[OT] Database reporting software

[Steve Horsley]

I have an existing system working on MS Access, and software that
regularly logs events into it (and deletes old events after a year).

Now need to move to real servers, probably Solaris though possibly
Linux. Modifying the software to update the database (maybe mySQL or
Oracle) contents is easy enough, but how do I produce reports
(statistics and summaries) on the database contents?

I could contemplate web based or application based report generation,
but are there easy to use draggy-droppy report designing applications
around? Just the names would enable me to look them up.

I am struggling with OpenOffice.org at the moment, trying to see if it
can do what I'm looking for, but it doesn't seem to be able to do GROUP
BY and SUM() - simple aggregation stuff.

All suggestions would be very welcome.

Steve

 

[kaeli]

I could contemplate web based or application based report generation,
but are there easy to use draggy-droppy report designing applications
around? Just the names would enable me to look them up.

WebFocus. Easy to use and can export the reports as Excel, HTML, etc.
A bit pricey, but some of the best reporting software out there.
DBMSs tend to have their own reporting tools, but IMO, they aren't that
great.

Trust me, writing your own is not easy. Cross-tabulations (pivot tables,
crosstabs) are common things in reports and aren't easy to write
well/flexibly. Third party software to do reports is used by almost
everyone.
(I wrote a small crosstab class, but it would have to be beefed up
considerably to be flexible for general use)

More options if you Google for "database report generation" (no quotes).

--

 

[David Segall]

I have an existing system working on MS Access, and software that
regularly logs events into it (and deletes old events after a year).

Now need to move to real servers, probably Solaris though possibly
Linux. Modifying the software to update the database (maybe mySQL or
Oracle) contents is easy enough, but how do I produce reports
(statistics and summaries) on the database contents?

I could contemplate web based or application based report generation,
but are there easy to use draggy-droppy report designing applications
around? Just the names would enable me to look them up.

I am struggling with OpenOffice.org at the moment, trying to see if it
can do what I'm looking for, but it doesn't seem to be able to do GROUP
BY and SUM() - simple aggregation stuff.

All suggestions would be very welcome.

Steve

If your new database has an ODBC driver the easiest solution would be
to keep your existing Access reporting by linking the tables to an
Access database running on a Windows machine. Oracle definitely
provides an ODBC driver as does the open source PostrgreSQL. I don't
know about mySQL.

If that is not desirable then Crystal Reports
(http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/default.asp)
may be the answer. I hate coding reports using Crystal Reports but I'm
sure that you can, eventually, produce any conceivable report using
it. I don't think it is available under Linux or Solaris but it could
connect from a Windows machine to a database running on a Linux or
Solaris server.

If you want a machine and operating system independent report writer
the most polished open source, portable solution I have come across is
the combination of iReport (http://ireport.sourceforge.net/) and
JasperReports (http://sourceforge.net/projects/jasperreports/).