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In this round-up of reporting tools, we are going to look at some of the most popular reporting tools for developers, including tools for .NET, Java, COM and Open Source development projects. Our review of these tools is based around the following criteria:
- Data source support
Why types of data sources does the tool support? Is support limited to only the most popular database formats? Is there a data-source API available for data sources where a driver is not available? In addition, does the tool support the use of stored procedures and allow advanced SQL to be used as the basis of the report.
- Report designer
We take an in-depth look at the report designer itself. How well it is organised, and how easy is it to learn how to use it. We also will measure the ability of the report designer to create a specific report format, as well as how much coding was required and if the tool supports WYSIWYG development, and so forth.
- Report presentation
It's important to look at what types of reports can be created using this particular tool and what report formats does it support (i.e. tables, banded reports, graphs, charts, etc.). In addition, does the tool support complex reports that incorporate different sections or sub-sections, combining different report types and formats. - Output formats
Users often want to take report output and perform further analysis or distribute the report to other users. This criteriaon looks at the output formats that the tool supports and how well the export and output functionality works. Also covered here is the suitability of the exported file. For example, most tools support exporting to Excel, but does this export provide a usuable spreadsheet?
- Report integration
Integrating reports into existing applications should be a straightforward process and here we look at how the integration works, as well as how easy it is to get started with a particular tool or platform. We'll also quickly run down some of the development platforms that each tool provides, as well as some of integration tips and tricks we found when testing these tools.
As with any review, we weren't able to cover every reporting tool on the market but we attempted to cover a good cross-section of platforms and tools, including an open-source alternative to commercial offerings.
1
David Coleman - 15/01/05
I develop in C# using VS 2003. I use ActiveReports for all reporting services. I have developed a cl**** wrapper around ActiveReports and all reports are run as unbound with data management being performed by the cl**** wrapper, and business rules objects being handled by code behind cl****es. This model allows translations on the fly. For example, a client has a customer table with around 20 coded fields, eg CustomerTypeCode, FreightCode, AreaManagerCode etc. To write a JOIN SQL query to perform these translations creates a cumbersome and complex SQL structure which is prone to errors (ie if a particular freight code is missing the SQL JOIN returns a null data row for the combined customer data). By using unbound reports and a cl**** wrapper a simple SQL statement returns the list of customers, and for each customer row the code translations are performed and the ActiveReports fields are populated by simple code in the business objects code behind cl****. This in combination with the significant feature of ActiveReports which is that the report layouts are saved in XML format (with the extension .RPX) and can be loaded at run time and therefore loaded from web services, I believe, puts ActiveReports in a cl**** on its own. Additionally sub-reports can be also dynamically loaded at run time which permits common report components to be built and plugged together as required within an application solution. Although the customer print is a simple example this model holds true for all reports. eg Trial Balances, Delivery Tickets, Invoices, Statements, Price Lists (which, for a particular customer, includes product images and individual customer product pricing and discount structures).
The simple model for a statement run is
1. Read all customers with an outstanding balance (plus any additional matching criteria)
2. Main report. Print statement header from customer row.
3. Sub-report one. Print balances from matching debtor row.
4. Sub-report two. Print transaction detail lines from matching transactions.
5. Main report group footer. Print end of statement as required.
Note. Sub-report activation and data sub-set retrieval being directed from the business objects code behind cl****es, and managed by the developed reporting cl**** wrapper.
I believe ActiveReports provides a superior extensible model which is relatively straight forward to implement and is unavailable in any other reporting solution.
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2
George Brak - 17/01/05
I have used Crystal reports 8.5, 9 and 10 (including the one shipped with .NET). I have recently been using Active Reports.
Many of my clients found Crystal reports licensing cost prohibitive, and that meant that I had to reduce functionality in other parts of the program. There was also a number of crashing issues with Crystal, especially when you are working with many complex formulas and/or groups on the same report.
You also need to learn the syntax for Crystal reports to write formulas (or use VB syntax). You can't generate Crystal reports with version 10, unless you get the advanced version - becoming very expensive (you could with 8.5).
What great with Active reports is that it's written in VB.NET or C#, ie whatever language your developers use. Debugging become easy. As a brilliant bonus is the fantastic support you get! From the newbie questions to more complicated queries, you post them on the forum and get a prompt reply!! This is all for free. Support like this? Why would you want to go anywhere else...?
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3
sriprada - 16/12/05
Hi,
I have created reports using Active Reportts 2.0 in ASP.NET.
i have a requirement that those reports should come in single web page.
i got it.But the requirement is to export the whole page(which contains charts also)means
all the reports, to the same word file without overwriting.
Can u please help me, it's very urgent
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4
Naveen Rai - 18/07/06
how do I show dynamic data in a sub report by using crystal reports?
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5
Srikanta Khillar - 20/07/06
I came to know that some crystal reports jar files can be used to generate the charts in the HTML pages. If we use these jar files, we won't need to create applets of our own and the development will be much easier.What are the jar files necessary over here? How do you implement this? Some code would be helpful for me.
Thanks
Regards,
Srikanta
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6
Mrudula - 21/08/06
Can we get licensing for active reports free of cost???
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7
mrudula - 21/08/06
Is it possible to create controls at runtime in crystal reports??? My requirement is to create the complete report in the code behind.Any idea???
Thanks
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8
Chandrashekhar R V - 04/10/06
Is it possible to use Crystal reports Version 10 in Visual basic. I am asking this question, because I heard that Crystal reports version 10 does not support visual basic and that it supports only Dot Net. Please clarify.
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9
praveen - 24/10/06
i want to display table in my jreport..how can i do that
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10
Nidhi - 24/01/07
I am displaying data in crystal report through XML Schema also, I want to display graph using that XML but graph is showing wrong data
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11
Puneet Bhatiau - 10/07/07
I am using Crystal Reports 10. In that I am fetching text data from database. But the formating in Crystal Report different from actual data.(i.e. the space between two value in one row in database is five but crystal reports only contains two or three space)
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12
raj gautam - 30/11/07
i downloaded the crystal report 10 software but doesnot have activation code if anybudy have the activation code pls mail me...
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13
uttam - 24/12/07
I want do display header in the report but i want to configure it.if i required i can able to change . using c#
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