Recommendations for reporting solution -- shared hosting friendly
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The shared hosting deployment is pretty much the heart of the matter and could be a show stopper if not supported. Maybe I should try giving them a call on Monday.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Their support is pretty good so giving them a call will give you an answer pretty quick. I've not used XtraReports in a web environment either, but there's no deployment tool that I can find for it (I subscribe to their Universal package - i.e. everything with source), so I'd guess it's the same as all their other web stuff (which I do use) - just copy the dll's to the bin folder. Here's[^] a recent similar topic in their community forums that you'll find interesting. Downloading and trying their trial package would tell you whether or not you'll run into this issue. Cheers, Drew.
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Hmmm, looks interesting, and of course Free is always good. :) I see that there's an msi file to install it locally. To deploy to a shared hosting environment, is it as simple as copying RdlViewer.dll and RdlEngine.dll to the bin directory and uploading to the web site, or is there more to it than that?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
For deploying you will need to install the MS report viewer. Heres a link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/e/d/6eda0f6a-4fb3-4880-bd96-fe71d7c12aa0/ReportViewer.exe[^] I have included a check within my installer to determine if its already installed. If not, it downloads and installs it.
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Well, given the price of other solutions, $350 without source / $500 with isn't out of line, though more than I was hoping to spend. Actually, since I'd been under the assumption that I could use the tools that ship with my compiler (i.e. Crystal), I'm irritated about having to spend any money at all, but that's a different conversation. Have you deployed XtraReports to shared hosting servers where you didn't have the ability to run an install program? In other words, do they support a simple file copy installation via ftp?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Also keep in mind that Crystal only appears to be free. If you need non-trivil runtime report modifications you will need to pay royalty (per installation) for using some specific Crystal API. Also if you try to localize your reports you may need to buy Crystal Language Pack (~US$800 a few years ago). And I am not even talking about quality of the product....:mad: I worked with XtraReports, had good impression. It is not perfect but a solid product, which (in contrary to Crystal) is a pure managed product/application. Though some other managed alternatives might be available.
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fyireporting.com :cool:
"mostly watching the human race is like watching dogs watch tv ... they see the pictures move but the meaning escapes them"
Nice find. I use telerik reporting myself but have been looking for some rtf generation source code to fill the gaps in our own internal RTF library. :cool:
---Guy H ;-)---
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For deploying you will need to install the MS report viewer. Heres a link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/e/d/6eda0f6a-4fb3-4880-bd96-fe71d7c12aa0/ReportViewer.exe[^] I have included a check within my installer to determine if its already installed. If not, it downloads and installs it.
Hi, Greg. Since this is shared hosting I don't have the option of running install programs on the server. Thanks for the help just the same.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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You can either include them as embedded resources or specify an external
.rdlcfile.Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico My Blog!
I'll see if it's available for the web. Thanks, man.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Nice find. I use telerik reporting myself but have been looking for some rtf generation source code to fill the gaps in our own internal RTF library. :cool:
---Guy H ;-)---
The telerik stuff looks good, it's just a bit pricey for my budget.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Also keep in mind that Crystal only appears to be free. If you need non-trivil runtime report modifications you will need to pay royalty (per installation) for using some specific Crystal API. Also if you try to localize your reports you may need to buy Crystal Language Pack (~US$800 a few years ago). And I am not even talking about quality of the product....:mad: I worked with XtraReports, had good impression. It is not perfect but a solid product, which (in contrary to Crystal) is a pure managed product/application. Though some other managed alternatives might be available.
Hey, Oleg. If you've used XtraReports, do you know if it can be deployed to a web site via ftp file copy, or does an install app have to be run on the server before they'll work?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Yes, but there's the rub. Many of its designers etc. require it installed in the GAC, so you need to include the following in your deployment procedure: 1. Change all the strong names in 'Register' page directives. Quite easy. just lop off everything but the assembly name, and search and replace on all aspx pages. 2. Copy the required assemblies from the DevEx installation directory to your bin folder. 3. Remove all 'Compile' entries in web.config for the above assemblies. 4. Deploy. It's really about ten minute's work, regardless of your project size.
Thanks, man.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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ummmmm RDL report files have a "query" inside them that can easily exec a stored proc ... what else would you need?
"mostly watching the human race is like watching dogs watch tv ... they see the pictures move but the meaning escapes them"
Just being lazy. Crystal shows procs in the pick list along with tables and views. :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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We are stuck with fyi on our core application, and am sorry we have invested so deeply in it. Its just not on the same level as the other products mentioned in this thread.
I took a look at it from Lauren's recommendation. Even though it's free, it's a bit primitive for my taste.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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I was looking at fyiReporting and it looks promising. One thing I don't like too much about ReportViewer is that for web it requires installing an ActiveX control, and that might be overkill for simple reports. This one can generate HTML output (I saw the demos for simple reports, but I'd need to try it with more complicated ones.)
Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico My Blog!
An ActiveX control would be a showstopper for any serious Internet based app. Thanks for the heads up.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Have you tried Access, SQL Reporting Services or EXCEL for reporting? Access is pretty much WISIWYG and the reports are pretty standard. I have implemented spreadsheets and charts programmatically with EXCEL. I haven't used SQL Reporting Services yet but I have heard from friends that it is a workable solution.
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopesWe're using Sql Server, so the reporting services might be worth investigating. However, from the name it sounds like it just provides data. Does it also have a report designer ala Crystal?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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The telerik stuff looks good, it's just a bit pricey for my budget.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
The telerik stuff looks good, it's just a bit pricey for my budget.
There are also issues deploying it in non full trust environments (apparently being worked on)
---Guy H ;-)---
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Hey, Oleg. If you've used XtraReports, do you know if it can be deployed to a web site via ftp file copy, or does an install app have to be run on the server before they'll work?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
My first impulse is to answer "YES it is". However you will need to check it with the product specification. What was really good about XtraReports is that it did not have any dependency on anything controversial (e.g. some fancy third-party library or questionable technology). XtraReports is a pure managed library which can be XCopy deployed and report definition files just an XML files. XtraReports report viewer, from another hand, is a WinForm control (though ASP equivalent might be available now). However the report engine can generate report sin form of PDF thus you do not need any special viewer and at the same time reports are WEB friendly. Runtime report designer, though, was a bit limited but because of well designed interface (API) it was possible to have some work around for any lack of particular functionality. ComponentOne had good reporting suit too but we went with XtraRepors because it was cheaper and offered the same level of functionality. Anyway shop around. 5 years ago you were doomed to use CrystalReports. Fortunately now the things are changed... Cheers
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We're using Sql Server, so the reporting services might be worth investigating. However, from the name it sounds like it just provides data. Does it also have a report designer ala Crystal?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
However, from the name it sounds like it just provides data. Does it also have a report designer ala Crystal?
Unfortunately, of the 3 I suggested SQL Server Reporting Service is the only one I have never used, but I have heard of it and friends have told me it is a viable solution. I took a look at this article and it looks like it uses Visual Studio report designer. SQL Server Reporting Services - Lessons Learned In Development and Deployment[^] I will probably try it the next time I have to write reports.
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes -
Christopher Duncan wrote:
However, from the name it sounds like it just provides data. Does it also have a report designer ala Crystal?
Unfortunately, of the 3 I suggested SQL Server Reporting Service is the only one I have never used, but I have heard of it and friends have told me it is a viable solution. I took a look at this article and it looks like it uses Visual Studio report designer. SQL Server Reporting Services - Lessons Learned In Development and Deployment[^] I will probably try it the next time I have to write reports.
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopesExcellent, thanks for the link!
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Excellent, thanks for the link!
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
I took a closer look at the article and it looks like it uses Visual Studio report designer. If you have VS it should work.
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes -
Nope. Hence the quest.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
What does an agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac do? He lies awake at night wondering if there's a dog.