January 6, 2009 at 1:03 pm
We need to zero in on a single reporting tool. We're a small shop and need to minimize the list of tools, languages, etc. that we support. Before we commit to SSRS, I'd like to know what reporting tools other folks are using, preferably tools with a strong WYSIWYG component, 'cause I'm bad at graphic design anyway and need all the help I can get.
Appreciate all comments.
January 7, 2009 at 5:54 am
The most common reporting tool I see in many companies is Crystal report. I also used Active Report.Net and Actuate report.
January 7, 2009 at 8:38 am
If you're a small shop, I'd stick with SSRS. It comes in the box and it's fairly open. The addition of some of the components in 2008 means that it's rich as well.
Actuate works great, $$$, Active Reports I liked, but it required programming. That might be better now. Crystal works well, but the consensus I've seen over the last few years is that it's no better or worse than SSRS. So if you have licenses and expertise, stick with it. If not, go with SSRS. It comes with SQL Server.
January 7, 2009 at 11:11 am
I'd agree with Steve, especially now that the ReportViewer control is available and you can write reports within your applications. ActiveReports is pretty good.
Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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May 11, 2011 at 8:00 am
Just to throw another one out there... If you are doing Eclipse/Java development BIRT is pretty nice...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIRT_Project
We started a rewrite of a product a couple years back in Java and were going to use BIRT for reporting. But the project got shelved so we are still using SQL Server/RS/Visual Studio.
May 29, 2011 at 9:59 am
We recently upgraded all of our reports to SSRS 2008 R2 and it works quite a bit better than 2005. 2005 left me very frustrated.
Data driven subscriptions have been great. I was able to use that to replace a custom program that failed all the time and had a lot of hard coded values that made administering it a pain in the ***.
I still can't understand why they did not create the ability for us to develop a stylesheet for the reports.
Also, the RDL schema only accounts for a report. There is no server document that accounts for folder structure. So if you're like us and you have 125+ reports, inevitably you have more than just a simple folder hierarchy but this cannot be accounted for in the Visual Studio development environment. With one level of folders, we separated by project with the visual studio solution. However, with two levels and beyond, it's not easy to keep track of it all. It seems like an odd omission.
The out of the box report manager web application is not customizable at all and just won't cut it for firms of moderate size and complexity. I tried to sell it but management and some users just don't like some of the UI decisions. So we built a simple ASP.NET report manager that did what they wanted. The report viewer in 2005 was a joke. With 2008 R2 it mostly works as advertised. But be prepared to teach your users about the report viewer back button. They will want to use the browser back button and for drill thru's that's not gonna work.
As is always the case, nothing is perfect.
June 24, 2011 at 3:58 am
June 24, 2011 at 4:16 am
Hi Bevitt,
I would suggest you to go for SSRS because:
1. Improvements in SSRS 2008 and MS looking very aggressive into this area.
2. Work power/ resource requirement.
3. Easy to develop, deploy and maintain.
4. Effective features suitable for common business requirements.
5. Free as a part of SQL Express, so even small business can afford.
Regards,
Sudhir
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