generating reports
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Hello, I am new to VC++. I am supposed to build an application which includes generating reports dynamically using data in a database based on what the user selects. i have heard of something called as Crystal Report. But I am not sure whether that is the right tool to use because I dont know much about that software. Is this the simplest solution to generating reports. Is it possible to do the same without using additional software? Which are the other options, if any?I am using Visual C++ 6.0. Crystal reports is not bundled into it. Kindly help
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Hello, I am new to VC++. I am supposed to build an application which includes generating reports dynamically using data in a database based on what the user selects. i have heard of something called as Crystal Report. But I am not sure whether that is the right tool to use because I dont know much about that software. Is this the simplest solution to generating reports. Is it possible to do the same without using additional software? Which are the other options, if any?I am using Visual C++ 6.0. Crystal reports is not bundled into it. Kindly help
Well, Crystal reports surely beats building reports by hand. I have used it for 10 years. It does the job fairly well and can produce decent looking or even spectacual reports with niceties like drill-down, graphs and stuff. It is not expensive either. Downside is that documentation is sorely lacking especially for C++. They seem to think everyone is using VB :) See: http://technicalsupport.businessobjects.com/KanisaSupportSite/supportcentral/supportcentral.do?id=m1
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Well, Crystal reports surely beats building reports by hand. I have used it for 10 years. It does the job fairly well and can produce decent looking or even spectacual reports with niceties like drill-down, graphs and stuff. It is not expensive either. Downside is that documentation is sorely lacking especially for C++. They seem to think everyone is using VB :) See: http://technicalsupport.businessobjects.com/KanisaSupportSite/supportcentral/supportcentral.do?id=m1
Thank you so much for your reply.
Anders Gustafsson wrote:
Downside is that documentation is sorely lacking especially for C++.
In what way is it lacking for visual c++. Is it farily straightforward to use....Because i am really hard pressed for time on this project. Are ther some tutorials for that? Also, I have heard about a software called Visual reports from sparrow-technologies. How does this compare in terms of ease of usage and display properties. Also, this maybe wandering away from the topic a bit, but could you please recommmend some good tutorials for VC++ 6. I am building a Gui for a database application. Thank you again.
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Thank you so much for your reply.
Anders Gustafsson wrote:
Downside is that documentation is sorely lacking especially for C++.
In what way is it lacking for visual c++. Is it farily straightforward to use....Because i am really hard pressed for time on this project. Are ther some tutorials for that? Also, I have heard about a software called Visual reports from sparrow-technologies. How does this compare in terms of ease of usage and display properties. Also, this maybe wandering away from the topic a bit, but could you please recommmend some good tutorials for VC++ 6. I am building a Gui for a database application. Thank you again.
I cannot really compare it to anything else. When we decided to convert our payroll app to C++ in 1997, Crystal was pretty much the only game in town. It is also quite widely used. It has a nice GUI editor where you create report files by pulling data from a database source. The finished report is an .rpt file that you distribute and use the CR engine to display/print. I suggest you download rdccpp85.exe from the BusinessObjects site. It has an example on how to call a report from C++. It lacks examples on how to pass an argument to it though, but ask if you need it :) Also. I have two books on Cr9 on the shelf. Both are OK. One is Mastering Crystal Reports 9 from Sybex, the other is Crystal Reports Essential by Jill K Howe from Premier Press. Both are avalable from Amazon. I had a quick chec at the Visual Reports site. It seems similar. I also see that there is an eval version you can download. for us, we stick with CR despite it's quirks. We are taking about a commercial app here, with a lot of reports. So I would rather not have to recreate those. FWIW, we are licensed for CR version XI, but selected to use CR9 for now, "because that is what the bulk of the other vendors use" Your selection will also depend on what fees if any are on redistribution. A crystal developer license allows pretty much unlimited distribution.