Reporting engine

[Markbnj]

A client is putting together a reporting application to be used by perhaps 15-20 people. Data is coming in from an external provider and getting loaded into tables in a database. We're considering the reporting engine now, and while they are sort of inclined to go with Crystal by default, they want to make sure they aren't missing something better. You guys have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hyperblaze]

May I ask what a reporting engine is?

What kind of database?

 

[chusteczka]

Oracle Reports 10g is awful to use. It crashes often for no known reason and a problem in setting up the "Paper Layout" is extremely frustrating to fix.

Clients enjoy using Oracle Discoverer (OD) and it is not that difficult to setup. Although there is one annoying bug that randomly removes a users permission to login to their End-User Layer (EUL). This requires someone to go in to OD Admin and reset the user's security settings.

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
May I ask what a reporting engine is?

What kind of database?

Kind of a generic term. Combines some or all aspects of defining data sources, designing reports, running reports and outputting in various formats, distributing via web/print/pdf/email, handling authentication/authorization, etc., etc., possibly combined with more advanced analytical features as well.

Standard relational database.

Crystal Reports has been around forever, and in fact I think a version used to be included with Microsoft's development tools years ago. Business Objects bought it and layered it on top of their enterprise data management products.

 

[Hyperblaze]

Hmmm.....

personally, if I couldn't find a reporting engine that I'd like, I'd build one instead. That way I'd be able to make it do exactly what I want.

However, if you don't have the luxary of time, I dunno.

I've heard of Crystal Reports. Never used it though.

 

[ScottMac]

CR is likely to be your best option ... you don't really provide much information (like whose database you use or if that's the only one that'll be supplying reporting data ....)

If you're using Microsoft SQL2000 (or later), then the Microsoft reporter is not bad, "Much better" than their first gen product from a few years ago.

CR. depending on which level / flavor / version you get can gen reports out of damn near anything, and pu tthem into a PDF, on paper, screen, or web page. They also have options for self-hosting web-based reports instead of print & distribute.

It can be embedded into many languages, you can use CR's script language, some other script languages, or done ad-hoc on a design page.

It's very powerful, but it's also fairly complex ... but nothing that you couldn't conquer with a good book or a few days of classes.

They have other products that can dovetail in for even more options.

Crystal Reports is one of those things that people either love or hate ... but the options are limited, and it's been around for a long, long time ... so it's pretty well documented.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[Markbnj]

Thanks, guys. Scott, I have to be a little circumspect posting about a client situation on a public board, which is why the details were sketchy. The back-end is a popular relational database platform, it is the only source of the data for the reports, and it is populated nightly from file feeds.

We don't have the luxury of rolling our own, and Crystal is sort of the default choice. We just wanted to make sure we weren't missing some great new product that might be easier to use, or have some other benefit.

 

[imported_Dhaval00]

As long as you stick to static reports, Reporting Services is the way to go. If you try and achieve what some of the SSRS 2005 samples do, believe me, your clients will suffer (export bugs, etc.). Plus financially you just pay for the DB Engine - you get SSRS, SSIS, and SSAS for free.

Good luck making some of the reports work in Firefox 🙂

 

[KB]

Visual Studio 2005 comes with a report viewer control. It is able to display reports from a remote SQL Server Reporting Server or to act like CR and use local reports files. IMO it is the best choice for several reasons:

-comes with VS
-works like Microsoft Access Reports (easy to use)
-files are XML and can be edited using XML
-supports DataSets

 

[Markbnj]

They're using Windows clients for distribution, but other than that they are open source/Linux and running on a non SQL Server DB. Might have a hard time selling them on reporting services.

Crystal has a java engine which they might find attractive. Anybody have any experience with open source DataVision? Read some decent things about it.