Crystal reports Questions

[MikeTom]

I have been using crystal reports since version 6. Since ver 7 all our reports have mainly been web based, wich is now seems to be quite costly with ver 8.5 as we can only have 5 users and have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for more liscenses. Also a lot of users have complained about the quality of graphs in crystal. They prfer to have the data imported to excel and graphs produced their as they are better quality.

I have spoken to crystal sales and they tell me that in version 9 the graphing tool has been greatley improved as well as the edition of a report application server RAS for launching web reports without using the WCS and having to PAY for liscenses.

My question is can any one tell me what type of performance do you get from using RAS and how stable is it? The reason i ask is WCS seemed to crash quite regualry with Page server error and the task needed to be restarted.
The other is are the graphs produced in ver 9 better than the quality of any other known products, if not can you recommend products that have better charting with drilldown capabilities.

If anyone else has stopped using crystal reports because of the new liscense agreement and moved onto a cheaper reporting solution can you recommend that reporting tool to me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JEX]

Hi there,

The graphs in version 9 are a world away from version 7. They are vector based, they inlcude gants and gauge charts, numeric axis charts, conditional formatting on charts, to name a few differences. I suggest you go to the Crystal support site

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/library/?ref=default.asp_selectlist

and search for the document cr9_whats_new.pdf to see a complete list of new features. This document also talks about the new web deployment methods - namely Report Application Server.

May I also suggest you go to the following link on their web site:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/products/crystalreports/appdev/default.asp

and download an evaluation copy of CR9 Advanced - this will include the Report Application Server. This way you can see for yourself and have a play.

cheers...J

 

[MikeTom]

I have read these articles and have a copy of CR9 Advanced to evaluate. The reason i posted this question is because i have spoken to crystal sales and support staff and have got conflicting information, and i would like to know how people who are actually using CR9 are coping. Whith crystal changing their licence agreements and the new ways of deploying reports i am trying to find out is it worth sticking with crystal reports.
The main quey is if you use the Report Application sever what type of performance do you get out of it. I dont want to use it and find out that it does not meet my demand for reports then have to pay lots of money to crystal to get a processor liscense, I would rather look at other report tools like intelliview wich is more expensive than crystal using the RAS method but cheaper than a processor licence option.

 

[SurfingGecko]

Should you stay with CR? Hard question to answer since it entirely depends on your environment and your needs. Personally, CR is the best tool on the market.

Leding into deployment options, you need to understand that RAS is likely not your choice. Crystal Enterprise would be as a web hosting choice.

In a nutshell, The Report Application Server (RAS) and the RAS SDK provide customers with the tools to build a simple, web-based 'Report Designer'. This web report designer is then used as an add-on to the Crystal Enterprise system.

The 'Report Designer' that developers can create with the RAS SDK would provide end users the ability to modify existing reports in the Crystal Enterprise system. Basically providng added features that let users change the design of basic reports using only a web browser.

RAS as a standalone, is limited and not very flexible.

At a minimum Crystal Enterprise with a 5 CAL license should be able to support around 20 or so users. A processor is serious and for a big league user base. The license will not make the system run faster or slower. It is a meter.

My recommendation would be to stick with CR for your reporting, not only because it is probably the best of breed, but because you already know it and have been using it for some time. A new learning curve could be costly and time consuming.

Then I would look to some other alternative(s) for your report deployment strategy.

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.htm

has several fine (and affordable) third party apps that could fit into your plan.



Cheers,

SurfingGecko

http://www.surfinggeckosoftware.com

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