.NET Reporting

[Eric]

This message originally posted on www.DotNetJunkies.com...

One thing that amazes me is how there is such a lack of MSDN
documenation, articles, etc., on reporting using the
System.Drawing.Printing namespace. Microsoft promotes using Crystal
Reports to generate the Access-like reports, by why in the world would
you want to use Crystal Reports when you do not have to?

Yes, Crystal Reports is a solid tool and is very elaborate, but in
many (or most) cases, it is overkill. In addition, whoever ends up
using the application you just wrote using Crystal Reports has to pay
a lot of extra money just to license it.

Has anyone come across any tutorials, articles, etc., online that use
the System.Drawing.Printing namespace? I have only found one so far:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnadvnet/html/vbnet01282003.asp

Many thanks,

Eric
MCSD, MCDBA

 

[Norman Yuan]

Have you read these two articles:

Printing Reports in Windows Forms
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/printwinforms.asp

Preview ans Print from Your Windows Forms App with the .NET Printing
Namespace
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/msdnmag/issues/03/02/printinginNet/toc.asp

With .NET printing, it is lot easier to generate your own report, using
Printing namespace, than, say VB classical. When I started a fairly big Win
form project last year, I tried to write my own report engine. I was very
pleased with I had achieved with the ease and how much controls I could have
to generate a report. Within only tow weeks, I had the report engine ready
to integrate into my project, accept data source in form of custom class,
dataset, array..., and produce beautiful preview and printout. Then, it
comes a big problem: When we talk about report, we often not only want
something printed on paper, we also want to save an WYSIWYG electronic copy
in file. So, to make the report engine fully useful, I have to make it be
able to output report to file in, say, *.pdf, or *.rtf, or *.html.... It is
another huge task to do (maybe, for *.html is a bit easier), and I did not
have time to go further, so I shelved my report engine and used
CrystalReport.NET. I may pick it up later once I get time available.

Here I a trying to say is that Printing namespace is great to help you to
produce printed report, but if you want to keep an electronic version of
your report, you need to do a lot more coding, and you may need third party
component, say, PDF library, to save the report. You may have to consider
whether it is viable for you to do it on your own, or simply use existing
report tool.

 

[Eric]

Hi, Norman:

Thanks for your response. You raise a good point with respect to the
need to generate an electronic document in tandem with the printed
document...many custom printing projects have been scrapped for that
exact reason.

And, since I am a glutton for punishment, that makes me think of
another question. Has anyone ever seen any code out there...or
third-party tool...that encapsulates the PDF standards? That would be
a pretty helpful engine to have around.

Thanks,

Eric

 

[Norman Yuan]

There a lot. Do a googling for "PDF", you get scores, may hundreds links.
There are quite some PDF library for .NET. But for any one that is good
enough to integrate into your .NET project, you have to pay.

Here is an example:

http://www.websupergoo.com/abcpdf-5.htm