Front End Development Tools

[captphan]

I am building a large project on a SQL Server backend, and am not sure what the best tools for front end development are.

Although a developer with experience in a multitude of languages myself, I am in position to hire people to help with what ever skills I need so my personal knowledge is not the driving factor.

Let me describe the scope and anyone with ideas please let me know (even if that idea is hay wrong forum)

I want my client(s) to be able to go to a website and enter parameters for a report. I will have two types of reports for them.

One will be an immediate result. This will be a basic line item report that they can be viewed on screen or download to PDF or Excel.

In addition they can get reports that are more complex Crystal reports. I have tools in place to deliver these reports in a timely manner through PDFs but want to automate the running of these reports.

I am not tied to Crystal but it is the reporting tool I know best and I am sure there will be Charts, Graphs Sub Reports Etc.


I am glad I don't know it all because then I would be bored.
-Obie

 

[RiverGuy]

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. It's accessed via a web browser. It allows advanced reporting--although I will mention that some things may be harder to do than Crystal and vice versa. It also has the ability to send out scheduled reports.

 

[captphan]

Thanks the only thing I thought I had decided on is now in flux. JK I do appreciate the input.

Since your answer moved away from where I though I was heading with my question let me reword it. What really is my best way to access the data securly and have a pretty web page?

I have read about PHP ASP etc. not sure what is appropriate.

I am glad I don't know it all because then I would be bored.
-Obie

 

[RiverGuy]

That's the thing with SSRS. You don't need to do any custom ASP.Net or PHP coding. You use Visual Studio as the development environment to design your reports (you don't need Visual Studio Professional, the version which comes with SQL Server 2005 is all you need). The reporting web site runs on IIS. Really, since you already have the license for SSRS (unless you're using an old or low level version of SQL Server), it wouldn't hurt to look at the "free" option first. SSRS portals can look pretty professional in my opinion.

 

[MDXer]

I am with RiverGuy on this. Having designed numerous Business Intelligence system where reports and delivery are one of the most crucial spects to the user. Reporting Services offers the flexibility to do what you are currently looking for. It also has the ability to go beyond what you are currently looking at. Yes you build reports in Bids but you can also build the report model and allow people the flexibility to creat reports specific to their needs.

Paul
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Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[SQLSister]

Personally I would go with SQL Server reporting service and C3 for any other web development you need to do. They play well with the SQl Server backend and the developers tend to be more familiar with t-SQL than most PHP or Java programmers (who typically use mysql or Oracle as their backends). But you would really need to know your own local market. If there are lots more PHP or Java programmmers available than C3 programmers, you might find better candidates in that world anyway. All of the common web languages can do the job, the quality of programmers you can get locally might be the deciding issue.

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[captphan]

Assumiong the quality of each langhuage is equal what way would lend it self to thmost secure site. I will be dealing with medical inforamtion so this is a major concern.


I am glad I don't know it all because then I would be bored.
-Obie

 

[captphan]

Sorry

Assuming the quality of the Canidates for each langauge ...

I am glad I don't know it all because then I would be bored.
-Obie

 

[SQLSister]

All of the modern web-based languages can make secure web sites. The difficulty isn't in the language, it is in the design and programming (and in finding good programmers who have extensive knowledge of security practices). With medical data you will probably not only want to use secure pages but you will need to encrypt and decrypt data in the database to prevent it from being visible. We also log all decryptions of data so that we can tell who asked for what decrypted data, so that we can prove only people with a legitimate right to see the data were the ones accessing it.

You also will want the database to be on a separate server from the web serve and you will want your network admin to set security limits on that server to prevent access except through the user interface. You will need to limit the developers to access only development servers and you will need to assign only a very few people the rights to upload changes to production.

You will also need to avoid the use dynamic SQL. Read about SQL injection attacks to see what I'm talking about.



"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[captphan]

I have been trying to get the reporting tools am I unable to get them because I have SQL Server Management Studio Express and not a full version of SQL on my computer. My company has a full liscence.

I am glad I don't know it all because then I would be bored.
-Obie

 

[MDXer]

You need to install BIDS which is part of the Full SQL 2005 client tools.

Paul
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Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck