Customer Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book delivers a solid understanding of Reporting Services derived from working through genuinely useful, real world examples preceded by clear technical overviews.

I am a BI consultant always learning new software technologies and as part of this work, read many instructional s/w books. From this standpoint I can state that this book shows great attention to detail (all of the examples actually work). It also incorporates a very useful feature "Task Notes" that further explains the implicit assumptions and underlying factors following each example. This shows that a great deal of care was taken to ensure that the reader is always on the same page as the writer.

This book is rare in its clarity, technical editing and delivery of concrete skills in return for the effort spent with it. Just keep off my turf when you acquire your skills! (;^ )

Many reviewers of this book have given it high marks because it is a terrific tutorial and that introduces most of the crucial techniques for writing great reports. I would agree as I have reporting experience with MS-Access and Crystal and this book helped me get up to speed quickly. If you like learning in a step-by-step fashion right out of a book - this is the book!

The bad reviews came from people that were looking for more of a reference type book. While this book is not a bad reference it does fall short as a reference book. For example, one reviewer brought up that the ability to shade alternating detail rows of a report does not appear to be easy to find in this book. I would agree with that. I was unable to go into the index and find a quick solution in this book.

If you want a better reference book try the WROX book, Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. That book is not as good as this book from a step-by-step standpoint but it is a better reference when you need a quick solutions. For example, page 272 has code on how to shade alternating rows - they call it Greenbar Reports. It was not easy to find in this book either. How many people would look up "Greenbar Reports" in the reference? I was looking into "shading alternative rows". I just happened to stumble upon it.

I bought both books together. Of course there is lots of overlap but between the two that is all you will need to become a pro at Reporting Services.

Reporting Services could use a COOKBOOK-style text like they have for Access and other programming languages. Those types of books have served me well over the years. Until then this book and the WROX book should do the trick!

we have over a dozen SQL SERVER 2005 suite books in our office. The thing that makes this better then all the others, is that while some people like reading these books, and others like books as references only - this book seems to satisfy both groups of developers at my office.
The most used SSRS book at the office by a mile.

SQL Server Reporting Services is a comprehensive, server-based reporting solution which provides support to develop, manage, and deliver reports on different mediums and platforms. Brian Larson in his latest book, "SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services" has done an excellent job in making the case for SQL Server Reporting Services (SRSS) by providing comprehensive knowledge to jump start with SQL server reporting services.

As Brian Welcker, Microsoft's group program manager of SSRS observes, the author has been working with Reporting services for a long time. Since he has been a part of development effort involved with reporting services, Brian Larson has a deep understanding of reporting services infrastructure which reflects in his writing. Being an MCDBA, author of "Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005" and "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services", Brian Larson has in-depth understanding of business intelligence solutions and real-world reporting scenarios.

"SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services" is hands on, no-nonsense, well organized step by step guide to SRSS. This 800 page book is divided into four parts and twelve chapters, in which author has provided wealth of information on all the pertaining topics. This book is illustrated and provides diagram and figures of every step defined during the process. The four main sections are "Putting the pieces in place", the beginning, "Report Authoring", about writing reports, "Report saving", about report publishing and management of reports and final part i.e. Appendices which has language references and some further guidelines. What I liked most about this book is its personal coordination and in-depth approach for instance not many reporting books discuss localization in detail and in a real-world scenario style in reports as you'll see it being done in Brian's book. Since it's written by one author, I found the reading to be much more consistent and harmonic across the book.

Following is the chapter summary for the reader to see that Brian has covered most of the required ground for issues one may encounter during report development.

Chapter 1: Let's Start at the Very Beginning
Chapter 2: Putting the Pieces in Place: Installing Reporting Services
Chapter 3: DB 101: Database Basics
Chapter 4: A Visit to Emerald City: The Report Wizard
Chapter 5: Removing the Train Wheels: Building Basic Reports
Chapter 6: Graphic Expression: Using Charts and Images in Reports
Chapter 7: Kicking It Up a Notch: Intermediate Reporting
Chapter 8: Beyond Wow: Advanced Reporting
Chapter 9: A Leading Exporter: Exporting Reports to Other Rendering Formats
Chapter 10: How Did We Ever Manage Without You? The Report Manager
Chapter 11: Delivering the Goods: Report Delivery
Chapter 12: Extending Outside the Box: Customizing Reporting Services
Appendix a: report item reference
Appendix b: web service interface reference
Appendix c: report definition language reference
Appendix d: ad hoc reporting

This book is an upgrade from previous reporting services book and is equally valuable for both the beginners and intermediate reporting services users.

It's sometimes hard to review a technical book without reviewing the technology the book discusses so I'll start by stating that Microsoft Reporting Services impressed me greatly but Microsoft's documentation is as bad as always. There's room for improvement but it's already better than Crystal Reports. Now on to the book review.

I am familiar with SQL Server and Crystal Reports so I was looking for a book that didn't spend too much time on stuff I already knew. This book spent the first three chapters discussing database basics so I skipped them.

I started reading the book in earnest at chapter four which discusses the report wizards. This is a quick way to throw reports together in Visual Studio and Brian Larson presents the information logically and clearly. It became quickly clear that I was reading an exceptional book. I'm guessing Brian had an experienced editor because the book is largely free of the gramatical errors that have been plaguing technical books recently. What impresses me even more is that all the examples worked flawlessly and were meaningful exercises that I will refer back to as I start to implement Reporting Services.

The book references a database you need to download from the Osborne website. The instructions to do so are very clear and I had no problems whatsoever downloading and installing it. The only problem I had was that the user id in the examples (GalacticReporting) does not have access to the stored procedures. You need to give GalRep the 'Reporting' role. Minor problem.

Brian, correctly, doesn't spend much time on the wizards and quickly gets into the meat of the application guiding the reader through successively more complex reporting scenarios. At first tasks are performed using point-and-click methods, then using quicker but more advanced methods. Finally Brian started taking shortcuts such as providing stored procedures. I saw Brian using this technique all through the book and I liked it.

The first real problem I encountered with the book in is chapter 10 in the section on deploying custom assemblies. This is an area that Reporting Services is very weak and I hope to see Microsoft improve in future releases. You have two options - alter the config file or deploy via the GAC. Brian only mentions the first option and very poorly. He doesn't mention the GAC at all whereas I think the GAC is the better option. But in the next section on security Brian is back to his old form and does a splendid job of explaining a subject I normally have a very hard time with.

The explanation of report caching, snapshots, and subscriptions is exceptionally good and does a great job of explaining these potentially confusing subjects. Again, his examples are well thought out and very simple to follow. As they occur after the section on security he points out what security tasks/roles are required to perform these function which was a great idea.

I wish Brian had spent a little more time explaining the logging mechanism in chapter 11. He refers the reader to the Microsoft documentation which is actually wrong. The book could have spent half a page explaining how to create and populate the logging database and implementing the sample reports. It would have saved me a lot of trouble.

The only other issue I have with the book is late in chapter 12 where Brian explains how to implement a custom, forms-based, security model. The example works well especially considering how complex it is, but I could not get the debugger to attach to the authentication dll even though I followed Brian's instructions to the letter. However, having Googled the problem it seems many, many people have problems attaching the Visual Studio debugger to already running threads so I suspect Bill should take some of the blame at least.

Overall Brian Larson should be very pleased with his work. It's well worth the money and he has done us all a great service. He should buy his editor a beer too.

Be aware that the style of this book is almost entirely to step you through one report project after another, building various kinds of reports step by step. As such it is not useful as a technical reference whereby you can look up a topic in the index and go straight to a "how to" section relating to that topic.

If you wish to learn by completing multiple projects step by step it is fine.

I prefer a technical reference style publication.

With the release of SQL Server 2005, many developers and business managers are clamoring to use the new features of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, but are unsure how to get started. This book takes the reader step-by-step through installing Reporting Services, to configuration, to generating a report, to finally customizing Reporting Services to meet a business need. This book is a good introduction to understanding what Reporting Services is all about.

This book is well organized and divided into three sections: getting Reporting Services set up, generating a report with Reporting Services, and serving up the reports you create.

The first section takes the reader through a step-by-step process of configuring Reporting Services. Additionally, the author identifies some common errors that might occur during set up and how those issues can be resolved.

The second section is (in my opinion) the most interesting of the three sections. In this section, the author illustrates how to create reports. Examples are provided which show how to generate all kinds of reports, in addition to jazzing up the end result with graphics and colors.

The final section details many of the administrative options that you should be aware of when deploying Reporting Services. In addition to some of the administrative details, the author shows how to customize reports with a style sheet and how to get the new report to integrate with a SharePoint site.

This is a very interesting book, and I would recommend it to individuals who work with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. There is a lot that you can do with Reporting Services, and this book goes a long way to identifying and illustrating those things.

Recently I decided to upgrade my shop to SQL Server 2005 from 2000. Being an MCDBA, MCAD and MCSA I was pretty comfortable around SQL Server, Visual Studio and Windows Server but...I had NEVER used either the Analysis or Reporting services - never had the need...I thought.

After reading both of Brian's books I realize just how bad I missed the boat. Brian's book does a fantastic job of both selling the service as a valuable asset and getting you well on your way to actively rolling it out. I found the book easy to read and being a big "hands on learner" really appreciated the exercises. My only grip about the book is the lack of a materials CD, I was a little irritated that I had to go and download stuff to complete the exercises.

For anyone new to Reporting Service, this book is well worth the money.

Some reviewers are complaining that this is not a reference and that the style of this book is almost entirely to step you through one report project after another, building various kinds of reports step by step. Well this is indeed no reference, but a learning book instead! This book is perfectly learning you how to use Reporting Services. I worked through the whole book and I only had to deal with an error in chapter 8 (report TransportMonitor) and a small print error in the examples (wrong year value) which intuitively could be solved easily (often may errors in other learning guides!).

Great work and very clear explanations.

The major disadvantage: nothing about Report Data Models and the Report Builder (only something about it in Appendix D)

As a very experienced developer I needed to learn about SQL Server Reporting Services as quick as possible as for a project I am starting. I bought this title primarily based on the great reviews, I must say I was very disappointed. If you are already a developer or report writer then I would say this book is not for you.

The book started out alright but when I got to chapter 3 titled 'DB 101 : Database Basics' I kind of figured I may have the wrong book. Next chapters were on various levels of report creation, no explanation of the report to be created or it's features, just a very detailed list of step by step instructions to make the report.

I know many learn by example but I learned nothing here as I can not take the time nor do I learn from following mindless step by step direction. After a few chapters like this I quit reading the book.