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Opinion: Enterprise Worth Using?

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jfrost10

Programmer
Jun 3, 2001
2,004
CA
Hey guys,

I've been out of the Crystal loop for a while, but it looks like i may have to dive back in. We will be needing to supply reports for our online web application (ASP.NET). We have narrowed our choices down to 2:
1. Complex XML-based reports
2. Crystal Reports

BUT, we're going to need this to be pretty rock solid, as well as a good value, and from what I remember of Crystal the last time around, it wasn't totally either.

So my question is: since (from what I understand) Crystal Enterprise is supposed to be THE way to run reports online, have you found its use to be beneficial, easy, and worth the price?

Speaking of price, do they still only allow 5 concurrent connections to the report server?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Jack
 
CE 8.5 seems very stable thus far.

And there was never a limit of 5 users, your licensing limits you, if you need more just add license$ - Ja-mom.

jamom: Just a matter of money (best when enunciated with a Jamaican flavor)

Which brings up cost - it ain't cheap... I think that overall it is a reasonably priced model when compared to Business Objects, ePiphany, etc.

Howard Hammerman seems to be a great source for licensing questions, I'm buildng an OEM prodcut so we're paying waaaaaaay too much ;) I believe that .net has advantages over other licensing schemes, hopefully Howard or someone else will chime in and clarify.

As for whether it is THE way to run reports, I would say that it is a good way to leverage a pre-canned reporting infrastructure to provide a very flexible reporting solution. CE 8.5 has incorporated much of the SI functionality too.

Since Crystal supports XML, you might even leverage it to provide data to external processes.

You don't have to use CE to take advantage of Crystal on the WEB, but the licensing is frought with gotchas, make sure that you fully explore it.

-k kai@informeddatadecisions.com
 
hi,
just implemented CE8.5. overall rating ..ok except for the cost. cos u have to upgrade your writing tool CR to 8.5 on top of the license fee for CE

just to highlight that exporting to XML in CR8.5 is giving error though CD mentioned that ce8.5 supports it.
 
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