Reporting Services Error? - sql

Question

When running a report in preview I get the following error The definition of the report is invalid , the tablix 'Tablix11' contains an invalid TablixMember. The sort Expressions element is not allowed if Group is omitted.
I have never come across this error before and cant understand what is causing it.

Answer 1

The error can be replicated by creating a simple Tablix and looking at the underlying XML.
When you create a Tablix with a group, the underlying RDL XML will include something like this:
<TablixRowHierarchy>
<TablixMembers>
<TablixMember />
<TablixMember>
<Group Name="Group1">
<GroupExpressions>
<GroupExpression>=Fields!val.Value</GroupExpression>
</GroupExpressions>
</Group>
<SortExpressions>
<SortExpression>
<Value>=Fields!val.Value</Value>
</SortExpression>
</SortExpressions>
<TablixMembers>
<TablixMember>
<Group Name="Details3" />
</TablixMember>
</TablixMembers>
</TablixMember>
</TablixMembers>
</TablixRowHierarchy>
If you remove the entire Group element, this will give the same error you're seeing:
If you also remove the SortExpressions element this will allow the report to render without error.
However - it's impossible for me to say how your RDL file got in this state in the first place. Given that hacking XML to get things running is seldom a good idea, my recommendation would be to start the tablix from scratch instead of hacking things to a working state - you might just be introducing more problems.
But at least hopefully now you can see why the error might be occurring.

Answer 2

I found that the Tablix header had a textbox property containing interactive sort. This text box is in the header, and not part of the detail. When I deleted the field from the detail of the tablix, the interactive sort remained on the textbox in the header.
Changing it on the header by right clicking on the header textbox of the tablix, then selecting textbox properties, then selecting "interactive sorting", and then correcting the "sort by" value to the correct field name did the trick.