Saturday, February 25, 2012

Reporting Solutions for .NET w/ SQL Server

I've posted this to the .NET groups... but I thought maybe some people in
the SQL Server forums could also give me some feedback.
Thanks : )
Hi all,
We're looking at upgrading our VS.NET Crystal Reporting solution with
something more powerful and user friendly. The reporting solution will be
used for web-based reporting (ASP.NET).
We build distributable apps, so we're looking for a reporting solution
which can be embedded within the product.
The two most important criteria is ease of use and the ability to
dynamically load reports on the fly (i.e. non-compiled reports). We need
to be able to build reports and drop them into a directory and have them
load up.
We were using the "PUSH" data method in Crystal to feed our reports. This
was done because we could not figure out a way to dynamically change the
connection string in Crystal. When we were using Crystal, the PUSH
method required us to create a dataset to define the columns of the
query. Do any reporting solutions allow you to generate the column
definitions directly from a SP - bypassing the need to generate the XML
dataset? Also, do reporting solutions allow for dynamic changes to the
connection string?
In anycase, we've slimmed the choices down to:
ActiveReports
XtraReports
Maybe... Crystal XI.
Any other products that I should look at? Reporting Services has sort of
been ruled out due to the lack of ASP.NET (Form Auth) integration and the
large installation size (not embeddable).
Thanks for any help!You can use the Reportviewer control.
you can render reporting services report or integrated reports.
so you can generate a report by code and render it on the web.
its RDLC report, like RDL (reporting services reports) you have the same
design features and XML schema, but RDLC use dataset has data sources
instead of SQL statements.
so you can fill this dataset by code, open the report by code and finally
render the result!
Reporting Services support form based authentication, but only in the
enterprise edition.
You can also render standard reporting services reports using the
reportviewer and insure the security without problem but filling some hidden
parameters by code.
for example, you create a report where you add a parameter like
"MyuserName", in your code you fill this parameter using the current
username (coming from the form based authentication)
if this paremeter is not filled, just render nothing in the report.
The credential used to access reporting services is the IIS application pool
account or the identity username setup in the web.config file.
the reportviewer webcontrol can be deployed in your solution at no cost.
"Spam Catcher" <spamhoneypot@.rogers.com> wrote in message
news:Xns97BFC0EBBD64Dusenethoneypotroger
s@.127.0.0.1...
> I've posted this to the .NET groups... but I thought maybe some people in
> the SQL Server forums could also give me some feedback.
> Thanks : )
>
> Hi all,
> We're looking at upgrading our VS.NET Crystal Reporting solution with
> something more powerful and user friendly. The reporting solution will be
> used for web-based reporting (ASP.NET).
> We build distributable apps, so we're looking for a reporting solution
> which can be embedded within the product.
> The two most important criteria is ease of use and the ability to
> dynamically load reports on the fly (i.e. non-compiled reports). We need
> to be able to build reports and drop them into a directory and have them
> load up.
> We were using the "PUSH" data method in Crystal to feed our reports. This
> was done because we could not figure out a way to dynamically change the
> connection string in Crystal. When we were using Crystal, the PUSH
> method required us to create a dataset to define the columns of the
> query. Do any reporting solutions allow you to generate the column
> definitions directly from a SP - bypassing the need to generate the XML
> dataset? Also, do reporting solutions allow for dynamic changes to the
> connection string?
> In anycase, we've slimmed the choices down to:
> ActiveReports
> XtraReports
> Maybe... Crystal XI.
> Any other products that I should look at? Reporting Services has sort of
> been ruled out due to the lack of ASP.NET (Form Auth) integration and the
> large installation size (not embeddable).
> Thanks for any help!|||"Jeje" <willgart@.hotmail.com> wrote in
news:OSNFj6IdGHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:

> You can use the Reportviewer control.
Forgot to mention I'm using .NET 1.1.

> Reporting Services support form based authentication, but only in the
> enterprise edition.
Also, Reporting Services is not embeddable, which makes deployment a
challenge to customer sites.
But I'll keep Reporting Services in mind - thanks : )

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