Project File (rptproj) is in a strange structure for SSRS

Question

I received an SSRS project from a colleague that I cannot open. This was created with SSDT 2015 and I am trying to open it with the same. The error I get when trying to open it is:

(project Name).rptproj : error : There is an error in XML document (2, 2).

The .rptproj file is in this form:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="14.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
    <FullPath>Debug</FullPath>
    <OutputPath>bin\Debug</OutputPath>
    <ErrorLevel>2</ErrorLevel>
    <OverwriteDatasets>False</OverwriteDatasets>
    <OverwriteDataSources>False</OverwriteDataSources>
    <TargetServerVersion>SSRS2016</TargetServerVersion>
    <Platform></Platform>
    <TargetReportFolder></TargetReportFolder>
    <TargetDatasetFolder></TargetDatasetFolder>
    <TargetDatasourceFolder></TargetDatasourceFolder>
    <TargetReportPartFolder></TargetReportPartFolder>
    <TargetServerURL></TargetServerURL>
  </PropertyGroup>
    <State></State>
    <DataSources>@(DataSource)</DataSources>
    <DataSets>@(DataSet)</DataSets>
    <Reports>@(Report)</Reports>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <DataSet Include="(data source file name).rsd" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Report Include="(Report Name).rdl" />
</ItemGroup>
...

I looked at an SSRS project that I can open and it looks completely different:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" ToolsVersion="2.0">
  <State></State>
  <DataSources>
    <ProjectItem>
      <Name>(data source name).rds</Name>
      <FullPath>(data source name).rds</FullPath>
    </ProjectItem>
  </DataSources>
  <DataSets>
    <ProjectItem>
      <Name>(dataset name).rsd</Name>
      <FullPath>(dataset name).rsd</FullPath>
    </ProjectItem>
  </DataSets>
  <Reports>
    <ProjectItem>
      <Name>(report name).rdl</Name>
      <FullPath>(report name).rdl</FullPath>
    </ProjectItem>
    <ProjectItem>
...

I'm looking to understand why these differences exist and how I can get the project opened in visual studio.

Answer 1

I had exactly the same issue - using the Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Update 3 on 2 different computers. After comparing the version of the SQL Server Reporting Services, I noticed that they were different (one was using the v13.0 and another with the v14.0).

So the first step was to install the same version of the SQL Server Data Tools (v14.0.61712.50). After that I've deleted the file with the ".rptproj.rsuser" extension which fixed the issue.