Finally starting a blog ...

I have been putting this off for a while. But not out of concern with sharing myself in public - I've been posting on the net in various forums for years. Anyone good with a search engine can find several thousand of my postings on public SQL Server newsgroups and the MSDN forums over the years. You might recognize my name in the context of SQL Server Reporting Services, from Reporting Services 2005 whitepapers (e.g. getting more out of charts, report design tips and tricks), past scientific conference/journal papers, and you may have seen me speaking at database conferences.

I joined the SQL Server Reporting Services development team in early 2003, at a time when the product was just publicly announced, and Beta 1 of Reporting Services 2000 came out. My core areas have been the design and development of the data and report processing engine. The engine is running inside server and client components of Reporting Services, as well as in the Visual Studio Report Viewer controls in local mode. Since my main focus over the years has been the Report Definition Language (RDL), data processing, report processing, data visualization, and performance/scalability, the majority of my postings answered questions in those areas.

In the past, I have frequently contributed material to other blogs as well. Brian Welcker, Chris Hays, Teo Lachev, and others have done a great job of transforming some of my Microsoft internal and public newsgroup/forum postings into blog postings. Some bloggers even offered me an ‘exclusive contract’ so that I just put together contents and they will take full responsibility of publishing it on their own blog ‘exclusively and free of charge’. Right, Lukasz? ;-)

Anyway, with the RTM release of SQL Server 2008 imminent, I realized there are so many exciting new features, tips, and tricks for Reporting Services 2008 to share, that I should really start my own blog. The focus of this blog is going to be somewhat technical. Occasionally it will cover what some readers might consider quite advanced techniques that one will hardly find explained in other blogs or articles. From the questions I have been seeing and answering e.g. on the SSRS forum over the past several years, I’m confident there is a need for an ‘Advanced Reporting Services’ blog, and the information provided here will be highly useful to a broader audience.

I hope you are going to enjoy this blog. I can show you the path to some advanced Reporting Services techniques. You are the one who has to walk it.

-- Robert

And not to forget the obligatory disclaimer :-)

This blog is provided 'AS IS' with no warranties, and confers no rights. All rights reserved. Some assembly required. Batteries not included. Your mileage may vary. No user serviceable parts inside.