Microsoft Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook Book Review

This book is exactly what it says it is, quick answers to common problems. Although problems is a little strong, I would say the are common implementation solutions. Data binding basics are covered in the first few chapters. Then the datagrid and dataform are covered. The book gives a great introduction to the datagrid and dataform for those who have not had time to look at them yet. Then WCF and ASMX Services, REST and WCF Data Services, and WCF RIA Services are covered. The topics are covered in enough detail to give you a good understanding of what they are for and how to use them. The book is not a reference. For example, it covers data annotations for the data form, but it does not provide a complete list of them. It does however point you to a place that does on the Microsoft site. The code samples are useful and well organized. They come with a before and after example solution so you can work through them if you want, or just open the finished product. Some of them needed converted when they were opened for the first time, but they ran fine. The main thing I didn't like about the book was the page layout. The chapters were divided into sections and the new section started with a big block of white text with a black background. It just bugged my eyes out, but I won't ding the book for that. All in all I recommend this book for anyone who wants an introduction to WCF and ASMX Services, REST and WCF Data Services, WCF RIA Services, the datagrid and dataform.   This is a good book to start with.

Professional Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Reporting with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Book Review

I wish I had this book a year ago. It does an excellent job of describing the Reporting Services configuration steps to set up SharePoint Integration mode. It can be pretty confusing the first time. It does not have any information on the Report Viewer web parts that come with SQL Server that can be installed and used to run against a Report Manager instance. The last place we tried to set up SharePoint Integration mode we could not get it done because Kerberos had everything hosed up. We ended up just using the web parts that come with SQL Server. The book has several chapters on using Business Intelligence Design Studio (BIDS). The chapters span beginner to advanced techniques. I have been working with Reporting Services for 5 – 6 years now and have had to learn the hard way that you should plan your report projects. It may be tempting to skip the chapter on planning report projects, but don’t, there is a lot of good advice in it. The authors also include a nice chapter on advanced deployment techniques. It is nice when you can just use BIDS to deploy, but often you need more options, especially in a production environment. They also include a nice chapter on using the gauges. Nowadays everyone wants a dashboard, and throwing in a gauge or two to wow the business owners never hurts. All in all I highly recommend this book for anyone getting into using Reporting Services with SharePoint.