Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Solid Intro to SSRS
Comment: This book served as a decent read as well as decent reference material for using SSRS.
I could have done without the author's attempts at humor with lines such as "Be prepared. You're about to enter... the Matrix!". I would have preferred a "dryer" more serious approach however I can live with the writer's style because the book delivered on content.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good information
Comment: I have been more than happy with this book and have recommended others to purchase it also. I feel this book is easy to follow and great for the experienced and also for the beginner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book, amazing author...
Comment: Got this book last week but I just started to read and do the chapters a few days back, and I'm not into chapter 6 already and finding it really helpful and easy read. The book is well laid out, and for a beginner like I find the steps so easy to follow.
Also, the author was so helpful when I emailed him regarding the Galactic DB setup and he responded immediately within 30 minutes! Now, that's a plud factor! Highly recommended for beginners and intermediates but not so much for experts (as my officemate was looking for a peculiar way of doing the report in a matrix data region required by the business but can't find any that advanced format...)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best technical book I've read in ten years
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Clear step by step examples
Comment: The way this book is formated is great for people who learn through "Give me an example". When looking up a topic you will find a step by step example with screen shots.
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