Looking for a Crystal Reports alternative...
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Thanks, hadn't found that one yet. Added to the long list, which is also kind of the short list due to limited supply :thumbsup:
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How about SSRS? Sure you know about it, just in case - [What is SQL Server Reporting Services - SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) | Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/create-deploy-and-manage-mobile-and-paginated-reports)
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Yeah, I know it although I've never used it. Doesn't look very state of the art, and Richard's reply confirms it. It also can't be used in the cloud, which isn't necessary for this particular project, but would really have my preference.
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
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At my last job I went from Crystal Reports to DevExpress. Was very happy with DevExpress. Especially their support. Probably the only software company where I've experienced consistently good support, ever. Sadly (from my perspective) based in the US, so every support case got an answer the next day.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
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At my last job I went from Crystal Reports to DevExpress. Was very happy with DevExpress. Especially their support. Probably the only software company where I've experienced consistently good support, ever. Sadly (from my perspective) based in the US, so every support case got an answer the next day.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Quote:
Sadly (from my perspective) based in the US, so every support case got an answer the next day.
I know what you mean, but there are exceptions! I emailed AOMEI support (based in Hong Kong) yesterday morning and was expecting a response within the week ... and got a response fixing the problem in under five minutes! Impressed? I most certainly was!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt -
Quote:
Sadly (from my perspective) based in the US, so every support case got an answer the next day.
I know what you mean, but there are exceptions! I emailed AOMEI support (based in Hong Kong) yesterday morning and was expecting a response within the week ... and got a response fixing the problem in under five minutes! Impressed? I most certainly was!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
they're a Good lot AOMEI
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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List & Label: combit Software: Award-Winning Reporting Tool for Developers[^]
Sander Rossel wrote:
Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising.
So you're saying they're good?
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At my last job I went from Crystal Reports to DevExpress. Was very happy with DevExpress. Especially their support. Probably the only software company where I've experienced consistently good support, ever. Sadly (from my perspective) based in the US, so every support case got an answer the next day.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Yeah, I've used their WinForms components in the past. Impressed with both their tools and their support. Does it come with a stand-alone report editor? As I understand it, I need to embed their editor in my software (which isn't a problem if it's easy). I'm pretty sure it works in the cloud too.
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Sander Rossel wrote:
Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising.
So you're saying they're good?
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they're a Good lot AOMEI
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
Quick too - I just received an email notifying me that the support ticket had been raised! That's 28 hours after I got the response fixing the problem. :-D
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yeah, I've used their WinForms components in the past. Impressed with both their tools and their support. Does it come with a stand-alone report editor? As I understand it, I need to embed their editor in my software (which isn't a problem if it's easy). I'm pretty sure it works in the cloud too.
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Sander Rossel wrote:
Does it come with a stand-alone report editor?
When I used it I made the basic design in Visual Studio. Then users can change columns, rows and data from the dataset in real time (if you allow it) before exporting to whichever format they want. (Except powerpoint, well atleast it didn't use to be supported) I understand that nowadays there's a standalone reporting server where clients can design their own reports. But I doubt this is what you want as it's prohibitively expensive. There's probably many more changes, but I don't really know since I'm backend nowadays.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Yeah, I've used their WinForms components in the past. Impressed with both their tools and their support. Does it come with a stand-alone report editor? As I understand it, I need to embed their editor in my software (which isn't a problem if it's easy). I'm pretty sure it works in the cloud too.
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Looked it up. Yes there's an end user report designer that you can embed in your website. But you don't need to use it.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
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You can check out Stimulsoft Reports ( you may have a desktop app ) --- [Stimulsoft Reports.NET - Stimulsoft](https://www.stimulsoft.com/en/products/reports-net). It has a designer component and a runtime component(report viewer). You design the report drop it in a folder. You pick it up and render it in your code via the viewer. You give the designer to client if he needs. you code some settings or wizard to add new reports. client is happy and so are you ..they have for web and other languages and frameworks also ([Stimulsoft Reports](https://www.stimulsoft.com/en/products/reports).)
Caveat Emptor. "Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
Yeah, make a web app and tell Crystal Reports or anything like it to go bye bye. :-D
Jeremy Falcon
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
I have been using DevExpress for the past 5 years and can attest to the high quality of their development tools, especially the reporting bits. :thumbsup: Further, as you probably know already, there is a huge knowledge base of resources/training material available for their components, which is really important if your client will be 'hands-on' with it. Firstly, I am not a robot! I've used Crystal Reports/Crytal Decisions/Business Objects for over 23 years now. It's great for desktop applications, but the web components suck. X| Secondly, I've tried a few other DIY reporting tools/dashboard builders (asprunner.net, SAP, SSRS, etc.) over the years but they all had shortcomings or wouldn't work for cloud solutions. I'm now using DevExpress components in both desktop and web-based reporting projects and couldn't be happier. Reports are designed against a spreadsheet and the datasource is swapped at runtime to a datatable. We haven't tried the runtime report designer yet as our customers have no desire to do anything like that. After singing their praises, let me also list the cons: 0: Fairly expensive, however it's a one-time fee. (unless you want updates after the first year) 1: The components are 'weighty' with interdependencies...it will add noticeable time to startups/compiles during your debugging sessions. Overall, it's a matter of getting what you pay for. I bought the whole suite and have mostly focused on using the reporting (grids, pivots, reports, charts) components. It has already paid for itself many times over. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse "Hope is contagious"
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Quick too - I just received an email notifying me that the support ticket had been raised! That's 28 hours after I got the response fixing the problem. :-D
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I knew the Chinese were advanced in physics, but I didn't realise that they had invented a Time Machine! :omg:
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Microsoft Report Builder doesn't look very state of the art and it doesn't have a cloud native counterpart. It's probably better than Crystal Reports, but I'd still prefer a more modern solution.
Sanjay K. Gupta wrote:
If your reports are simple, you can render the report in html and convert it into pdf using ITextSharp library.
I've tried HTML to PDF in the past and I hate it. HTML simply doesn't know pages or A4 (or A* for that matter) format. A real pain to get right and very limited in regards to headers, footers, fitting a page, etc. Besides, my client could never use something like that, and that's a requirement.
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Please stay away from MS reports and the SSRS. It's even bigger mess than CR(and that says a LOT!), but without CR many futures.
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How about SSRS? Sure you know about it, just in case - [What is SQL Server Reporting Services - SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) | Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/create-deploy-and-manage-mobile-and-paginated-reports)
Latest CodeProject post: Quick look into Machine Learning workflow How to solve Word Ladder Problem? To read all my blog posts, visit: Learn by Insight...
It's almost out of support. No new futures from years. Doesn't work good with invoice-type documents with a lot of logic.
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
What you need, is a Crystal Reports, that can hold tables. A Crystal Reports that the client can code in a widely used scripting language. You need a report generator that is has a free runtime. And MS Access did not cross your mind? There's a lot of courses teaching MS Access, it is ubiquitous. It does reporting and can hold the data it is basing the reports on too. Exporting to MS Word and PDF is free. That works for everyone who has a Windows-license, just Linux users miss out here.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Hauled in a new client last week and they're using Crystal Reports. Needless to say, I'm not to happy about that. Luckily, he only has a few reports and he's willing to switch if I come up with a good alternative. The problem is, I don't have any. Looking for lists of alternatives gives me stuff like Power BI, Tableau and Qlick, which are BI tools and not report generators. What I need is a report designer that my client can use to create or modify some reports. I need stuff like invoices and packing slips, one or two A4 pages. Preferably something that also works in the cloud (not the editor, but generating the reports from code). I've seen DevExpress, but I can't really figure out if they have a stand-alone report editor. And because it comes with lots of components, it's quite expensive (the customer, not I, will be paying for the license). Also looking at List & Label, which looks promising. Any experiences with these tools, or other recommendations?
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
No recommendation - I used SSRS in my day but I have to laugh, you think your user (power or not) is going to create or modify reports. Never happened in 30+ years of building solutions.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
