Reports, reports, reports

[orasbot]

To all geeks out there,

Hi, I have a problem over here. I need to create a report having data coming from one master table and two children table. The book says that this cannot be created since the data report designer does not allow this kind of report. BUT I NEED IT FOR GOD SAKE! This can be easily done with Access and developer/2000. access has sub reports while report designer of developer/2000 has repeating frames which is completely customizable.

Sirs and madammes, is there any tool in VB (even 3rd party) that can handle this kind of reports? Moreover, is there a better report designer for VB? I'm using visual basic 6.0.

Thank you very much.


Michael M. Miciano
Analyst/Programmer

[Buzby]

Crystal Reports from Seagate Software (www.SeagateSoftware.com) can handle most things - and it is extremeley customisable. For example you can place formulae behind formatting, record selection, colouring etc so things change depending on what data has been found.
And Master / Child databases are a piece of cake with the Visual Linking (like in Access) Expert.

DON'T get hold of version 5 or previous though because it will drive you mad. Go for version 7 or 8...

[Glenn]

I agree with Buzby, the data report desginer in VB only supports simple reports. If you can afford it I would spring for Crystal Reports. The desginer at times seems a bit quirky but overall it is quite powerfull.

[DrewDog_21]

I agree that the MSDataReport is a total piece of ****. I have to use it on my current project since my poor self can't afford Crystal Reports

Orasbot, I had the same problem as you, and I got around it by creating temporary tables at run-time. I create the table and then copy the necessary data from the other tables into it with code. Then I change the command text in the data environment so that it will have a relation to the temporary table, and I delete the table in the DataReport_Terminate routine. Crude and a big pain in the ass, but what else can you do when you are broke.

[orasbot]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate your replies. The product costs $495. That's too expensive, I can't even buy that VSFlexGrid I need.
Maybe I would really need to create temporary tables. yeah right, this would be a great pain in my ass.

I have a question. Why in the hell microsoft did not created such kind of tools in their product? If they can't, why did't they included Crystal Report Designer just like with VB 5.0? It tastes like hell.