Well, I just got back from the SQL Reporting Services MSDN Update session.

As always Adam Cogan was entertaining while still providing heaps of information, and live code demos!

I was in the beta for Rosetta (SQL Reporting Services), but never had a chance to even install it due to a heavy work load, so it was great to get a comprehensive overview of the features.

SQL Reporting Services provides a great option for those needing to do Web based reporting, and to some degree can be used for WinForms reporting.

One noticable area that's lacking is the ability to use it in a WinForms app and send the report directly to the printer! Anyone out there know a good way around it? I suggested perhaps a Rendering Extension could be created that would render to a network printer, I'll have to look into that more.

Of all the people that attended, only 2 didn't think they would start using it, and both for the same reason: easy "user" creation of reports, as provided by Crystal Enterprise Edition. I commented that if you were keen you could create something easy for the users that would generate the RDL (Report Definition Language) XML file and submit that to the server, but it's not the greatest solution since Crystal EE has it out-of-the-box.

Anyway, great session and a great product, and best of all both it's FREE (as long as you have a SQL Server 2000 license)!

PS: Adam, if you're reading this, the full scoop on Trackbacks for you!

PPS: Adam tells me I should blog more often... who else would like to see more from me? If so, what kind of content are you interested in? I prefer to keep this blog mostly technical, with a focus on .NET, C#, XML/XSLT/XSD/XPath/XQuery etc and Flash, but I'm happy to post about other things too like SQL, Pocket PC, handy utilities, tips and tricks, etc... post a comment, tell me what you want.