Crystal Reports vs. VFP Report Writer 3

[DSummZZZ]

Would you kind folks enlighten me as to the strengths and weaknesses of Crystal Reports as compared to using the VFP 9 report writer?
What are the advantages? Benefits? Drawbacks?

I am only vaguely familiar with CR and don't have good answers when asked my opinion of it.
Frankly, I haven't had much exposure to the VFP report writer since version 7, haven't dealt with version 9 yet, but my understanding from reading tidbits here and there is that it has been vastly improved and can do whatever we would need it to do.

My company is in the planning stage of developing a data warehouse (I know, 'Welcome to the nineties'). My department may be doing the actual work, or the project may be outsourced. That part is undecided.
However, if we end up doing it in house, my preference of course, is using VFP data and the report writer.
I would just like to hear other opinions.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[robsuttonjr]

I have asked the same question and have worked with both Crystal and Fox reports. Crystal just has more bells and whistles. But it does require a learning curve to integreate and costs more. I have not run into a problem presenting data in a professional manner with grouping and summary bands using FoxPro. It all depends on what your users are expecting based on design specifications. Just because FoxPro report writer can't do all that Crystal can do is no reason to switch to Crystal. Only sensible reasons I could see to use Crystal Reports would be if:

a. The development team is currently using it.
b. Need features not possible with Foxpro reports.

LINKS:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk/foxst-19.htm

http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~IntroToCrystalReports~VFP

Thats my 1.5 cents worth.


Regards,

Rob

 

[Mike Lewis]

Dave,

I have used both CR and VFP's native report writer in many projects. They both have a lot going for them.

Basically, CR is much more powerful and capable than VFP, even with the new features in VFP 9.0. In VFP you can achieve almost anything you want, but often at the cost of additional programming. In CR, you can typically achieve the same just by making a menu selection or a choice in a dialogue.

Things like: ensuring that groups stay together on a page; varying the content or formatting depending on values found in the data; arranging blocks of text in unconventional ways; placing charts or cross-tabs side by side with the data; printing multiple reports on the same sheet of paper ... these are all bread and butter in CR.

CR also has excellent export features, and a neat drill-down feature that lets you show progressively more detail.

On the negative side ... CR has a learning curve. It's a sophisticated package and will take time to learn. To use some of its more interesting featuers, you will have to learn its own programming language -- it's not at all a difficult language, but it's yet another language to absorb.

Also, remember the CR is not designed with VFP in mind. Although it can read VFP tables - both free tables and DBC-based -- the process is not completely trouble-free. For example, I've occasionally had difficulties reading VFP views.

With CR, it's relatively easy to distribute reports to users who do not have CR installed, thanks to the availability of low-cost third-party report viewers. It's also possible to integrate the reports into your VFP applications, using COM Automation, but it's not particularly easy, and finding and installing the correct run-time files is always a hassle.

Finally, CR costs money. There are ways of minimising the cost per user, but at the very least there will be a cost per developer.

I hope this has given you something to think about. I'd be interesting in hearing other people's experiences.

Mike





__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[craigber]

While reporting is improved in VFP 9, it is still far inferior to Crystal. For example, VFP 9 supports mulitple detail bands, but only for parent-child-child relations. What if you need parent-child-grandchild? Yes, you can do it in Fox, but it may require more work, depending on what your needs are.

Distribution of Crystal has gotten easier lately with new merge modules. The cost could only be a license for each developer, depending on your reporting needs. Integration is easier than Mike makes it sound.

Some other areas where Crystal is better are supported for subreports (think nested reports), graphing is as easy as drop object on report and set some properties in a dialog, custom formatting, export to different formats, and more.

You may want to check out the articles on my web site to get a feel for what it takes to create and integrate Crystal with VFP.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[DSummZZZ]

I thank you all very much. The summaries are very much appreciated.
I will indeed check out the links you have provided, but in the meantime I have something to present to the rest of the gang here.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[SBTBILL]

I havm't used that much Crystal Reports but do want to add that a version (currently 9) is shipped free with some versions of Peachtree. It's not the developer edition however.

Bill Couture

 

[dbMark]

MikeLewis: In VFP you can achieve almost anything you want, but often at the cost of additional programming ... placing charts or cross-tabs side by side with the data

VFP 9 does not calculate line spacing correctly when placing an ActiveX OLE control beside a text box that has Stretch with overflow enabled.

Other than that one narrow issue, the VFP 9 Report Writer does everything we need.

 

[Mike Lewis]

dbMark,

the VFP 9 Report Writer does everything we need.

Agreed. It does everything I want as well. But I still say that, in many areas, Crystal does it more easily.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk