D. Dollahite said
I have the 2005 version of the same book and reviewed it here: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Server-2005-Reporting-Services/product-reviews/0764584979/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R202BG2RSEPRFO. Just copy and paste that link to read it. I bought the 2008 version when we decided to go SSRS 2008 to get a bug fixed on the matrix control overrunning the page width with dynamic columns. Pretty much everything I said in that review for the 2005 book applies to the 2008 book. I don't know why people bash this book. It gives you what you need. Actually, it covers quite a bit. I used one section to help me create my own app to better control report publishing. I can see if all you do is report design and don't have to worry about any kind of maintenance, programming, or administration this book might be a little thin on content. But it still gives you what you need, and if you are a beginning report designer then you shouldn't be looking at any book with "Professional" in the title. Get the "Beginner" one. This is for developers with a fair amount of experience in report design. It certainly isn't 100% of what you'll ever need. You'll find yourself constantly scouring the web for workarounds and code samples. But I also have the Microsoft SSRS 2008 book and that pretty much covers less but it geared more toward walk-throughs. This one definitely has more content. I can't see doing what I do without this book.
Sam Recycles said
The book gives good high level information about the product, but the step-by-step examples are very poor. I guess they had to rush this out because the examples are poorly written, but if you follow a simple example you get different results from what you're supposed to be seeing. Really frustrating.
Good thing Amazon sells at a discount.
G. Honhart said
The back end info is very good, but the report design section suffers because it was written before the report designer was done.
Buy it if you want the updated backend info, wait for a second edition if you are more interested in report design/development.
Comments