The Finals: MS Reporting Services vs XtraReports
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After a little poking around and a lot of help from my friends here, I've come down to two paths. Turns out my hosting company "doesn't support Crystal reports," i.e. if you wanna use that tool, you need stuff installed / configured on the host server. I was happy to hear their response as it validated my assumptions that this particular dog just won't hunt, and perhaps that I'm not quite as stupid as I thought I was (though the jury is still out on that). What my hosting folks (enthusiastic endorsement: Applied Innovations[^]) do support is Sql Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), which they provide for free. Sometimes Free is actually cheaper than Not Free, so I thought I'd give it a try. Looks like all the basics are there. In the Not Free category, I downloaded the eval of XtraReports after hearing good things from many of you. It seems like a quality product and also gets the job done for my web reporting needs. That said, in this particular case $350 appears to be exactly $350 more than Free, which makes me lean towards SSRS. So, before I dig in and start investing time in a particular platform, I thought I'd just ask the obvious question. Anyone know of $350 worth of reasons why XtraReports would be a better way to go than SSRS?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
I'd go wiht Reporting Services. All those who mutter about lock-in maybe aren't aware that the .rdl format is specified (see the bottom of this page[^]. There's even a CP article[^] about it.
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Hey, Drew. Those are all excellent points, thanks. Sounds like DevX has good support, which is important. In fact, that's why I've stayed with my hosting company for so long, because of the level of support they give me. If they suddenly got gobbled up and I had to look for a new home, I don't think I'd have difficulty finding one that supported SSRS, so that's not a cause of worry for me. We certainly share the same evaluation of free, though. :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
that's why I've stayed with my hosting company for so long
When you have a good home, it's smart to stay put. I'm currently PO'd at my host of 7 years - they changed the way they handle incoming email which has thrown off a bunch of things I have going. Their new spam prevention measures turn away a lot of legitimate emails and there's no way to turn it off. Their 'help' on the matter is to move my email to a semi-dedicated email server at $100 extra per month. Gee thanks - I'd love to pay 6 times the current cost for something that worked fine a few months ago.
Christopher Duncan wrote:
I don't think I'd have difficulty finding one that supported SSRS, so that's not a cause of worry for me.
That's the main thing. If there's lots of choices out there then it's not a worry. Cheers, Drew.
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I'd go wiht Reporting Services. All those who mutter about lock-in maybe aren't aware that the .rdl format is specified (see the bottom of this page[^]. There's even a CP article[^] about it.
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leppie wrote:
I dont trust people that think Crystal is good. Smile
It is far better than SQL Reporting Services...
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
It is far better than SQL Reporting Services...
That's scary!
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ToddHileHoffer wrote:
It is far better than SQL Reporting Services...
That's scary!
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Jörgen Andersson wrote:
That's scary!
Very :(
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 2 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x))I'm not sure which is detested more on this site. VB or Crystal...
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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After a little poking around and a lot of help from my friends here, I've come down to two paths. Turns out my hosting company "doesn't support Crystal reports," i.e. if you wanna use that tool, you need stuff installed / configured on the host server. I was happy to hear their response as it validated my assumptions that this particular dog just won't hunt, and perhaps that I'm not quite as stupid as I thought I was (though the jury is still out on that). What my hosting folks (enthusiastic endorsement: Applied Innovations[^]) do support is Sql Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), which they provide for free. Sometimes Free is actually cheaper than Not Free, so I thought I'd give it a try. Looks like all the basics are there. In the Not Free category, I downloaded the eval of XtraReports after hearing good things from many of you. It seems like a quality product and also gets the job done for my web reporting needs. That said, in this particular case $350 appears to be exactly $350 more than Free, which makes me lean towards SSRS. So, before I dig in and start investing time in a particular platform, I thought I'd just ask the obvious question. Anyone know of $350 worth of reasons why XtraReports would be a better way to go than SSRS?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Doesn't SSRS require the data to be from SQL Server? and the reports to be generated from SQL Server?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
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Doesn't SSRS require the data to be from SQL Server? and the reports to be generated from SQL Server?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
We use Sql Server. :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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We use Sql Server. :)
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Well yes so do I but what I was getting at is that you have to run the report from SQL Server. Or so I thought. I really like my reporting tool to be independent of the data source so the data can be culled from multiple sources or processed, etc.
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
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Well yes so do I but what I was getting at is that you have to run the report from SQL Server. Or so I thought. I really like my reporting tool to be independent of the data source so the data can be culled from multiple sources or processed, etc.
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
For a lot of scenarios that would be a valid concern. However, for these web sites I don't care about portability (been working with Oracle lately so I'm more enthusiastic about Sql Server than ever). I just care about development ease of use and the web sites showing the reports. By the way, you don't run the reports from within Sql Server Management Studio or anything like that. You have to set up Reporting Services on the server and then you interact with that.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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Doesn't SSRS require the data to be from SQL Server? and the reports to be generated from SQL Server?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Nope any valid connection can be used to supply the data. You have to have SQL Server to install SSRS as the supporting database can ONLY be SQL Server. Data used in the report can come from any valid source.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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After a little poking around and a lot of help from my friends here, I've come down to two paths. Turns out my hosting company "doesn't support Crystal reports," i.e. if you wanna use that tool, you need stuff installed / configured on the host server. I was happy to hear their response as it validated my assumptions that this particular dog just won't hunt, and perhaps that I'm not quite as stupid as I thought I was (though the jury is still out on that). What my hosting folks (enthusiastic endorsement: Applied Innovations[^]) do support is Sql Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), which they provide for free. Sometimes Free is actually cheaper than Not Free, so I thought I'd give it a try. Looks like all the basics are there. In the Not Free category, I downloaded the eval of XtraReports after hearing good things from many of you. It seems like a quality product and also gets the job done for my web reporting needs. That said, in this particular case $350 appears to be exactly $350 more than Free, which makes me lean towards SSRS. So, before I dig in and start investing time in a particular platform, I thought I'd just ask the obvious question. Anyone know of $350 worth of reasons why XtraReports would be a better way to go than SSRS?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
I only have a little knowledge of SSRS but I have used XtraReports and its very good. It can very tightly integrate with your program giving you a lot of control and you can even write your own controls for it like I have done. I'm not sure you will get as good control with SSRS.
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After a little poking around and a lot of help from my friends here, I've come down to two paths. Turns out my hosting company "doesn't support Crystal reports," i.e. if you wanna use that tool, you need stuff installed / configured on the host server. I was happy to hear their response as it validated my assumptions that this particular dog just won't hunt, and perhaps that I'm not quite as stupid as I thought I was (though the jury is still out on that). What my hosting folks (enthusiastic endorsement: Applied Innovations[^]) do support is Sql Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), which they provide for free. Sometimes Free is actually cheaper than Not Free, so I thought I'd give it a try. Looks like all the basics are there. In the Not Free category, I downloaded the eval of XtraReports after hearing good things from many of you. It seems like a quality product and also gets the job done for my web reporting needs. That said, in this particular case $350 appears to be exactly $350 more than Free, which makes me lean towards SSRS. So, before I dig in and start investing time in a particular platform, I thought I'd just ask the obvious question. Anyone know of $350 worth of reasons why XtraReports would be a better way to go than SSRS?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Might be an idea to check out the licensing around SSRS, I know that we are looking to expose SSRS to external i.e. not our company users, and you then need to look at processor licensing I believe which can be expensive.
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Nope any valid connection can be used to supply the data. You have to have SQL Server to install SSRS as the supporting database can ONLY be SQL Server. Data used in the report can come from any valid source.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
You can even get around that to some degree. You can use the report viewer control on your ASP.NET page and run the reports in local mode. It doesn't require SQL Server, and the report runs off of DataSets, so you can use any data source. You just have to go through the extra step of creating the DataSet first. The local mode reports have extra limitations, but they cover our needs easily.
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Doesn't SSRS require the data to be from SQL Server? and the reports to be generated from SQL Server?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
No, you can use any data source to feed in SSRS reports
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After a little poking around and a lot of help from my friends here, I've come down to two paths. Turns out my hosting company "doesn't support Crystal reports," i.e. if you wanna use that tool, you need stuff installed / configured on the host server. I was happy to hear their response as it validated my assumptions that this particular dog just won't hunt, and perhaps that I'm not quite as stupid as I thought I was (though the jury is still out on that). What my hosting folks (enthusiastic endorsement: Applied Innovations[^]) do support is Sql Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), which they provide for free. Sometimes Free is actually cheaper than Not Free, so I thought I'd give it a try. Looks like all the basics are there. In the Not Free category, I downloaded the eval of XtraReports after hearing good things from many of you. It seems like a quality product and also gets the job done for my web reporting needs. That said, in this particular case $350 appears to be exactly $350 more than Free, which makes me lean towards SSRS. So, before I dig in and start investing time in a particular platform, I thought I'd just ask the obvious question. Anyone know of $350 worth of reasons why XtraReports would be a better way to go than SSRS?
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
I have not used SSRS or even seen it in action. I have used DevExpress for three years now, including reports. Controls, documentation and support is awesome. It is rare that more than a day goes by between submitting a question and receiving an answer from their support staff. So for what it's worth, my experience with DevExpress has been great. (In case you are looking at ComponentOne as well, my experience with them has been horrendous! We ditched them for ANYTHING else, but happily wound up with DX.)
Mike
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Nope any valid connection can be used to supply the data. You have to have SQL Server to install SSRS as the supporting database can ONLY be SQL Server. Data used in the report can come from any valid source.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
But SQL Server would still have to exist and be installed to use SSRS in all circumstances?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
So, before I dig in and start investing time in a particular platform, I thought I'd just ask the obvious question. Anyone know of $350 worth of reasons why XtraReports would be a better way to go than SSRS?
- Support. DevExpress will even write you a small app. for you to show you how to do what you want to do. 2) Portability. What happens when Applied Innovations is bought by a bigger host who doesn't support SSRS? Or the make a fundamental change to their services that doesn't support other things you require? This has recently happened to me with a fairly large host - I'm in the process of moving to a different one right now. 3) I've yet to find a free product that was really worth it. In this case, if free costs me more than 6 hours of time compared to option B, it's really more expensive than $350. Cheers, Drew.
Dev Express support is *superb*. The best I have ever had from a 3rd paty tool vendor bar none. I.e. actually stays with you to solve the problem. $350 is *nothing*, really. It's less than a day of a competent developer's time.
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Doesn't SSRS require the data to be from SQL Server? and the reports to be generated from SQL Server?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
No SSRS does not require the data to be from SQL Server. I am using reporting services on my site and all data is loaded via List, which means from anywhere.