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| From: | Rick Strahl |
| To: | Richard Norris |
Go with one of the other commercial solutions. They work much nicer, have reasonable distribution policies and are much faster/leaner. Disclaimer - it's been about 2 years since I've built a report :-) but I don't think this space changes drastically.
+++ Rick ---
Hi Rick,
Many thanks for your prompt response. I will have a look at these and see how I get on, much appreciated.
Yes, I don't have any good feelings about Reporting Services.
I know I said Crystal sucks, but for static reports, do you think its work-able (if the runtime redist remains free of-course)? I have read some scary stuff about problems with it, and around distribution. But for simple, static reports, maybe I should just lump it? I suppose it depends on whether we decide to invest in another package and whether said package require royalties; this has an impact on customers. Have you any experience with it?
Many Thanks
Richard
I've used ActiveReports in the past and it works very well. Nice designer and a reasonably easy object model as well although it takes a little time to learn. I've also played around with DevExpress's report engine which is also very nice. I think next time I'll need this I probably go that route. Both of these are also great choices for generating PDF output.
Both of these are commercial tools that are integrated into Visual Studio, but they're also not cheap. But they're redistributable, there's no setup and you can continue to use them as long as you need to. Much better than screwing around with the hell that is SQL Server reporting services.
+++ Rick ---
Hi All,
Been moving VFP work over to .NET development over last few years. One snag that is really got my goat is reporting. VFP's report engine is just there, part of the IDE and distro, works great does what we want. Crystal reports, just suck IMO, others may say otherwise. Although reporting services is an option, its a headache to deploy, I don't need or want a centralised reporting engine.
Anyone got any recommendations for a suitable replacement for .NET? There is just so much about, no idea which way to go?! What do you guys use for Desktop based apps reports?
TIA
Richard
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