Ok guys, here's the story!
I'm developing a web site using ASP.NET and C#. The web site, among other things, must provide spreadsheet-like reports to its users. The type of reports provided are way too complex and Crystal Reports falls short in creating them (trust me, I've been trying for over a month with Crystal Reports with no results).
Since Crystal Reports is good for nothing and I feel more at ease when I control every aspect of report creation through code, I'm looking into Excel to create the reports manually. What I will do is calculate the data to be reported, put it in arrays, and use the Excel object model to create an Excel application and enter (and format) the data in a cell by cell basis. (This is what I currently do in aniother Windows application I'm developing at work and it works beautifully). I will then save the Excel workbook as an HTML file and give it to the users of my web site when they request it.
One last point... The report should be downloadable in (preferably) PDF format.
OK, so here are my questions: (1) Am I approching this the right way? (2) Can you think of any other way for me to accomplish this, and (3) If I decide to go with Excel, is there any way to export the Excel worksheet into PDF?
I'm developing a web site using ASP.NET and C#. The web site, among other things, must provide spreadsheet-like reports to its users. The type of reports provided are way too complex and Crystal Reports falls short in creating them (trust me, I've been trying for over a month with Crystal Reports with no results).
Since Crystal Reports is good for nothing and I feel more at ease when I control every aspect of report creation through code, I'm looking into Excel to create the reports manually. What I will do is calculate the data to be reported, put it in arrays, and use the Excel object model to create an Excel application and enter (and format) the data in a cell by cell basis. (This is what I currently do in aniother Windows application I'm developing at work and it works beautifully). I will then save the Excel workbook as an HTML file and give it to the users of my web site when they request it.
One last point... The report should be downloadable in (preferably) PDF format.
OK, so here are my questions: (1) Am I approching this the right way? (2) Can you think of any other way for me to accomplish this, and (3) If I decide to go with Excel, is there any way to export the Excel worksheet into PDF?
