Recommendations for linkable report writer
in [Visual Objects]
|
From: Ginny Caughey on 23 Oct 2009 07:07 Thanks, Richard. My clients have had ReportPro's designer for a decade or more, and they don't like it. Some do like Crystal, and money isn't the issue - they're governmental agencies. <g> But some for reasons I don't understand don't want to run something from the Start menu and want something "built in". RDL Designer meets this need - I can launch it from a menu and it only requires 3 assemblies, but I don't think my customer will find its designer particularly easy to use, and especially compared with Crystal. -- Ginny Caughey www.wasteworks.com "richard.townsendrose" <richard.townsendrose(a)googlemail.com> wrote in message news:f1bd2046-500f-4fcd-853e-b89740d54095(a)j9g2000vbp.googlegroups.com... > Ginny > > I know that reportpro2x has been around for a very long time. > > But then so has the harrier jump jet fighter - about as long as > reportpro > > The fact is that they were both way ahead of their time, and still > perform extraordinarily well. > > Crystal reports designer USED to be linked to Pegasus Capital Gold > accounting system. My Pegasus clients decided that they would not > purchase Crystal reports, so they still have one machine with the > linked in report designer - which gets used religously once a month to > update statements and invoice layouts. > > I have spent hours looking at alternatives, but from an engineering > stand point none of them are any easier to use nor easier to design in > or ... > > richard > > ps my local pub is part of a mega chain ... and guess what ? - the > tills are operated by a dos programme with a touch screen written in > clipper. IT WORKS FAST - so the customers get served faster .... has a > local ads server {just an nt box in the pub used by the manager} and > it all reports back to the advantage server in head office accounts > dept .... only about 14,000 pubs ...
From: LumberJack on 23 Oct 2009 09:11 Hi Ginny, Well as Willie suggested, fyiReporting might be the solution as it creates RDL templates. Nice thing about it is that it is open source, so you are able to extend it to your liking specially because you can pass it during runtime a DataTable/Dateset or RDL for that matter, allowing to you do some processing on the RDL/data before you fire the report viewer. I used some of the concepts from it in my own report writer that initially was done in Clipper when I got frustrated with R&R, then converted to VO. Still it was text based. However with ReportPro I was able to give it a graphical look and feel quite easily as I only had to direct output away from a textfile to the ReportPro printing methods. Needless to say the report designer/viewer now is running in Vulcan around PrintDocument and I believe extremely fast (250 pages full pages with boxes around all columns in about 40 seconds once you have the data in memory). One of my main "Pet hates" regarding report writers in general is that it is a tedious job when most of your reporting is focusing around subtotalling/grouping. My designer is primarily focused at sub- totalling, so give it a: oRep:GroupBy := "cust_id, order_no, item_type" oRep:SumDepth := 3 oRep:SumEject := 2 oRep:GrandTotal := TRUE And all your columns that needs to be Totalled/[Weighted]Average/ Minimum/Maximum/Standard Deviation/Percentage will automatically be done generically for you on each level with a GrandTotal for the report if needed. Only lack however, I don't have a graphical designer, just a normal Datadriven Form interface with INSERT/UPDATE and DELETE facilities... But who knows maybe one day I will have one... <g> Hint hint anybody feeling like writing a WYSIWYG front-end<VBG> Regards, Johan Nel Pretoria, South Africa. On Oct 23, 1:07 pm, "Ginny Caughey" <ginny.caughey.onl...(a)wasteworks.com> wrote: > Thanks, Richard. My clients have had ReportPro's designer for a decade or > more, and they don't like it. Some do like Crystal, and money isn't the > issue - they're governmental agencies. <g> But some for reasons I don't > understand don't want to run something from the Start menu and want > something "built in". RDL Designer meets this need - I can launch it from a > menu and it only requires 3 assemblies, but I don't think my customer will > find its designer particularly easy to use, and especially compared with > Crystal. > > -- > > Ginny Caugheywww.wasteworks.com > > "richard.townsendrose" <richard.townsendr...(a)googlemail.com> wrote in > messagenews:f1bd2046-500f-4fcd-853e-b89740d54095(a)j9g2000vbp.googlegroups.com... > > > Ginny > > > I know that reportpro2x has been around for a very long time. > > > But then so has the harrier jump jet fighter - about as long as > > reportpro > > > The fact is that they were both way ahead of their time, and still > > perform extraordinarily well. > > > Crystal reports designer USED to be linked to Pegasus Capital Gold > > accounting system. My Pegasus clients decided that they would not > > purchase Crystal reports, so they still have one machine with the > > linked in report designer - which gets used religously once a month to > > update statements and invoice layouts. > > > I have spent hours looking at alternatives, but from an engineering > > stand point none of them are any easier to use nor easier to design in > > or ... > > > richard > > > ps my local pub is part of a mega chain ... and guess what ? - the > > tills are operated by a dos programme with a touch screen written in > > clipper. IT WORKS FAST - so the customers get served faster .... has a > > local ads server {just an nt box in the pub used by the manager} and > > it all reports back to the advantage server in head office accounts > > dept .... only about 14,000 pubs ... > >
From: Ginny Caughey on 23 Oct 2009 13:33 Thanks for your comments, Johan. I had my staff try out fyiReporting this morning, and although they still prefer Crystal, they think it could be a workable solution for our customers who want something built in. I've been looking through the source code, and the few things I'd customize don't seem too daunting to do. Adding a few more views to the database to make building usual reports easier is the other thing I'll probably do. -- Ginny Caughey www.wasteworks.com "LumberJack" <johan.nel(a)xsinet.co.za> wrote in message news:8efb2ea4-9b85-4853-a9c9-6db0b95a4816(a)u13g2000vbb.googlegroups.com... > Hi Ginny, > > Well as Willie suggested, fyiReporting might be the solution as it > creates RDL templates. Nice thing about it is that it is open source, > so you are able to extend it to your liking specially because you can > pass it during runtime a DataTable/Dateset or RDL for that matter, > allowing to you do some processing on the RDL/data before you fire the > report viewer. > > I used some of the concepts from it in my own report writer that > initially was done in Clipper when I got frustrated with R&R, then > converted to VO. Still it was text based. However with ReportPro I > was able to give it a graphical look and feel quite easily as I only > had to direct output away from a textfile to the ReportPro printing > methods. > > Needless to say the report designer/viewer now is running in Vulcan > around PrintDocument and I believe extremely fast (250 pages full > pages with boxes around all columns in about 40 seconds once you have > the data in memory). > > One of my main "Pet hates" regarding report writers in general is that > it is a tedious job when most of your reporting is focusing around > subtotalling/grouping. My designer is primarily focused at sub- > totalling, so give it a: > > oRep:GroupBy := "cust_id, order_no, item_type" > oRep:SumDepth := 3 > oRep:SumEject := 2 > oRep:GrandTotal := TRUE > > And all your columns that needs to be Totalled/[Weighted]Average/ > Minimum/Maximum/Standard Deviation/Percentage will automatically be > done generically for you on each level with a GrandTotal for the > report if needed. > > Only lack however, I don't have a graphical designer, just a normal > Datadriven Form interface with INSERT/UPDATE and DELETE facilities... > But who knows maybe one day I will have one... <g> Hint hint anybody > feeling like writing a WYSIWYG front-end<VBG> > > Regards, > > Johan Nel > Pretoria, South Africa. > > On Oct 23, 1:07 pm, "Ginny Caughey" > <ginny.caughey.onl...(a)wasteworks.com> wrote: >> Thanks, Richard. My clients have had ReportPro's designer for a decade or >> more, and they don't like it. Some do like Crystal, and money isn't the >> issue - they're governmental agencies. <g> But some for reasons I don't >> understand don't want to run something from the Start menu and want >> something "built in". RDL Designer meets this need - I can launch it from >> a >> menu and it only requires 3 assemblies, but I don't think my customer >> will >> find its designer particularly easy to use, and especially compared with >> Crystal. >> >> -- >> >> Ginny Caugheywww.wasteworks.com >> >> "richard.townsendrose" <richard.townsendr...(a)googlemail.com> wrote in >> messagenews:f1bd2046-500f-4fcd-853e-b89740d54095(a)j9g2000vbp.googlegroups.com... >> >> > Ginny >> >> > I know that reportpro2x has been around for a very long time. >> >> > But then so has the harrier jump jet fighter - about as long as >> > reportpro >> >> > The fact is that they were both way ahead of their time, and still >> > perform extraordinarily well. >> >> > Crystal reports designer USED to be linked to Pegasus Capital Gold >> > accounting system. My Pegasus clients decided that they would not >> > purchase Crystal reports, so they still have one machine with the >> > linked in report designer - which gets used religously once a month to >> > update statements and invoice layouts. >> >> > I have spent hours looking at alternatives, but from an engineering >> > stand point none of them are any easier to use nor easier to design in >> > or ... >> >> > richard >> >> > ps my local pub is part of a mega chain ... and guess what ? - the >> > tills are operated by a dos programme with a touch screen written in >> > clipper. IT WORKS FAST - so the customers get served faster .... has a >> > local ads server {just an nt box in the pub used by the manager} and >> > it all reports back to the advantage server in head office accounts >> > dept .... only about 14,000 pubs ... >> >> >
From: richard.townsendrose on 24 Oct 2009 07:09 Ginny How on earth they cannot find rp easy i dont know ... It is SO simple that even IT departments can use it ! Unlike crystal where we get loads of questions ... well have ONE user who can doctor simple things like messages ... Richard
From: Ginny Caughey on 24 Oct 2009 15:42
Beats me, Richard. I told my staff they should pick the next report writer because what I find intuitive doesn't matter. It's like politics - if somebody I vote for actually gets elected, it ends up being a mistake on my part. <g> -- Ginny Caughey www.wasteworks.com "richard.townsendrose" <richard.townsendrose(a)googlemail.com> wrote in message news:405f9476-b41f-4331-a125-d6e3dc1fd009(a)e18g2000vbe.googlegroups.com... > Ginny > > How on earth they cannot find rp easy i dont know ... > > It is SO simple that even IT departments can use it ! > > Unlike crystal where we get loads of questions ... well have ONE user > who can doctor simple things like messages ... > > Richard |