Microsoft Reporting Services in Action

Microsoft Reporting Services in Action
by Teo Lachev
Copyright 2005
Manning Publications

Find out more about this book, or purchase it, from Amazon.com

Being a new product, it has been hard to find good books on Microsoft's Reporting Services. But that is finally changing, and several new books are now available on this topic. And one of the best is Microsoft Reporting Services in Action.

This 622 page book offers information for DBAs, report writers, and developers alike, covering the entire gamut of what Reporting Services offers. DBAs learn how to install, manage, deliver, and secure Reporting Services; report writers learn how to write reports using Visual Studio .NET; and developers learn how to incorporate Reporting Services in their applications.

Here's what the book covers:

• Introduction to Microsoft Reporting Services

• Report Authoring Basics

• Working with Data

• Using Expressions and Functions

• Using Custom Code

• Managing the Reporting Services Environment

• Securing Reporting Services

• On-Demand Report Delivery

• Reporting for Web-Based Applications

• Reporting for OLAP Applications

• Enterprise Reporting

• Subscribed Report Delivery

• Extending Reporting Services

• Performance and Scalability

• Installing Reporting Services

I have to commend the author on including a section on performance and scalability, as this is a topic that is often overlooked by many authors. The chapter includes both high-level and detail information to help make your Reporting Services applications better performing and more scalable.

The only nitpick I have with the book is its organization. I would have organized the book into three distinct parts, each one slanted toward the three major readers of the book, DBAs, report writers, and developers. As it is now, if you are not interested in all these areas, you have to skip around in the book, finding what you want to read.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who want to become involved, or is currently involved, in using Reporting Services. I do want to mention that this book assumes that you are already a proficient DBA, report developer, or developer, so if you are a newbie in any of these areas, you may find yourself a little lost. But if you have any training or experience in any of these three areas, you will find the book very readable and useful.