Customer Reviews

Professional SQL Server Reporting Services

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

 

 

There are 2 RS (Reporting Services) books out right now, this one, and Brian Larson's book. Larson's book is good if you are a newbie to RS, but the examples he uses are very minimal.

How to Choose:
1. If you're a solid SQL Server user and are comfortable setting up RS and have a little C# or VB.NET experience; go with this book.
2. If you're moderately clueless but really want to learn; use Larson's book "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services," {and maybe pick-up Murach's C# (.Net Developer)}

You may have to do what I did and go through both RS books. I started out clueless and the WROX book would have been too much to start with. Larson's book was a good starter for me, "an advanced newbie" but left me wanting much more.

This review will eventually be out of date, but I think I'll stand by the WROX book (though it has errors). Larson's book is going to get beat out as the entry level book pretty quickly. (as soon as someone publishes another one)

WARNING: If you have never installed SQL Server, this is not the place to start. Reporting Services is not Word. It takes a moderate level of Server knowledge to even get started.

I have looked over a number of books about SQL Server Reporting Services (RS), and after comparing them decided that this one is best for my needs.

The book starts with a clear overview of just what RS is, what its components are, and how they work together. This seems to be the part that many other books just miss. Other books seem to get caught up in the hype but fail to deliver a direct, no-frills or buzzwords, account of the actual architecture.

I also like that the books assumes that the reader already knows SQL, .NET programming (although you don't have to be a professional to understand their examples), and SQL Server. This enables them to avoid repeating material which is better covered on other books, and allows them to focus on explaining just what Reporting Services can do, and lets the reader get started using RS right away.

My one beef is that their code examples are in both VB.NET and C#, which takes up unnecessary space in the text. But that's a minor complaint when they otherwise do a great job explaining this fascinating and powerful product.

This book is not only a great introduction to Reporting Services, but has increased my knowledge of both XML and the .NET data access technologies. Most of the examples were in both languages. I found this to be helpful since my company is migrating to C#.

I found the book to be an excellent source for getting up to speed on Reporting Services. I found chapters 2 and 9 to be very well written. If you are thinking about moving from Crystal to Reporting Services, I would recommend adding this book to your library.

With any SQL Server database, once you've populated it and it has undergone real events (esp. transactions), then you'll need to summarise and display the results. Most likely, on a periodic basis. Plus, the report might be for a nontechnical audience. (Your boss?) So the book offers an efficient investment of your time. It shows straightforward ways to get at the data and how to present it.

While the authors try to minimise it, there is still a modicum of coding. They provide example snippets in C# and VB.NET. If you're already familiar with either language, then there will be nothing complicated in the code for you.

The book also demonstrates how Microsoft is migrating .NET into a seamless integration with its flagship database.

The book is suitable for an intermediate level programmer in C# or VB.NET. It also helps to have some experience in the visuals of laying out a report. For example, an HTML UI or PowerPoint background would not be amiss.

This book does an excellent, thorough job of introducing the product (which is awesome!), and then going all the way through to advanced coding & custom manipulation. The authors have clearly presented the material in a comfortable style, while remaining seriously technical. As a consultant, seminar presenter, and MS2030 trainer, I use this book extensively as a reference as well as a recomendation. My background includes over 10 years of varied development, & reporting.

With this book you will be able to set up and run Reporting Services, however, if you are looking for something that details advanced report design (e.g. anything more than simply bound table data) then this is not the book for you. In fact I don't know what would be the book for you. I'm still looking.

The architecture overviews are good, but from there on it's full of errors and lacking the detail needed to make it useful. It has what you could loosely call "excercises" that I've gone through (step-by-step) and found many errors with. Errors that require many hours of debugging and fixing on the part of the reader. The writing is very cursory, overly broad and not detailed enough to be useful. The book often mentions that something useful CAN be done with Report Services but doesn't explain HOW to do it. Perhaps a revised edition is in order. One with more detail and with walkthroughs that have been followed, tested and confirmed accurate.

I just got started using Reporting Services and was completely lost using the BOL. This book really helped me understand how to get started and to write some more advanced reports. Some of the screen pictures were a little out of date (apparently taken from the beta version) but this was not a big deal. The errata info at the Wrox forums was also very helpful and I was able to get answers from the authors on the P2P forum. In all, I'm happy I bought the book. Good job.

I like Wrox books in general and this book has helped me learned SQL Reporting Services (I had no prior knowledge of SRS). I did find some errors in their examples that wasted valuable time for me. MAKE SURE you check out Wrox's errata page for this book before working through the examples: [...]. The numerous typos detract from the professional feel of the book. Until a second edition comes out you may want to consider "Hitchhiker's Guide to SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services".