The Rational Guide to: SQL Server Reporting Services

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Summary: $10 Well Spent
Review: I needed to get up to speed quickly and had a short amount of time to create a solution. The Reporting Services book by Anthony Mann, gave me a very detailed look into the workings of RS by providing step by step examples. It was exacly what I was looking for.

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Summary: Great book! Concise and to the point
Review: I thought that this book was excellent. No pages and pages of SQL History and fluff that so many books contain. This is a great book to get up to speed on the basics of SQL RS in a very quick time frame, without having to wade the fluff. I can't wait for more titles to come out. At $10, you can't beat the price either.

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Summary: Awesome for a 2 to 4 hour "facilitated overview"
Review: If you're the developer responsible for deciding upon (and building out) the reporting architecture for your project's (or company's) applications, an important up front decision is choosing which third party package to build your reports on top of. There's often the trade-off between using a package that may already be well known to you--for many of us, Crystal Reports--or leveraging the improved capabilities (and unknown risks) of a newer technology, such as Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. You know that the best way to evaluate a reporting package is to spend hundreds of hours deploying it to build and deploy non-trivial reports on an actual project. You also know that the worst way to evaluate a package is to just read (and trust) the marketing copy. And that ripping out and replacing the reporting architecture (if the new package doesn't cut it) half-way through is hugely expensive. So you may choose to stick with the good package, and miss out on the potentially great package... To me, the value proposition behind "The Rational Guide to: SQL Server Reporting Services" is that this book facilitates a *short*, *hands-on* overview of Reporting Services' capabilities for development, as well as for (just as important!) the deployment, management, and integration with third party packages (such as Microsoft Office 2003 and Sharepoint). The book delivered 100% in this regard. You'll still need to dig in to the on-line documents (or buy another book!) if you want to understand everything you'll need to know about Reporting Services for your projects...

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Summary: Time saving way to get started.
Review: If you're unfamiliar with SQL Reporting Services, this book provides a quick overview. You can get the idea without being overwhelmed or bogged down in details. If time and money are precious, this is the book for you!

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Summary: Achieves its objective
Review: Its a very low cost, quick-to-market overview of the product, and so I applaud Mr. Mann and the folks at Rational Press for that. However, its nothing more than a rehash of the Microsoft marketing information and technical documentation freely available from www.microsoft.com/sql. If you don't have an internet connection, then by all means by the book. Otherwise, you won't be gaining much at all by picking up this guide.

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Summary: Tired of Microsoft Book on Line (BOL) Tutorials?
Review: Let's face it, saying that Microsoft's BOL tutorials or "getting started" lessons are cumbersome is an understatement. If you have a busy schedule and you need to get a "quick handle" on what Reporting Services is all about, you will find Anthony Mann's SQL Server Reporting Services a great read. Go ahead. Get a cup of coffee, kick back and I guarantee in an hour you will be able to perform an initial assessment of Reporting Services and how it could fit in with your enterprise needs. This is a great concept. Do not let the price mislead you. We need more textbooks like this - A quick synopsis on new development platforms that gives you just enough screen shots of the GUI to give you an idea of how it works.

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Summary: Get Up to Speed
Review: MCDBAs & MCSDs will notice that everything in this brief, easy to read without a computer, book will be found in the Reporting Services Books Online. Of course, they'll also discover a lot of other stuff in the BOL which will not help them get up to speed quickly on the technology. And herein lies the strength of Mann's work - it only contains what developers need to get going with SQL Server Reporting Services.

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Summary: Excellent Value for the money - All you will ever need
Review: The book dispenses with fluff and explains the architecture and important point of reporting services in a concise format. As with most developers you will be able to figure out deeper techical issues via msdn newsgroups and google. After reading the book you will have learnt enough to be productive. Not a page is wasted- Excellent Work that is available at the same time with the product release not 1 year after you need it.

-Paritosh Pathak

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Summary: Reporting Services ¿ The Perfect Place to Start
Review: The Rationale Guide to SQL Server Reporting Services is the perfect place to start learning about Microsoft's latest piece of SQL Server technology. I was able to get up to speed immediately and began to dig into the technology with a reasonable level of comfort. All of the information is well presented and easy to reference when needed in the future. Get your copy now and be the reporting hero at your organization. Good luck!

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Summary: Great Quick Reference
Review: This book contains concise and to the point information on Reporting Services. I like the minimal pricing and the easy to understand instructions from the chapters. I was able to get up to speed with Reporting Services in a short time with this book.