Which Chart object to use?

[Krava]

Hi all!

Sorry for a stupid question, but I was trying to find any good answer to me by searching this forum, but I did not find.

We have .NET Studio and we want to create a client with connectivity to MS SQL db. Based on data from DB we created a DataSet in ADO.NET which we want to use as the source for Chart/Graph.
The problem is we do not know what object to use, because what we found so far is very very expensive for a little job we want accomplish.
Do we do something wrong?

I would appreciate any idea/opninion of yours.

Thank you in advance.

Krava

[Atheist]

I can recommend zedGraph

[Tom Sawyer]

I believe that Active Reports is included by default with Visual Studio (may depend on your version). I haven't used it myself, but there is charting functionality with that. If you don't want to pay for a third party component, you may be able to do what you need with the stuff included there.

[RobDog888]

Active Reports is a external third party utility isnt it? Expensive.
http://www.xtras.net/products/activereportsdotnet/

[Tom Sawyer]

Isn't Active Reports the one that's bundled into Visual Studio? What's that one called? The last company I was at, people were talking about wanting to use it because it's free and the Crystal Reports license they were using was expensive.

[RobDog888]

Crystal Reports is the reporting software that is bundled with VS.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700921.aspx

Ive heard of AR but am not familiar with it.

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, apparently you're right and Active Reports is very expensive. I don't know who convinced the cheap bastards I work for now to pay for it, but it seems that they did and they installed it on my machine (nice of them).

I thought that there was some .NET-based reporting tool that Microsoft had bundled into Visual Studio that you could use for free. Perhaps I was wrong.

[RobDog888]

Yes, the CR version that is bundled is free but its also not a stand alone system. You need to run it inside the VS IDE. Its not bad, just CR is complicated and troublesome to distribute although its very powerful once you learn how to take advantage of its features.

[Krava]

Hi, folks!

Wow, thank you very much for your fast a good reaction! More then I expected.
Anhow, we are going to try your suggestions and after that I am coming back to you with some results, just to let you know what we found.

Once more many thanks!

Krava

[jmcilhinney]

I thought that there was some .NET-based reporting tool that Microsoft had bundled into Visual Studio that you could use for free. Perhaps I was wrong.

I think you're talking about SQL Server Reporting Services. You have to pay for the server but the run-time components are free and you can build reports in full versions of VS. There was an add-in for VWD Express 2005 to build reports but I'm not sure what the story is with the 2008 Express Editions.

[Krava]

Hi, Folks!

So I am back to you.
We have tried suggested zedGraph and it seems to be working fine for our purpose.
So I guess we will not waste our time by investigating the other options.

Thank you very much for your kind collaboration! It was a great help for us!

With only best regards

Krava.

[Tom Sawyer]

I think you're talking about SQL Server Reporting Services. You have to pay for the server but the run-time components are free and you can build reports in full versions of VS. There was an add-in for VWD Express 2005 to build reports but I'm not sure what the story is with the 2008 Express Editions.

That's the one I was thinking of. Thanks.