Customer Reviews

Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Teo drills down into the nitty gritty which some other books on SSRS can leave behind (or address at too high a level not useful to real-world developers). Case in point, chapter 5 presents a solid understanding of the new tablix region with step-by-step walkthroughs where needed (implementing grouping can be a little confusing at first if you're used to other tools like MS Access). As a seasoned developer, I found many little tips and tricks which another book I just finished on the subject didn't even begin to cover.

Teo understands what developers need and what they don't. Some of us don't have a lot of time to spend experimenting with a new tool or a new version. His explanations and examples cut to the chase and left me feeling confident in my ability to put the information to use. The videos on his website are a great compliment to the text. I recommend them both.

I recently bought Applied MS Reporting Services 2008 and were immediately very impressed with the content. This book is extremely practical and perfect for somebody technical that need to get up to speed as fast as possible when implementing a new SSRS solution. We were able to get a full blown SSRS reporting solution up and running (and integrated with Sharepoint) within 4 days - and have Teo and the book to thank for much of this!

I found the book interesting and informative; but, a bit too complex for the beginner. I made it through about half the book and completed the exercises; but, it was a struggle. I finally switched to a different book that suited me better. The best part of the book is the support given by the author. He has a forum for the book and answered my many questions often within hours. His help was instrumental to getting me through as much of the book as I did. I plan on finishing the other half of the book after I've completed a more basic one.

I was an experienced SSRS 2005 developer. I read quite a bit about the new features in 2008, and decided to give it a try. Although the new features appeared to be appealing, I became frustrated with the lack of documentation and examples. Teo's book to the rescue...

After spending a few hours skimming Teo's book, I was able to dive back into SSRS 2008 and start implementing the new features. Teo writes in a very practical and logical manner. It's easy to use his book as a reference. It also has some nice background information that provides insight into how SSRS works under the hood.

This is one of those rare books that is full of information that you cannot find on the web.

If you work in organization that is using MS SQL 2008 Reporting Services, you have to have this book.

This book will fit very well to 3 groups of readers:

1) Reporting Services beginners.
You will be writing your first reports after you are done with chapters 1-3. You can stop after chapter 5 and be in the pretty good shape for your work. You will be able to create reports from different sources, make interactive reports and more.

2) Advanced Reporting Services users
If you are already familiar with RS, you will greatly benefit from this book, because it is in essence is an "applied" reporting services book. I would not read chapters 1,2,3 and 5 if you are an experienced user, but I would read everything else. The book will teach you some extra techniques, will explain in details some best practices and will answer many questions you come across while designing complex solutions.

3) Developers
There are not many books that offer in one area information for different coding needs. This book will walk you through reporting for .net, programming RS web service, integration with SSAS and SharePoint. If you are a developer, chapters 14-18 is a gold mine.

Each chapter comes with report samples. Only by digging through reports and custom codes, you can learn more than in most of "step by step" books for beginners.

I also found chapter 6 - Designing for Data Visualization - very useful for anyone who does reports that must be visually informative. I never understood some of the types of charts (polar or bubble for example), Teo did a good job of explaining each and every one with very useful report samples.

Great book all around.

While Microsoft's BI Suite is one of those amazing relatively undiscovered value adding sophisticated software items, this book goes the furthest into the depths of just how amazing the SSRS leg can be. Leo seems to have the best grasp of any author out there of getting into the corners of SSRS. I know because I had a very specific tough question regarding a very specific customizing while still maintaining the wonderful user empowering capability of SSRS. Not only did this book answer it with thorough technical explanations and a real life working example I could walk through, but other books only had a quick paragraph if anything at all. If you want to get the most advanced SSRS book out there, then this one is it! I know because I've purchased literally 100's, if not 1000's of computer books over my 32 plus years in IT, and only have a few actually on my bookshelf, and this is my goto for answering SSRS questions.

I'm beginning Chapter 5. It's been a struggle to work through some of the examples due to my inability so locate the exact version of AdventureWorks used in the example. There are several out there but apparently not the exact one. I keep running into problems with errors because the field references aren't there. I think this book covers what I would like to become more proficient with, namely Tablix reports, but I've found it to be a real pain to follow. I don't recommend it.

Having read "Applied Analysis Services 2005", I knew I won't be disappointed by this book. The author's extensive real-life experience show through. This book contains in-depth coverage which I wasn't able to find in other SSRS 2008 books, including integrating and extending Reporting Services with various technologies. In fact, the book is really two books packaged in one: Applied Reporting Services 2008 and Advanced Reporting Services 2008. It's evident that Teo has worked closely with the Reporting Services team and turned their feedback into easy-to-understand tutorials and best practices.

Another thing that impressed me was the author's commitment to go beyond just authoring the book. Teo has prepared great web-based tutorial available from the book page on the [...] website. He also maintains a book discussion list (another great resource) where he answered my question within hours.

If you are serious about learning Reporting Services, look no further and buy this book now!

Everything Teo Lachev has to say about SSRS, I take notice : his book "Applied Microsot SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services" is a must read. It's not a reference book; it's a book to learn from someone who has used the product in the real world.

I especially like chapters "Advanced Report Design", "Integrating with Analysis Services", "Integrating with SharePoint" and the "Extensiblity" part.

[...]

Very well written and thorough... plus great examples.

I think what I like best about Teo's book is that he is such a great writer and knows how to organize content that makes sense and is structured in the right way. Literally, there are dozens of report examples using all the features of Reporting Services 2008 including the new charting components (gauges, sparklines, paredo, plus standard bar/pie, etc ) and grids... and how to use the new Report Designer. Also if you are managing SSRS, this walks through SharePoint integration, deployment, security, administration, etc.

I was really surprised to see a couple negative reviews... I found the book really helpful and written so much better than most technology books.