Here in my job, we use Access 2000 as our only report deployment tool, and as many of you know, Access 2000 has some limitations, like not supporting OOP.
My question is:
What is the better replacement for it, Crystal Reports, Active Reports or SQL Server Reporting Services ? If you guys have any better idea, I would be happy to know it.
I have been searching and finally found the answer. First of all there are a lot of tools capable of this task, examples: Crystal Reports with RAS(Report application server, a crystal reports solution for building dynamic reports) API for .NET; You can do with xml and SSRS, first you generate a xml file with the information and then use the rdlc to display it. You can use Xtrareports a devexpress team solution. You with c# code create and manage your reports. This is it.
Related
We are planning to use SQL Reports in our company and we are currently evaluating the ways to expose the reports to end users. Should we use a reporting web service and then render the reports through a .NET Application? Should we use a report viewer or should we expose the SQL GUI to the users? What are the pros and cons of these over each other? Could anyone please help? I couldn't find any information anywhere for this.
The simplest is to use the Report Manager website that is enabled by default with an SSRS installation it's very quick and easy to get running and the security/ snapshot(cache) / subscription (email etc) options are easy to configure on a per site /per folder /per report basis. It's drawbacks are:
It's ugly - although if you are good with CSS it is possible to mess
with it, but I wouldn't. Newer versions e.g. 2008R2 and 2012 are less ugly
It has an ugly URL - although you could use a DNS alias to get
around that
It doesn't let you control how parameter drop-downs and other
objects appear on the page, but that's minor
I usually use Sharepoint (MOSS not WSS) (if the company has that) with the report viewer web-part. It doesn't require any special Sharepoint SSRS integrated mode - you can read about that but it's that's not a path I recommend taking.
The reports then appear to be embedded within the company's existing intranet site which looks professional IMO. Powerview for sharepoint is also a good option (or performance point in older versions of Sharepoint)
I would definitely NOT go down the road of webservice, that would entail a huge amount of unecessary programming. If you have a lot of spare .NET developers around I still wouldn't do that.
Rather to use the report viewer object in Visual Studio to display a report in an .NET web application. Designing reports using the BIDS (2008R2 and earlier) or SSDT (2012) is much easier than programming, particularly if you've used other reporting tools such as crystal reports or even Access. Using that report viewer object is a much better option than rolling your own.
I've written my response in order of easiness and work required. Hope that is helpful.
Were still using Reporting Services for SQL2008 (not SP2). I recently started using report builder 2.0, but it looks like report builder isn't able to modify data models - and VS2010 lacks business intelligence features. My question is: Have data models been depreciated? If not, what is the current tool for managing them? I have new reports to write so I'm trying to think ahead. Can datasets be used, and access controled, for ad-hoc reporting?
There isn't a way to modify the report models using vs2010 you would still have to have vs2008 BIDS installed to be able to modify these. It looks like reports models may be depreciated from SQL 2012 (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sqlreportingservices/thread/0d0650d1-6d40-4d12-a471-54fb29b3356d).
If you starting a new project then personally I would look at using shared data sets based on views or stored procedures as these will be a lot easier to maintain and use. You can then use the permissions on these to control who has access to what.
We currently use Report Builder with ColdFusion. This Report Builder hasn't seen any Adobe development in around 5 years and doesn't look like it will see any soon.
I need a scalable reporting solution that will work in the cloud without huge licencing implications. I've looked at Crystal (which I don't understand the pricing or what I need) and JasperReports with iReport, and I guess that Microsoft SQL Reporting is an option also.
I'd like to get some recommendations on what people are using and how you have integrated that into ColdFusion. I appreciate that it may not be as seamless as Report Builder.
We are using Windows 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2008 in a Cloud infrastructure.
What ever solution we come up with, the resulting output of the reports need to be PDF.
I've used Crystal, SQL Report Builder and ColdFusion Report Builder.
Crystal and SQL Report Builder are much better than ColdFusion Report Builder. Like you said CF is not going anywhere and is really buggy to me.
Crystal is great but it becomes really expensive when you want to publish reports to the web. The standard product requires a report viewer that is installed locally. If you need to publish to the web it is much more expensive.
SQL Report Builder is a really good option. Version 3.0 is really nice and makes it very easy to write advanced SQL queries or call SPs and publish to the web.
I am a pretty big fan of SQL Report Builder.
Hope this helps.
I am here to get the opinion on Reporting Services vs any other technology suitable for Reports.
Current Environment - BIDS 2005, SQL Server 2005, C# 3.5, VS2008.
requirement -
My Client needs to integrate the huge reports into current existing Web Application.
1) The Technology should be able to handle large number of users.
2) All clients are external, so they can review the reports anytime.
3) Caching of parameters and the report should be possible.
4) The Report Viewer is better or SOAP API is better considering Reporting Services.
5) Charts can be used - good Visualization.
All opinions are welcomed.
Thanks in advance.
The most honest answer you're going to get is "it depends." What is your familiarity with with SQL Server Reporting Services? What's your familiarity with the other tools? Do you have a DBA who is familiar with SSRS? There are way too many factors that play into this to give you a clear answer.
Admittedly I'm biased but I think you should look at Windward Reports. It's a lot easier and faster than SSRS and you design the report in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint so you can do a lot more.
The company I work for is looking for a reporting solution with the following requirements:
Must be able to generate a set of reports nightly.
Must give the client the ability to create reports dynamically.
Must have robust export features.
Must have a viewer that can be displayed within a web application.
The company is looking at utilizing Crystal Reports and/or SSRS. Our company is mainly .NET developers using VS2k8 and SQL Server 2k8.
What are some of your experiences with each product and which one do you think would meet our requirements? It seems both products offer the requirements I mentioned, but they both feel robust in different areas.
If you plan on using .net and sql server why bother with Crystal Reports? It is definately the wrong route to take. Take advantage of Reporting Services as it is very very very easy to use, setup, and deploy.
The web placeholder for hte reports has automatic export to excel, pdf, rtf, html, etc.
It is very robust and a very clean intuitive tool. The use of stored procedures within datasets makes it all the better.
We initially went the CR route and it was nothing but trouble and not as easy to build and deploy simple reports. We moved to RS and it is night and day...
From my own personal experience, SSRS is much simpler to set up and use - it also seems to be the way MS are going. In addition to that, if you're already using MS SQL server, you have no further license costs.
I haven't used the SSRS report builder heavily, but it certainly allows the creation of relatively simple reports by (somewhat skilled) end users.
EDIT: Should note that my personal experience of crystal reports has been akin to repeatedly shooting myself in the foot...
One downside to both Crystal Reports and SSRS is that report-viewer controls have COM dependencies. Moreover, much of the BusinessObjects .Net SDK has COM dependencies. Probably not a big deal if you plan to host the site internally, but worth mentioning.
I had a client whose hosting division wouldn't allow for COM installations on the shared server. Fortunately, I was able to use the BusinessObjects WebServices SDK in combination with BusinessObjects OpenDocument URL SDK to build a custom interface to BusinessObjects Enterprise.
Hope this helps.
Crystal and Reporting Services are both similarly capable tools despite what people say. Each tool can do most of what the other can with each one having particular areas in which it excels.
However, rather than installing Crystal you can try installing Reporting Services and just set fire to piles upon piles of used bank notes - the end result will be the same.