Crystal, ActiveReport or XtraReport

[larma]

I'm not quite sure which reporting tool to use. Please recommend.
Thanks.

[Hack]

Welcome to the forums larma.

It is difficult to answer that question without knowning more details, such as:

What are your reporting needs, i.e., how many reports are you going to be writing (not only right now, but in the future)
How many clients will you be rolling your programs and reports out to?
Are these reports going to be web based or desktop based or both?

And, one of the most important questions: what kind of budget do you have?

[zen_master]

actually, related to this qustion....(sorry, OT)...

my quote software for my company will be used to fetch data from customer...then, using those data...i want to generate a word documents which can be printed and sent by email..

now, i've experimented with crystal...however, the only bad part is that...you can't actually edit the document trought the crystal report viewer....

is theres a possible way to do it with crystal report? or maybe i should use something else?

thanx!

[larma]

The current requirement is simple, however I would like to be able to expand the current solution in future rather than complete rewrite.

Current repuirement:
1. About 20 to 30 reports to start with,
2. May be 2 or 3 new adhoc reports per month (will decrease eventually)
3. If things go well the number of reports could double.
4. Number of clients - the more the better however realistically 1, possibly 2 clients
5. Report execution can be either desktop or web based, the result need to be viewable in web based.
6. Budget - at the moment I'm looking for the "right" solution and cost then figure ways to get the budget. I don't have a number yet but it will not be 10 of thousand though, more likely a few thousand.

Thanks.

[Hack]

Given the requirments that you listed, I would take a long hard look at Crystal Reports.

1. The cost is within your listed budget.
2. They can be viewed/created for both desktop and web envirnoments
3. They can be used against practically any data source (you didn't list where the data is being stored, but, generally speaking, Crystal doesn't care.)
4. Expandability is one of their selling points.

Downside: It is a very sophisticated reporting solution. As with all sophisticated solutions, there is a learning curve. Another thing not mentioned is time frames. Are you under the gun for a deliverable date?

[larma]

Hack, thanks for your advice, I'll look into Crystal. I still have have plenty of time, no pressure yet.

Cheers.

[zen_master]

actually, related to this qustion....(sorry, OT)...

my quote software for my company will be used to fetch data from customer...then, using those data...i want to generate a word documents which can be printed and sent by email..

now, i've experimented with crystal...however, the only bad part is that...you can't actually edit the document trought the crystal report viewer....

is theres a possible way to do it with crystal report? or maybe i should use something else?

thanx!

any help, please?

[larma]

Hi zen,

I don't think you can edit document in viewer regardless of the product you choose (it's just a viewer). I think in you case you may want to output the result as a word document and use MS word to edit it.

Hope this helps.

[kulitag]

query the output that you want then use write it in RichtextBox

[zen_master]

^^
thanx...i think the only way to do that is by editing in ms word......since there's some editing even though i've filled the template with all the requirements.....

ANYWHO...is there a way to make a table (row and columns) in crystal report?

[larma]

I found an an alterative, there is SQL 2000 Reporting Services. I'm testing it out.

zen, I've been testing a few evaluation products and found that Xtrareport let you create table.

[zen_master]

thanx larma, for the information =)

i guess they're not free, right? lol............

i really need to find a ghetto way to do this on MS word.........

basically, the idea is to put features of machine selected by the customer into a proposal document into a grid (row/col) on MS word.......hehe