Reporting Solution Recommendations?

[Guest]

Hi all,

We're looking at upgrading our VS.NET Crystal Reporting solution with
something more powerful and user friendly.

We build distributable apps, so we're looking for a reporting solution
which can be embedded within the product.

The two most important criteria is ease of use and the ability to
dynamically load reports on the fly (i.e. non-compiled reports). We need
to be able to build reports and drop them into a directory and have them
load up.

We were using the "PUSH" data method in Crystal to feed our reports. This
was done because we could not figure out a way to dynamically change the
connection string in Crystal. When we were using Crystal, the PUSH
method required us to create a dataset to define the columns of the
query. Do any reporting solutions allow you to generate the column
definitions directly from a SP - bypassing the need to generate the XML
dataset? Also, do reporting solutions allow for dynamic changes to the
connection string?

In anycase, we've slimmed the choices down to:

ActiveReports
XtraReports
Maybe... Crystal XI.

Any other products that I should look at? Reporting Services has sort of
been ruled out due to the lack of ASP.NET (Form Auth) integration and the
large installation size (not embeddable).

Thanks for any help!

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

Try out the new ReportViewer control in ASP.NET 2.0.

 

[Guest]

Try out the new ReportViewer control in ASP.NET 2.0.

I forgot to mention, I'm still on .NET 1.1 ; )

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:

I forgot to mention, I'm still on .NET 1.1 ; )

Upgrade ! It's free...

 

[aaron.kempf]

upgrade!! it's free

sql server 2005 is a wonderful platform; dont even consider 2000 at
this time

and use olap.
if you've got performance problems use analysis services.

 

[Guest]

Upgrade ! It's free...

Don't I need VS.NET 2005?

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:

Don't I need VS.NET 2005?

No.

For web development, you can use Visual Web Developer ( which is free... ).

Get it at : http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx

VWD is the exact same IDE which VS 2005 uses for web development.

You cannot use it to develop desktop or console apps, though.
To develop those, you need to install VB.NET 2005 Express or C# 2005 Express.

You can get those at the same page. They're also free.

 

[Guest]

No.

For web development, you can use Visual Web Developer ( which is
free... ).

Oh ya forgot about that... we're building commerical software so using an
"express" edition is probably too limiting. We also use SourceGear Vault,
and I'm not sure if that's compatible with the express products.

In anycase, any suggestions for .NET 1.1 reporting? Reporting is such a
common topic I was hoping to solicite more responses ; )

 

[aaron.kempf]

what's wrong with the express edition?
i mean seriously here

if you're buying commercial software; you can't afford to spend $200 on
a professional edition of visual basic? lol

you shoudl run out and buy SQL Server and Visual Studio; i mean--
crystal charges you what like $100k to ever display a single frigging
report?

i swear; the ability to embed reporting services; and ALLOW YOUR
CUSTOMERS TO FURTHER EDIT THESE REPORTS WITH A FREE TOOL FROM MS?

are you kidding me?

you need to stop smoking crystal reports buddy; it's obviously gotten
to you

how about this..

OFFICE WEB COMPONENTS

if you want real reporting?

use Office Web Components and tell people that they must have office
installed before they can review their reports
i'll be you don't have a single customer that says 'oh we dont have
office on our computers' gag

Analysis Services!!! Instead of being a waiter and delivering a single
dish (report) at a time; why dont you give people buffet style
reporting options-- give them the ability to FREELY MAKE THEIR OWN
WEBBASED PIVOT TABLES

i mean; screw the whole subject of reporting.

THERE IS NO LONGER A NEED FOR REPORTING ANYMORE.
Maybe **YOUR** skillset and premonitions are the problem here.

Make your shit include Analysis Services and give people-- buffet
style-- all the reports they could possibly want.

and the best part?

export to excel is a single click.

 

[aaron.kempf]

and for the record; if you wanted to use the best reporting option
anywhere; you would include a Microsoft Access reporting module.

It comes FREE with OFFICE.

dude your crystal reports bullshit?

it was passe in the year 1999.

 

[Guest]

what's wrong with the express edition?
i mean seriously here

Does it support source control?

if you're buying commercial software; you can't afford to spend $200 on
a professional edition of visual basic? lol

We're running VS.NET 2003 - is there still a Professional version of
VB.NET 2005?

i swear; the ability to embed reporting services; and ALLOW YOUR
CUSTOMERS TO FURTHER EDIT THESE REPORTS WITH A FREE TOOL FROM MS?

are you kidding me?

Uhhh I never asked for something free. If you read my original post, you
would see I'm comparing several COMMERCIAL products.

you need to stop smoking crystal reports buddy; it's obviously gotten
to you
Duh.

Analysis Services!!! Instead of being a waiter and delivering a single
dish (report) at a time; why dont you give people buffet style
reporting options-- give them the ability to FREELY MAKE THEIR OWN
WEBBASED PIVOT TABLES

Ask the typical manager to do this - they'll laugh at you.

i mean; screw the whole subject of reporting.

THERE IS NO LONGER A NEED FOR REPORTING ANYMORE.
Maybe **YOUR** skillset and premonitions are the problem here.

People are inherently lazy - they like to have pre-built reports.

 

[Guest]

and for the record; if you wanted to use the best reporting option
anywhere; you would include a Microsoft Access reporting module.

It comes FREE with OFFICE.

dude your crystal reports bullshit?

it was passe in the year 1999.

Crystal did come with VS.NET... but it's POS, so that's why I'm looking for
alternatives...

 

[aaron.kempf]

then if a typical manager will laugh at you you fire them

any manager-- shit any office worker-- any employee anywhere that can't
figure out a simple pivot table isn't smart enough to be working for
you

i can outproduct canned reports; by a factor of about 10:1

you sit there and make one canned report
i can make 10


do you know why?

because ms olap engine is a friggin thousand times faster than
relational bs

and it's free with SQL standard edition.

 

[trollstomper]

Aaron,

You're an idiot.

A dim-witted, 100 % full-blown idiot.:booty:

 

[TeleRiddler]

You might try Windward Reports

I had the same issues with my current development team. We finally found a nice solution using Windward Reports. They have both .NET and Java Reporting Engines and their template design tool (AutoTag) is an MS Word add-in. We have people in marketing creating their own reports now (Yeah, I know I didn't believe it either until I saw it.).

You might take a look. http://www.windward.net/overview.htm

--TR

 

[dotnetdev18]

another asp.net reporting solution

Hi Guys,

This looks to be an old thread, but I'll throw my opinion into the mix. I agree that whatever is used, it needs to run from a MS SQL/Oracle base and stream data, not replicate and load, otherwise it will be dog slow.

Crystal / Logi are nice, but extremely expensive to integrate in "boxed" or SaaS products.

MS SRS is obviously powerful, but pretty difficult to fully customize to seamlessly integrate the look and feel of an existing app.

Active reports uses a crystal/MS style report designer and doesn't break the bank, but we had to implement a designer that a non-IT end-user could use with no problems or knowledge of the database schema at all. It had to pull from stored procedures, views and some cubes via mdx. In the end, we went with a company that specializes in a built for OEM integration product, i.e their reporting suite, the engineering and integration support was really good -- maybe it will help you guys out.

http://www.izenda.com/

Cheers!