First Crack - Reporting Services

Well I finally started to take the first crack at Reporting Services at work.  I'm going to be using it to generate some custom reports that they want, however I've only heard things about Reporting Services and how cool it is.  Well, after downloading, spending 1/2 a day setting up a server, and starting to play around with some basic reports..I'd definately have to say its a pretty cool product.  It is going to make reporting so much easier.  If you haven't checked this product out, I would definately say download the trial version, you'll be very happy.  Also, I'd like to mention that the development team did a SUPERB job on the IDE with integrating it into VS.NET.  Very slick and easy to use.  Now, how do I do those hard reports...

2 Comments



  • "It is going to make reporting so much easier"



    Crystal Reports is still distributed in Whidbey, so I don't know what RS is making anything easier. And, for the record, RS is kinda feature-clone of Crystal.



    In terms of adoption, don't forget that large businesses rely on non Windows platforms for their BI. Top 5 BI vendors's product lines are all working on Windows (design) and Unix (engine + scheduling + delivery).



    "Also, I'd like to mention that the development team did a SUPERB job on the IDE with integrating it into VS.NET."



    Yeah, they did a great job. Unfortunately, they have missed their audience. What where they thinking when they envisioned that normal people would use VS.NET only to create reports? Normal people use Excel.



  • Considering I've had nothing but problems when working with Crystal, I would say that's a huge "making things easier" for me. I don't really want to get into a symantics or CR is better than RS argument, leave that for other geeks to do...esp on slashdot.



    I have to agree with you on only being able to use VS.NET, however there is a "Import" feature that allows you to pull reports in from Access...maybe something is down the road? I'm thinking they should provide a low-cost alternative to allow you to create reports...just having to have VS.NET is pretty costly if all you want is a few reports and no customization.

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