Alternatives to Crystal Reports

[Guest]

Hi,

After battling with Crystal Reports for a while I have started to look for
alternatives. It seems like there has got to be something out there that does
a better job than Crystal Reports because I have run across a lot of issues
with it in the short time I have been working with it.

I have an ASP .NET database site that will be going live for a small
business in the near future, so price is definately a factor. I am filling a
dataset with the necessary information and implementing all of the criteria
and sorting in code before I fill the dataset, so all I need the reporting to
do is to display it to the user and allow the user to save the report.

Could you please recommend some alternatives to Crystal Reports for me?

Thanks!

Jack

 

[Felipe]

Excellent product:
ActiveReports from www.DataDynamics.com

 

[Chris Botha]

Also have a look at Microsoft Reporting Services.
Currently you must have SQL Server installed to get Reporting Services for
free.
It is built into Visual Studio 2005 so you don't need SQL Server installed.
With the Beta you can view HTML and export to Excel, with the release (Nov.
7th) you will be able to export to PDF as well.
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/default.mspx

 

[Lucas Tam]

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Hi,

After battling with Crystal Reports for a while I have started to look
for alternatives. It seems like there has got to be something out
there that does a better job than Crystal Reports because I have run
across a lot of issues with it in the short time I have been working
with it.

Crystal works well for the price... And a good thing about it is that it's
cross-database compatible.

Microsoft also has SQL Server Reporting Services - it's a free download if
you have SQL server.

 

[Chris Botha]

Hi Lucas,

it's cross-database compatible

So is Reporting Services, the data can come from any half-decent database
that can be queried from the server.

it's a free download if you have SQL server.

It is a drawback at the moment, it is built into VS2005 for Windows and Web
apps - SQL Server is not a requirement.

Newmarket Volvo Sucks

My home-town too, what a bad bunch, can you believe it.

Chris.

 

[Jon Paal]

maybe this ...

http://www.freereporting.com/

 

[Kevin Spencer]

How about XML? You can create an XML document with all of the data you need
in a report, and use XSLT to format it in any way you like.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Big things are made up of
lots of little things.

 

[Lucas Tam]

So is Reporting Services, the data can come from any half-decent
database that can be queried from the server.

I haven't used Reporting Services much yet - but if you report from
Oracle, I assume you'll have to create a server link to pull data from
Oracle?

Crystal can do it that method or it can do it using it's built in ADO
drivers.

In anycase, Reporting Services is much better for large scale reporting,
but for small reports, Crystal is OK.

My home-town too, what a bad bunch, can you believe it.

Volvo has good products but bad service. We also had a mediocre
experience at Volvo Villa (North York) in May.

We called Volvo Canada about our issues with Newmarket Volvo, and they
told us "It's not our problem". No wonder why the dealership are so bad!

The odd thing is, AFTER you purchase a car, Volvo Canada calls you for a
satisfaction survey - I thought they didn't care ; )