Printing - Best to print from Server or from local data?

[keyser456]

I've finally finished all the forms for my project and I'm now tackling the issue of reports. In an effort to keep the cost for the program lower, I believe I am going to try to avoid using Crystal Reports or any other reporting software that isn't free, so I'm designing my own reports using GDI+ for now.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether to print using the local data already on the computer when the user clicks print, or to just use the record's ID and pull the data from the SQL Server. There appear to be advantages to each:

Using the local data:
1) I could avoid another trip to the Server.
2) What prints will always be exactly what the user sees on his/her computer screen.

Using the SQL Server:
1) What prints will be the very latest version of the record and any of it's related records.
2) It seems that if a person were to upgrade to Crystal Reports or some other reporting software that this transition would be much smoother if I use this approach.

What do you all think? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[donutman]

The local copy or server copy is for you to decide. Isn't that new SQL Reports freeware? I don't know for sure...I don't use it.
-Karl

[red] Cursors, triggers, user-defined functions and dynamic SQL are an axis of evil![/red]
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[SQLSister]

I've dealt with literally 1000's of users from many different professions. I can't think of a single one who would be happy if the data on the screen and the data in the report did not match. In fact, for most of them, it would confuse the heck out of them. I would use the local data and not make the extra trip to the SQL Server.

Most reports are looking at historical data anyway, so things really shouldn't change when running last month's report or yesterday's production figures. What I would do to forstall the ineviatble problems when two people run the same report at different times is make sure that the date/time of the data (as of when the report was run, not printed) is included on the report in a footer or header. It is easier to see why things don't match if the users can see that they ran the report at different times. Then they also know which is most current.

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[mrdenny]

I would go with the local copy as well. As SQLSister said users would be very upset if the two copies of the data didn't match.

Yes the SQL Reporting engine is free (if you install in on an already registered SQL Server). See My FAQ on licensing faq962-5153.

Denny

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