Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012

by Jayaram Krishnaswamy

Get the most out of SQL Server Reporting Service 2012, both Native and SharePoint Integrated modes

Overview

Build applications using the latest Microsoft technologies: SSIS 2012, SSDT, WPF, and SharePoint 2010
Reach out to the cloud and master Windows Azure Reporting Services
Learn the ins and outs of SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 for Native and SharePoint Integrated modes
Step-by-step learning, guided by a large number of screenshots in every chapter makes it a simple

566 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Jayaram Krishnaswamy studied at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore India and Madras University in India and taught at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras. He went to Japan on a Japanese Ministry of Education Research scholarship to complete his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Nagoya University. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Sydney University in Australia; a Government of India Senior Scientific Officer at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur; a Visiting Scientist at the Eindhoven Institute of Technology in the Netherlands; a visiting Professor of Physics at the Federal University in Brazil; an Associate Research Scientist at a government laboratory in São Jose dos Campos in São Paulo, Brazil; a visiting scientist at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada before coming to USA in 1985. He has also taught and worked at the Colorado State University in Fort Collins and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. He worked with Northrop Grumman Corporation on a number of projects related to high energy electron accelerators and Free Electron Lasers. These projects were undertaken at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island and in the Physics Department at Princeton University. He has over 80 publications in refereed and non-refereed publications and 8 issued patents. He is fluent in Japanese and Portuguese and lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
He has been working in IT-related fields since 1997. He was once a Microsoft Certified Trainer in Networking and a Siebel Certified developer. He has worked with several IT related companies, such as the Butler International in their Siebel practice, with several IBM sub-contractors and smaller companies. Presently he is active in writing technical articles in the IT field to many online sites such as http://CodeProject.com, http://APSFree.com, http://DevShed.com, http://DevArticles.com, http://OfficeUsers.org, http://ASPAlliance.com, Egghead Café, http://SSWUG.org, Packt Article Network, http://databasedev.co.uk, http://cimaware.com, and many others. Between 2006 and 2010 he wrote more than 400 articles mostly related to database and web related technologies covering Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase, ColdFusion, Sun, and other vendor products.
He has written four books all published by Packt related to Microsoft Database and Application Development: SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio 2005, Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2008, Microsoft SQL Azure; Enterprise Application Development, and Microsoft Visual Studio Lightswitch Business Application Development. He regularly writes for his four blogs on Blogger; http://Hodentek.blogspot.com, http://HodentekHelp.blogspot.com, http://HodentekMobile.blogspot.com, and http://HodentekMSSS.blogspot.com. He received the 2011 Microsoft Community Contributor award.

Reviews

[Naveen Vijay · Rating 4 out of 5]

To give an opening line about the book - All about Reports and Reporting life cycle from creation to deployment on On-Premises, With SharePoint and on Cloud. Really Comprehensive content on the installation. When I was explaining about the Azure SQL Databases (then SQL Azure) to my friend, his comment was this is far better than on-premises SQL Server; when I asked for the reason, he replied back saying we don’t need to traverse the 50 odd installation steps and configurations. This book steps in and solves the mystery of the SQL Server & Reporting Components about the installation and the background for the installation steps.

The things which I liked in the book are the depth in the illustration of the component and necessity in the installation steps; overview of the features around the reporting tools. The aim of the author to make this book ready for Reporting Developers to start from ZERO and take off to a real-time production environment, the several ways to create / develop reports - the pros and cons of taking either of the approaches, the emphasis of the role management with AD and the ways to architect a role / custom role to restrict the access at the report level.

The good things is the involvement of the SharePoint into the reporting scenario. There are several new things around Data BI which picked up lot of attention like Power View, Report Manager / Builder, Alerts, Extending / Programming the reports, PowerShell for automation & Management, you get to read about all the above stated in this books.

With Cloud, Data gearing up a great way, Microsoft's Azure SQL Reporting Services is something really cool, powerful, and self-service. With Azure SQL Databases and Azure SQL Reporting it changes the game of Data & Reporting for an Organization. Thanks to the author, Azure SQL Reporting was brought under the scope and I can say, the chapter sufficient to handle the Azure SQL Reporting, right from provisioning, deployment, users / role creation, logs, Access Management at enterprise level.

Although all of the example are explained on Windows 7 environment which is a client Operating System, the real-time production loads pretty much happen over the Server Operating System like Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012. The thing to note is that, the background, configuration about the Reporting tools are transferable. One doesn’t need to worry a great deal about examples and exercises which are illustrated over the Windows 7.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started with SSRS when it first came out, and have just moved to 2012 at work. In the interim, I didn't do a lot of report-building, so I have yet to play with most of the new features that were introduced in 2008 and improved in 2012. I undertook to learn these things, starting with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services 4/E and was sadly disappointed. While Larsen's book was probably good for a complete newbie, it lacked any real in-depth exploration of the more advanced topics.
Krishnaswamy doesn't fall into this trap. The book starts with installation instructions and covers both native and SharePoint mode setups. Best of all, Krishnaswamy has clearly spent some time in the real world, because the walkthroughs include not only very detailed and well-illustrated instructions, but common issues and how to go fix them. This is a refreshing change from many technical books that only assume you will ever follow the "happy-path." This is true throughout the book, not just in the installation sections, and I expect a lot of frustration will be avoided because of the author's attention to this often-overlooked detail.
From very basic beginnings using report wizards in both Visual Studio and Report Builder 3.0, the book continues to highlight each of the tool's features, but it doesn't stop at beginner stuff. Instead, there is rich content on using Report Services, deploying reports (again, with discussion of common things that impede deployment and how to resolve them) and even a chapter on building reports against Azure data sources.
If you decide to get only one book on SSRS, this should be the book. You won't find yourself lost in any of the walkthroughs, and you will be able to take full advantage of the features of this latest version.

[Daniel Kram · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have purchased another SQL Server Reporting Services, or SSRS, book previous to this one and this text is far superior.

First, it is well organized. Starting with the table of contents and throughout. Second, it covers topics I've not seen in any other text: Installation, Azure, integration with VS 2012 (I actually need this part in a few more months), caching, and SharePoint integration.

I will say the price is a bit high for the book iteself, the only reason it received four stars instead of five. While the eBook version is almost 1/2 the cost, the book version is pricey. Perhaps the publisher drives the price up, not sure.

I welcome any questions you may have. I am sure I will reference this often.

Daniel

[James Bergh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book an excellent resource when digging into reporting services. The hands on exercises and incredibly rich details and specifics really set this book apart from others in this area.

I found the book a great resource as I dig into areas of SSRS that I haven't touched before and I often refer to it when I get asked questions from my junior team members.

I have and would recommend this book to my colleagues.

[Arthur Abrantes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised at this book. I have been dabbling in Oracle and SQL - SSRS, SSIS and SSAS. I've used the WROX book on MS SQL Server Reporting Services Recipes Book. This review is coming from this viewpoint.

BTW - I am not a CS nor MIS major. I have a strong business background but I do get geeky when I dabble in everything SQL.

+ Excellent overview and coverage of architecture, features and tools (chapter 3)
+ Plenty of hands-on relevant exercises on each chapter
+ Exercises include practical hands-on activities
+ Easy to read (I am no CS nor MIS major). This won't end up as a book stop or one of those books that sit eternally next to your bed but never gets read.
+ Excellent coverage on configuration and install unlike other SSRS books that seem to focus on the actuals of report writing. This one covers everything - from install, configuration and writing reports.
+ Good coverage (both overview and deep dive) on BI - but for more advanced BI topics, you should supplement what they have in this book.

There is an excellent book. If you can afford only 1 or 2 books on SSRS, you should make this your top priority.

[Ancuta]

I cannot say anything about the book, I have to read first.

[Surya Teja · Rating 5 out of 5]

nothing

[Devaraj]

lets see