Welcome

Welcome to Reporting Solutions, If you are reading this than thank you. You are probably wondering why did someone start another site to dedicate to something that is already out there on so many other places. The answer is simple, I hate technical jargon, yes if talking with colleagues, taking a class or trying to impress the boss that is fine. When I get annoyed by it is when I am trying to understand something, maybe how it works or how do I need to tweak the code to make it fit my situation. Why can’t someone simply say put the do hickey in the thing a bob. Instead they give a five page explanation as to why they think it it or is not working due to complex algorithms and the flex capacitor and how you need to check the specks on the inline rotary girders. When all I really needed was the syntax yet again to add the dang zero to the front of my date in the expression. Yes I have a bad memory when it comes to remembering the correct order sometimes.

My vision for this site is to provide several things, one is a place for someone with no experience in tools like SSIS and SSRS to be able to follow simple tutorials and start making packages. Second I want a place that I can put many of the things I have created that took several hours or days and when I looked online there really wasn’t much about it. The nice thing is now that I figured out some of the tricks and created some core components, I can now easily throw together a package in a matter of hours not days. Third I want to have a forum where people with little to no experience can feel free to ask questions without worrying about getting a lecture about why they didn’t already know that. Finally I just want the fun and experience of building a webpage.

As time allows I plan on adding tutorials in as plain of English as possible with as many screenshots as needed, all examples I will provide will be based off of Microsoft’s AdventureWorks database, using only tools that are free to download off of the internet. I will start at the beginning like connection strings then move onto creating a simple lift and move package (that is just grabbing a file from point A and placing it in point B). Some of the basic components will include a back date loop, I do not build a package anymore without including this nice little piece of code. A file cleanup for archived files, simple alerting and monitoring tools. 

Any questions, comments or you would like to help contribute just let me know either through the forum or contact page. I encourage any type of help as I am far from knowing everything let alone much of anything. The only thing I ask and will be enforced on this site is be kind, use simple terms as much as possible, and if someone asks a question that can be answered in a simple line or two then do it, do not create long complex solutions when there doesn’t need to be one. As time goes on and something strikes me or more often then not bugs me about something I will create another entry. Until then thank you enjoy the site.