /Page.aspx, which supplies an image with Content-Type: image/jpg; (2) SSRS saves this to a temporary folder with a filename like tempname.aspx.jpg; (3) SSRS looks for tempname.aspx to incorporate the image into the report; (4) Error

I suppose you could test this by handling .jpg requests in code-behind... Unfortunately that's beyond my ASPX skills at the moment.

Bathos

did you ever get to find the solution to this? My external image has worked for 6 months. and now I get IMG tag onerror=this.errored=true; rrored="true" – Jeanette

@Jeanette Sorry, no. – Bathos

Answer 4

My case: Load from localhost depending on product's code.

Image.Source= "http://LOCALHOST/IMG/" + Fields!CODE.value + ".jpg"

Problem: Sometimes file is uploaded with extension ".png"; so it's needed a FileExists validation.

Solution: 1)Add auxiliar table

PRODUCT_PHOTO_EXTENSION

id (FK references PRODUCT) extension (varchar)

2)Create Store Procedure. Do the FileExists validation on sql and store the extension found in PRODUCT_PHOTO_EXTENSION.extension:

insert into PRODUCT_PHOTO_EXTENSION 
SELECT A.id,'.JPG' FROM PRODUCT A LEFT JOIN PRODUCT_PHOTO_EXTENSION AF ON A.id=AF.id WHERE AF.id IS NULL AND Matriz is null and dbo.FileExists('D:\directory\' + code + '.jpg')=1
 insert into PRODUCT_PHOTO_EXTENSION 
SELECT A.id,'.PNG' FROM PRODUCT A LEFT JOIN PRODUCT_PHOTO_EXTENSION AF ON A.id=AF.id WHERE AF.id IS NULL AND Matriz is null and dbo.FileExists('D:\directory\' + code + '.jpg')=1

3)Load image file using this field. (SSRS; image.source expression)

Iif(Fields!EXTENSION.Value<>"", "http://LOCALHOST/IMG/" & Fields!CODE.Value & Fields!EXTENSION.Value, "" )

4) Result: Load image according it extension; avoid that red "x".

Hope it helps

Commove