Ultimate solution (works in SSRS 2012 too!)
Append the following script to the following file (on the SSRS Server)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10_50.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportManager\js\ReportingServices.js
function pageLoad() {
var element = document.getElementById("ctl31_ctl10");
if (element)
{
element.style.overflow = "visible";
}
}
Note: As azzlak noted, the div's name isn't always ctl31_ctl10. For SQL 2012 tryctl32_ctl09 and for 2008 R2 try ctl31_ctl09. If this solution doesn't work, look at the HTML from your browser to see if the script has worked properly changing the overflow:auto property to overflow:visible.
Solution for ReportViewer control
Insert into .aspx page (or into a linked .css file, if available) this style line
#reportViewer_ctl09 {
overflow:visible !important;
}
Reason
Chrome and Safari render overflow:auto in different way respect to IE.
SSRS HTML is QuirksMode HTML and depends on IE 5.5 bugs. Non-IE browsers don't have the IE quirksmode and therefore render the HTML correctly
The HTML page produced by SSRS 2008 R2 reports contain a div which has overflow:auto style, and it turns report into an invisible report.
<div id="ctl31_ctl10" style="height:100%;width:100%;overflow:auto;position:relative;">
I can see reports on Chrome by manually changing overflow:auto to overflow:visible in the produced webpage using Chrome's Dev Tools (F12).
I love Tim's solution, it's easy and working.
But there is still a problem: any time the user change parameters (my reports use parameters!) AJAX refreshes the div, the overflow:auto tag is rewritten, and no script changes it.
This technote detail explains what is the problem:
This happens because in a page built with AJAX panels, only the AJAX panels change their state, without refreshing the whole page. Consequently, the OnLoad events you applied on the <body> tag are only fired once: the first time your page loads. After that, changing any of the AJAX panels will not trigger these events anymore.
User einarq suggested this solution:
Another option is to rename your function to pageLoad. Any functions with this name will be called automatically by asp.net ajax if it exists on the page, also after each partial update. If you do this you can also remove the onload attribute from the body tag
So wrote the improved script that is shown in the solution.
Best Answer
A tablix object is related to the underlying dataset, so if there's no data, there's no table in the output.
Other than using the NowRowsMessage property, the only other way I can think of to enforce this would be to ensure your query returns an empty value placeholder when there are now rows returned. This way you would have, in essence, a single data row.
You could then try and add a conditional expression on the table (i.e. on the Visibility property of the details row) to prevent any rows containing your placeholder from showing up.
So in your query you could have:
And then in the Visibility property of your table's detail row:
EDIT: Alternatively, to check if the DataSet is empty in SSRS and show a rectangle containing your message/headers (as mentioned in TooSik's comment), you could set up a rectangle with this in the Visibility expression: