SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services in Action: Revised edition of Microsoft Reporting Services in Action (Paperback)

by Bret Updegraff (Author)
Key Phrases: custom delivery extension, report lifecycle, report object model, Report Designer, Visual Studio, Employee Sales Freeform (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"A great resource to help you unlock the hidden gems in SQL Server Reporting Services."
Brian Welcker
Group Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

With Microsoft SQL Server 2005 you can structure and store terabytes of data-but how do you make sense of that much information? Reporting Services transforms raw data into meaningful reports and puts your valuable information to work.

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services in Action shows you how to build effective Windows and Web-based reporting solutions using SQL Server 2005. Using this example-driven book, you'll build Reporting Services-centric solutions, including report forecasting, RSS feeds, ASP.NET web controls for server-side report generation, extending Reporting Services to report on ADO.NET datasets, delivering reports to Web services, authenticating users, performance testing, and capacity planning.

You'll quickly move beyond canned reports and put the Report Designer through its paces. The book will show you how to add interactive features to your tabular reports and how to improve performance by using external images without taking up valuable database real estate.

When you have large systems, efficiency is key to productivity. Author Bret Updegraff shows you how to avoid doing the same tasks twice. You'll see a nifty sales forecast that uses embedded code to create reusable utility functions that you can call from multiple places your reports. As well, you'll find fundamentals like employing XSLT to create XML reports and advanced techniques such as accessing custom code in an external .NET assembly.

Reporting Services 2005 lets you give users greater control over their reporting needs. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services in Action will help you provide safe, user-friendly reporting options to your users and free up your time for more important tasks. This book shows you how to set up ad hoc reporting through Report Builder so business users can get the information you need from the database without your help! You won't stop with the basics, though. You'll also learn how to apply advanced filters and security practices to protect your data from unwelcome or misguided queries.

Of course, this new edition is thoroughly updated to include coverage of all the new features introduced with SQL Server 2005. You'll see:

Direct Client Printing: Send a report directly to a printer without having to export to printable format first

End User Sort: Let the end user to re-sort data within the report

Multi Valued Parameters: Use multiple values for parameters

Custom Report Items: Build and embed custom server controls

You'll also work with the improved Report Designer, Report Builder, and Analysis Services Query Builder. You'll learn about SharePoint WebParts and the Report Viewer Controls for WinForms and ASP.NET, as well.

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services in Action is a revised edition of Microsoft Reporting Services in Action by Teo Lachev, published by Manning Publications, August 2005, ISBN 1932394222.

About the Author
An experienced software designer and developer, Bret Updegraff works as a manager with the Mid Market Microsoft practice of Crowe Chizek and Company LLC. Bret was honored with the Microsoft MVP status from Microsoft in the category of Windows Server System - SQL Server. He is also a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer, and a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator. He is the president of the Indianapolis Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS) users group. Bret lives in Fishers, IN.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; Revised edition (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932394761
• ISBN-13: 978-1932394764
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #503,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Has the feel of being very rushed, August 14, 2007

By	Terry Hutt (Running Springs, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are several reasons why this book only gets three stars.

First, it's full of silly little mistakes. Some are trivial but some are very frustrating especially when they occur in the examples. For example page 127 has a screen print at the bottom and page 128 has exactly the same screen print at the top; different figure number and subtitle but exactly the same screen print. Trivial to be sure but indicitive of poor editing. A little later on page 130 the text states 'drag the Territory field ... and drop it onto the data fields section'. The author means the category fields section. If you follow the instructions exactly the example doesn't work. This kind of error is unacceptable in instructional material. That's two errors I found just a few pages apart. The rest of the book so far has been similar. I have to ask myself who checked this book?

The second reason I only give this book three stars is that important features are glossed over. The author himself states that to properly explain charts would take an entire chapter so he points us to the documentation and spends less that five pages on them. I think he got lazy. So it would take an entire chapter? So take a whole chapter and do the job we paid you for! Don't fob us off into Microsoft's tender clutches. We read the documentation and found it wanting, that's why we bought this book! Again, the book feels rushed.

The third reason is that the examples are not adequately explained. When introducing new concepts it is important to take the reader by the hand and walk them through step-by-step. Just because you've already explained how to do grouping for a table control doesn't mean you can just show us the dialog box for grouping list controls. What did you click on to get there? Similarly for charts, you can't just tell us to drop a field onto a region of the chart. Why are we doing it and what are the implications? What about the series field section? Just because you didn't use it in the example doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to explain it to us. Again, the book seems to be rushed.

Perhaps it isn't possible to cover SQL Server Reporting Services in one book. Quite frankly I'm sure it's impossible. So let's call this the 'Introduction...' and remove the later chapters on report management. Then you can expand the chapters on report authoring so that they are clear and unambiguous. Take the removed chapters and expand them into an 'Advanced...' book. While you're at it you can fix all the silly errors.

I do need to say one good thing about this book. The examples are well crafted and explain the point at hand succinctly. They are also examples of what the average developer would want to do and not the contrived examples that so many books have.

Final update:
I give up. I'm dumping this book. Two examples in a row have had such major errors I refuse to spend my time figuring out the correct solutions. On page 175 there a report to demonstrate the use of the Previous function to report percentage changes by month. Problem is the author doesn't realize the iif function always evaluates both objects that could be returned which means you are guaranteed to get a #Error for the first row because there's an implicit divide by zero. The example does work as shown.

But wait, it gets worse! The next example is a drill down. One of the reports that gets drilled down to uses a stored procedure (book doesn't mention this little fact). The stored procedure .sql file is in the code I downloaded from the site, but it creates a stored procedure with a different name and function. Yes, the actual stored procedure required by the example DOESN'T EXIST so you CAN'T RUN THE REPORT! I'm banging way too hard on my keyboard right now so I'll sign off here and go get some decaf.

Do not buy this book, it is a complete waste of money.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Handy guide, September 28, 2008

By	H. C. G. Pragt - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tells you all you need to know, Have not yet searched anything that I could not find in this excellent entry level book.

on the downside:
It's full off ' what have we learned, what can we do now and what are we going to do' stuff
that seems to be 80% of all texts in American books these days.

I Don't regret the purchase, I depend on it for my current job!