Hiding SSRS folders from users

I’ve been looking into a way to allow users access to content without being able to see content in the SSRS 2016 Portal.

This provides a way for developers to re-use shared objects such as Shared Data Sources and Shared Data Sets without confusing the user.

The built in functionality to ‘Hide in Tile View’ is not suitable as:

• the default configuration for all users is to ‘Show hidden items’
• there is no known way to overwrite this property for all users
• the property is overwritten each time you publish

A better way to control visibility is via Security, however the built in ‘Browser’ role has too many rights for this need.

Part 1 – Create a new SSRS Role

1. Connect to Integration Services through SSMS

1. Once in, expand Security, Roles, then Add Role
2. Add a new role called ‘Reader’, and grant only rights to ‘View Reports’ and ‘View models’

Part 2 – Grant this role to users on folders you want to hide

1. Connect to your SSRS Portal
2. Edit Permissions for the folder that you want to hide
3. Change the Users group to have ‘Reader’ rights rather than ‘Browser’ rights