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SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services 2

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vidru

vidru

Programmer
Jul 18, 2003
2,113
US
Anyone seen this yet, or interested-curious-angry-excited-etc. about it?

It doesn't look like it will necessarily compete with Crystal, YET. But it definitely looks like they're going to stop bundling Crystal with future .NET releases.

Being a SQL Server guy, it intrigues me. Just wondering what other SQL Server/Crystal developers think about it.

-dave
 
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Sorry I didn't reply earlier.

Yes, it was a typo. Running Totals, variables, and percentage totals are missing from RS. The formaula editor is the same level of complexity as the one inside Access Query. Not very sophisticated in my view.

For simple reports RS will be fine. The sort of Sales Analysis and complex reporting I see regularly make RS appear very inadequate.

Don't get the idea RS is free. You need .Net 2003 to design reports. While many developers will already have that, users wanting to design there reports need to buy the whole shooting match, to use one tool. Too complicated and screwed up marketing in my opinion.

Did MS actually talk to anyone who designs reports before they launched onto the market. My observation is developers don't like writing reports. It requires interaction with the user, identifies big holes in their DB design and doesn't have enough "real coding".

That is why users end up designing their own reports.


Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear
 
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I have been working with RS since the product launch. We used to use CR for report design and CE for distribution over our intranet. I do agree that CR is easier to use. The formula editor is at least 100 times better than the expression builder in RS. Some one with a little DB knowledge can build reports. But I believe RS is just as powerful if nor more so for building complex reports. In RS you have full access to the SQL Query editor. This gives you more flexibility when desgning the query. It is also a lot more reliable when using stored procedures. Using date time parameters is a lot easier in RS than CR. If you are distibuting reports over an intranet RS is much easier to use and significantly more powerful than CE. This doesn't even take into account integration with asp apps. One piece of misinformation is that each developer needs VS .NET 2003. You can do the development if you just have VB .NET 2003. A significant savings. RS is by no means perfect but I think Crystal should be concerned about the competition as RS evolves.
 
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It's the second month now when I'm using RS tool (not Beta). I have over 7 years of experience with Crystal. I agree that it's hard to compare those two 'cause RS is a Server tool but CR is a client tool. RS in my opinion is supposed to make the life of administrators easier and provide ability to create some pretty basic reports for the users.
The advantage of using RS is basically because it's for free for those who is using MS Sql Server db and other MS stuff like VS.NET 2003 products. If you don't belong to this category than CR + CE is no brainer combo.
The things that I don't like with RS is that there is a difficult access to object properties (at least two steps) and you cannot select a group of identical objects and set the same properties for all of them - need to go one by one. Since it's web-oriented there is no paper size (document type) selection in it. You can change the size of work area for sure but how this thing is making pages it's a different story. Forget about label printing when you need to place information into two columns - it's not designed for that. Also I have noticed that say if you use three parameters for a report in the beginning and end up having two - the prompt for the old one does not go away and need to redesign the whole thing from scratch. The good feature though is you can copy and paste more than one item at a time from one report to another. There are also issue how stable it is. I had problems with exporting to Excel from design mode - exports fine for the first time - shows weird messages after that. Need to close and reopen VS.Net to do it again. For the first three week it was fine but at some point something got screwed up in exporting engine. I find that some quite simple reports it's fast to build using RS but for a fancier ones there is too much workaround involved ...
 
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I have been evaluating MSRS the last couple weeks and I think the comments made so far are a pretty fair assesment. However the one thing I would add is regarding scalability. To deploy MS Report Server over mulitple servers you have to have an instance of MSSQL Server installed on every server. Free is free until it is not...[surprise]

Chris
Data Intelligence Group
 
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I am researching SSRS (We currently use CR and CE)
A couple of questions:
1. Can I use VB.NET to create and distribute reports or do I need VS.NET? Obviously VB.Net is cheaper.
2. Can we use the ODBC to connect to another data souce such as an AS400?
Thanks for any replys
C
 
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According to JohnEck's post from Mar 31, 2004 (see above), you can indeed use VB.Net without VS as the design tool.

As far as data sources, it can (according to the eval. guide I've got) support SQL Server (7 - 2000), Oracle, OLE DB-compliant data sources, and ODBC.

-dave
 
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Hi there all,

Some really good stuff here. One thing. I need to be able to print my report from the web interface, but there is no print button, you first have to export the report to pdf or some other format, view it and then print it. This is not ideal, I have some really useless users and that will be far too much for them to do. IS there a way of putting a print button on the report viewer or otherwise a way I can have a print button on the page before the report is displayed and on that page have a button that can render a report and print it without anything been displayed to the user.

Sorry if I am not that clear, but that is about the best I can do.
 
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PLSH, are you talking about Crystal Enterprise (if so, what version) or SSRS?


~Kurt
 
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I am talking about SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services.
 
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Hey Everybody,
I want to get in on this. My company has a zillion cr9.0 reports that we are delivering with ASP 3.0. We are interested in SSRS. We are wondering if we can use VS.Net to develope reports and use ASP 3.0 to deliver the reports. What's up with this no print button on the viewer? Any ideas, comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Ready to switch.

Thanks In Advance,
Clyde
 
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hi all
im posting this here for lack of a better a place to post it let me know if there is somewhere else to post it
i am developing reports in ssrs and i have a 2 pie charts as subreports the first chart has a legend and both charts have percentage labels for each piece on print preview everything shows up fine but when i try print out the report the words in legend do not show up and none of the percentage labels show up any ideas?
thanks
jeremy
 
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Some advise needed!!!

WE use CR10 and CE10, but desperately need to create a report that will AUTOMATICALLY output in a location as HTML(for example CE schedule to Unmanaged disk would do with PDF) for a dashboard development! It is very apparent that this is not an option via CE. I was wonderinng if using SSRS and VB.net 2003 would provide this (or a similar) solution? And if so (have have done some development in SQL but am by no means a guru), is the development using VB.net 2003 a difficult skill to master?

Many thanks,

EO
Hertfordshire, England
 
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I'm not sure I fully understand the need (you flip between HTML & PDF) or why CE can't do what you are describing, but scheduled output to both formats is supported by several 3rd-party Report Managers (see full list at:
If the problem is dynamic naming of the folder and/or file destination (based on field/formula values in the report), then my Visual CUT software (one of the report managers mentioned above) can do this:
hth,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.
 
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As you know CE can export to PDF, but NOT HTML, which is what I desperately need. This has to happen in a dynamic environemnt (like one can currently do with CE > Schedule > to unmanged disk > in PDF, Word, Excel, etc...but not HTML)
I'll have a look at the above link.

Thanks.

EO
Hertfordshire, England
 
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eo,

Actually CE can export to HTML it's just not an option in ePortfolio. It can be done through the .NET SDK (and probably the COM SDK), however you have to be carefull because as soon as you "automate" the distribution of reports to an "unmanaged" disk location you may invoke the RDL (Report Distribution License). But that's a discussion for another thread.... :-(




Chris
Data Intelligence Group
 
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For example, using the GetHTMLContent Method of the Crystal Viewer. If you have the "Viewer COM SDK Guide" do a search for "GetHTMLContent."

Hope this helps.


Chris
Data Intelligence Group
 
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First, I wanted to ask if anybody knows of any articles comparing Reporting Services to Crystal Reports. After scouring the web, the only thing I came up with was this. Anyway, if anybody knows of any articles comparing the two, I'd really be interested in reading 'em.


It is definately a sql server server only solution.

Just thought I mention that according to a Microsoft dude, the 2005 RS won't require a SQL Server liscense unless you're connecting to a SQL Server to retrieve data.

...There will be 2 report controls in VS2005, one for Winforms and one for Webforms. They will be redistrutable as part of your app at no charge and will not require a SQL Server license other than if you are connecting to a SQL Server to retrieve data.
Note all plans are subject to change before RTM.

The post in its entirety is available in the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Forums-Page 2-Reporting Services will no longer require a...
 
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Thanks, that was a very informative article.
 
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