Reporting Frameworks
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Why is it that every man and his dog feels it's necessary to write their own report writer? Along with code generators it seems to be a favourite project of software developers, but rarely comes up with anything more than an expensive experiment - satisfying the programmer who writes it but not the customer who's paying for it. Report writers are just another meta-problem like code generators and ORM frameworks - fun for the developer but don't produce bang for buck for the client. Clients aren't paying us as developers to solve the problems we find interesting, but paying us to solve their particular business problem. [Sorry, just a rant about the million or so custom reporting engines out there] In my experience users always want to be able to customise their reports - and most reporting frameworks don't allow this or charge exorbitant license fees (where the user then needs training to use the tool). More often than not the users come back to us as developers to just produce the report for them. I don't think there is a perfect reporting framework out there for any one particular project, and it really comes down to the particular requirements of the project as to what you should use. Can you fill us in on your particular requirements? I've used Crystal Reports before, and for the most popular reporting tool out there I'm yet to find someone who's used it that actually likes it or swears by it. Personally I've encountered so many issues just deploying Crystal Reports in the times I've used it (spending much time in their kb for workarounds to their bugs) that I couldn't recommend it. I haven't used the full SQL Server Reporting Services but have used the local report engine (RDLC), which for all intents and purposes is the same thing. But you are likely to hit problems once you get beyond anything but basic reports in my experience. There are a number of others out there that I haven't used but look OK (Telerik, XtraReports, etc). Ultimately the only solution I've ever found to be popular with users is to generate reports as Word or Excel documents (either through automation, a VSTO addin, or populate it on a server using the Office Open XML or WordML formats). Users can then customise them to their needs, and if you have a template system (easy to do) they can create their own. Especially easy with Office 2007 with the Office Open XML standards (though I've also done it with WordML for Office 2003 compatibility). The advantages are that almost every user will have Office on their desktop,
christhecoder wrote:
satisfying the programmer who writes it
Yes, indeed. ::Sits backs and pats stomach::
christhecoder wrote:
Ultimately the only solution I've ever found to be popular with users is to generate reports as Word or Excel documents
I got tired of people saying, "I need you to report xxx in Excel!" At which point I'd remind them that spreadsheets aren't reports and the closest I'll ever come to actually writing an XLS file is writing a CSV file. When I give them a CSV file they don't know the difference, because, gee, "it opens in Excel". Personally, I prefer to see such things in a table in a Web browser. So I write XML with stylesheets (XSLT) to produce CSV and HTML, whichever the user prefers. (I suppose I could add WordML, I'll look into it.) I just remembered that the first time I recall having to produce "an Excel report" I actually produced a SYLK file instead, I may add that to my XSLT as well.
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
I would recommend DevExpress Reports. http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Reporting/[^]
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
Oh, come on now. Who doesn't LOVE to work with Crystal? :rolleyes:
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Drew Stainton wrote:
DevExpress' XtraReports[^] works for me.
Speaking of abominations! ;) The problem with these frameworks is NOT in creating the reports. That's typically easy enough to do and one seems as good as another. It's if you have to go in and maintain or change them. They do SO much for you that fighting your way through the generated code to find what you need is a nightmare. It's easier to start over from scratch. I've spent many an hour in communication with DevExpress trying to resolve these issues.
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I've just started using this having tried MS and Crystal. So far so good! The help and suppoprt these guys offer is also outstanding.
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I tend to stay away from designers, wizards and such and just stick to writing code - forces you to learn their API and works better in the long run. Cheers, Drew.
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
Most users just need a tabular list of data; for that, all the Reporting Frameworks are inappropriate, just not the right tool. If the goal is to have PDF: I used to have a Perl script that someone had written that would turn a text file into PDF.
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DevExpress' XtraReports[^] works for me. Cheers, Drew.
I can vouch for this reporting tool. It is completely customizable, actually built a TIFF reader from their printing system that comes with it. Just so i could take advantage of their PDF conversion and Emailing capabilities. It can go simple as dragging a table on and binding it to drawing everything through code. There help is great and fast, cost is negligent considering how many hours they have saved me because i was able to ask a question and get response next day. You can also purchase their source code as a option if you want to. Oh and creating a custom report (like a mailing letter) for the end user to do took me half a day to implement, customers love it when you give them power to re-size text and add logos, etc... Jordon Kraft
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I can vouch for this reporting tool. It is completely customizable, actually built a TIFF reader from their printing system that comes with it. Just so i could take advantage of their PDF conversion and Emailing capabilities. It can go simple as dragging a table on and binding it to drawing everything through code. There help is great and fast, cost is negligent considering how many hours they have saved me because i was able to ask a question and get response next day. You can also purchase their source code as a option if you want to. Oh and creating a custom report (like a mailing letter) for the end user to do took me half a day to implement, customers love it when you give them power to re-size text and add logos, etc... Jordon Kraft
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I've used ActiveReports on previous contracts and found it much simpler to use than Crystal. It does just about everything that Crystal does, with a lot less bloat. The last time I priced the 2 products, ActiveReports cost a fraction of what Crystal is going for.
You can try Telerik Reporting. It is fast, easy and developer oriented. And it comes in bundle with all the control suites for WPF, Silverligt, WinForms and asp.net those guys make. Aaaa and they now have quite impressive O/R mapper which spared me a lot of DAL plumbing.
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What happened that nearly got you fired for using SQL Server Reporting Services ? I'm looking at using it for a current project as dropping a reportviewer out of visual studio takes care of the pdf export. If it's likely to do something that gets me fired then it'd be useful to know about it in advance. Thanks
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I've using SSRS for some time and find it largely adequate for most analysis based reporting. I agree with another reply about "dumbing down" some of the adhoc reporting tools. Our biggest problem with adhoc reporting in general is not the software to produce the reports but the retards producing them who have (apparently) no understanding of data quality or what they are doing from the larger sense. We constanly get back reports from our clients that such and such a report is "total crap". If it were up to me I ban adhoc reporting!
Go Shockers! -WuShock
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
I've used Crystal Reports, Active Reports and SSRS on various projects in the past 7 years. I started to give my thoughts but it got really long! :) Each one really has their own pros and cons. So, if you're interested here's my blog post about it: http://mattpenner.info/2008/12/03/commercial-reporting-framework-comparisons/[^] Feel free to comment or state any corrections. Matt Penner
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
I've used Active Reports from DataDynamics for years with GREAT success.. http://www.datadynamics.com Also of interest, Telerik has created a new reporting suite as well... Though it is still quite young and not as easy to work with as Active Reports IMHO.. http://www.telerik.com/products/reporting.aspx
--- Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
Most reporting tools have similar functionality as far as report look and feel is concered. The big differences between the various tools are in who is authoring the reports and how they are hosted and managed. I don't think there is a reporting tool out there which is great for everything. Why are you looking for another tool? What kind of reports are you writing? (Enterprise, Embedded Application, etc.)
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I've been tasked with researching some alternatives to SQL Server Reporting Services and was wondering what experiences and recommendations anyone out there has? I've also seen a couple of add-ons for reporting services, some of which look quite promising - has anyone got any experience of these? PS Ideally not Crystal Reports - I had to use this in an old job and *hated* it!! Cheers
It definitely isn't definatley
I've built and rebuilt my companies reporting software a few times. The heart of it right now is based on the Siberix Report Writer[^]. This is the best report software I've come across. It will let you output directly to printers, PDF, and XPS. The source code license is pretty cheap too so you can hack away at it yourself if you feel ambitious. I've even received prompt responses from their tech support on the weekend. You use the API kinda like you would use GDI to draw on a bitmap. Minor drawback is that there is no user interface for report layout etc. I had to build my own. So that's my 2 cents. And no, I don't work for them.