Introduction

So, as we all know, reports can be designed using Visual Studio or Report Builder and uploaded to the Reports section in CRM.  But, what if you want to display the report directly in a form?   This is what a client wanted to do as it would enable their users to view non CRM data in a CRM form.  In the past they had issues with browser security and had not gotten very far.

 

Testing the Report

To test this I utilized an Azure VM which had SQL Server 2014 including SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Service) installed onto it.  A SQL Table and a sample report were created, which looked as below:

Next, a new CRM form was created and an IFRAME added to it with the URL (http://crm2015dev/Reports/Pages/Report.aspx?ItemPath=%2fTestSSRSReport%2fTestSSRSReport) of the above report.  The number of the rows for the IFRAME were set to 12, from the default of 6.

On opening of the CRM form 2 security prompts were displayed, and required accepting before the report would be shown.  These are the 2 prompts:

 

Removing the IE Security Prompts

A bit of searching online and in forums revealed the 2 Internet Explorer settings that needed to be changed to remove the prompts.  Both settings are in the same dialog.  To get to the dialog open the IE internet options dialog, then the Security Tab.
Select ‘Local intranet’, then click the button ‘Custom level…’

Locate the option ‘Display mixed content’ and change it to ‘Enable’

Locate the option ‘Websites in less privileged web contents zone can navigate into this zone’ and change it to ‘Enable’

After restarting IE the the CRM form now displays the SSRS report with no security prompts:

 

Conclusion

Once you know the settings to change for IE it’s pretty straightforward to remove the security prompts.  I should say that I’m no expert in IE and I’m not sure of the security implications of making these changes so if you’re in a corporate environment check these settings with your Desktop Team.

NOTE: These are the version numbers of the applications:
CRM: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Version 1612 (8.2.2.111) (DB 8.2.2.111) online
SSRS: SQL Server 2014 SP1 (Version 12.0.4100.1)
Internet Explorer (IE): Version 11.0.9600.18817

 

Photo by William Iven