Customer Reviews

Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer)

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

 

 

I needed to know quickly how to implement a BI solution and ordered three books: Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 by Brian Larsen, Applied Microsoft Analysis Services by Teo Lachev, and this book. Of the tree books, this is the only one I really needed. This book had everything I wanted to know about Analysis Services. I was also impressed with the knowledge and information regarding how to design dimensions and cubes especially when it comes to tough situations such as how to apply security. If you need to implement a BI solution, I highly recommend this book.

I do not understand why this book gets such high ratings by other readers. I found this book a real mess. My concise evaluation of "Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX":
· general: bad as a tutorial, but it might serve as a good reference,
· incorrect code: see below,
· incorrect references to other chapters,
· extremely inconsistent use of names of the cube, tables, dimensions, measures, etc., which makes the learning process more like a puzzle,
· subjects, details are scattered over many chapters (which has some advantages as well), but complicates the learning process.

In chapter 3 of this book it starts with code samples, that are incorrect in almost any sense. Not really being a novice, but having my first experience with SSAS (that is: the 2005 version, I had some experience with the 2000 predecessor), I was blaming my ignorance. I could better do not: I simply had to correct about every code sample.
I made a long list of errata, that I have sent to Wiley/Wrox on January 9, 2007. These errata are very detailed and specific, but I do not find the results in the list of errata of this book on the Wiley or Wrox site. They simply did not process my errata.
So, I finally bought "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services" by Melomed, et.al. (Sams, 2007). My first impression: very good, indeed. I just have it for two days now, so my review will take a few more months.
Leendert.

I have over 9 years of database experience, with about 4 years in MS Data Warehousing experience which included Reporting Services and DTS.

With the major improvements made with SQL Server 2005, this book allowed me to create a TOTAL business intelligence system which included SSIS, Analysis Services, MDX and Reporting. The book is easy to read and contains valuable information that I haven't seen in other books.

I know following the information in this book is that the client received a top notch system from beginning to the end.

I am a DBA, and bought this book hoping to learn quickly basics of implementing SSAS project. This book exceeded all my expectations. I would call it a practical tutorial on implementation with explanation of all aspects behind SSAS: basic theory, technologies, tools, security, connectivity. Not only it gives you hands-on approach to learning with 99.9% precision in samples, but also explains usage of Microsoft SQL Server 2005's related technologies: Integrated Services, Reporting Services.
The scope of presenation is also very much oriented on practical needs of SSAS utilization.
In short, I am 110% satisfied on my expectations for this book.

Vladimir Kievsky

Half of the chapters in this book are well planned and very readable. But the other half are just terrible. There are two authors of this book, so it's clear what is behind this. The "bad" chapters are loaded with bad grammar, technical errors and explanations that just don't make sense. This would be bad enough, but the larger problem is that there is no overall planning to these chapters, with illogical jumps between topics and a lack of any conceptual flow. I've been reading technical books for over 25 years, and this is without a doubt the poorest offering I've ever seen published. You can gain some value from the book from the "good" chapters, but the other chapters are so frustrating that I recommend avoiding this book altogether. If you need to ramp up on 2005 Analysis Services, the Microsoft Press Step-by-Step book is a much better choice.

After reading the previous reviews of this book, I think my expectations may have to been to high. Overall the book is good, but I feel like it could have been more in-depth in numerous areas. I still find myself searching MSDN with help on topics. My main fault with the book was that I constantly had to read sentences over-and-over again due to extremely poor grammer.

The intial chapters give a reasonable overview of how to use the wizards and how to get started doing basic customization. Once reaching chapter 7 or so, the book veers into a ditch.

Chapter 7 in particular is frustrating since it throws an enormous number of concepts regarding MDX at the reader then offers MDX queries which point to a SSAS object which is undefined anywhere in the chapter and in no way builds on previous examples. The downloadable code from [...] is of no help since it does not provide the SSAS object which the MDX queries are derived from either. Without knowing the data they are attempting to query, any potential results are meaningless, assuming the query works at all.

After slogging through a couple chapters which used this method, I'm going to try the books from Microsoft press.

This is particularly disappointing since Wrox's books have been so good previous to this one. My most recent was their beginning Visual C# title, and it was outstanding. It was well-organized, explained concepts then built on them with useful, clear, and open-ended examples which encouraged trying things on your own.

The tutorial which came with the free edition of SQL Server 2005 from Microsoft for making a basic SSAS implementation was far more useful than this book.

The product came as ordered. I would order from this company again. I expected the product in a few weeks, it actually came a few days after I ordered. The book was in great condition.

Other reviewers have already commented on the grammar, and sometimes difficult to follow examples. More often than not a topic is introduced, explained in overly simple terms, then dismissed, and this is frustrating. Still, this is the only book out there with this level of information about MDX (that I could find). It is an essential reference, and it is the only book you're likely to find that contains detailed XML/A & MDX scripts for you, the diligent programmer, to dissect and learn from. Both authors are privy to the sort of low-level Analysis Services black-magic that can only come from years of intimacy.

Don't read the text too much, read the samples; and read them for the syntax and usage of any number of specific functions that only appear in this language. This book is for programmers and technical people, and sometimes you'll have to work at reading it. But it beats the pants off of the simple one-chapter summaries of MDX you're likely to find in virtually every other book out there. If you want an intro to Analysis Services, or dimensional design using the BIDS tool, keep browsing, because those books are pretty common. If you want to learn to rip through the toughest concepts in Microsoft Analysis services and build truly unique business solutions (with code, not wizards), nothing else even comes close.

Microsoft has been extending the capabilities of their SQL Server product to make it more useful in enterprise environments. As is often the case, the first version of the product to make it to market isn't everything that the customer might want. In fact the authors make the comment that the user interface was about as complex as driving a nuclear submarine.

The purpose of Analysis Services is to handle data warehousing and data mining applications where the goal is to look at the vast amounts of data stored in enterprise systems and extract information that will be useful to management.

Because of the multiple places where data is typically stored, Analysis Services uses a distinct query language called MDX (Multi-Dimensional eXpressions) which is based on the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE.

This book is part of the Wrox Professional to Professional series, and is not exactly a beginner book. You'd best have some basic understanding of databases before you start this one. The authors are a good combination. Dr. Harinath is a Ph.D. computer scientist and has been working in the development of Analysis Services. Mr. Quinn's degree is in psychology, so he has some understanding of what is needed in writing. This will probably be the definitive book on Analysis Services.