473,698 Members | 2,471 Online
Bytes | Software Development & Data Engineering Community
+ Post

Home Posts Topics Members FAQ

Report recommendations please

I'm writing a VB2005 program that needs to generate some printed
output, including a main table. At present I'm doing this output
simply as a text file, which works well enough to allow printing via
eg NotePad, but there are a couple of important refinements that I'd
like to add: one or more images per page and, ideally, some slightly
better control over the appearance of the output, ie use of colour,
different fonts etc.

Crucially, the structure and content of the output won't be known
until runtime.

My dilemma is that I want only somewhat better control over the output
than at present but I'd prefer not to spend many hours learning how to
do run-time design with one of the major reporting tools like Crystal
(which I know next to nothing about right now). But my impression is
that trying to control reasonably detailed printing using just the
native VB2005 commands is going to be a lengthy and time-consuming
approach also.

So, my question is whether there is any basic reporting control that
anyone can recommend that might be limited in its capabilities, but is
nonetheless suitable for run-time report definition?

(Ideally it would be good to have PDF output but this would be a
nice-to-have.)
Jan 29 '07 #1
10 1160
I use the DevExpress controls which include a report generator which is
extremely simple to use and is extremely powerful. You may or or may not
have a budget for 3rd party tools, but if so, it's worth a look.

Here is a link directly to their reporting solution:
http://www.devexpress.com/Products/N...s/XtraReports/

Note that I am in no way associated with Developer Express. I'm just a
satisfied user.

"John Dann" <ne**@prodata.c o.ukwrote in message
news:cm******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...
I'm writing a VB2005 program that needs to generate some printed
output, including a main table. At present I'm doing this output
simply as a text file, which works well enough to allow printing via
eg NotePad, but there are a couple of important refinements that I'd
like to add: one or more images per page and, ideally, some slightly
better control over the appearance of the output, ie use of colour,
different fonts etc.

Crucially, the structure and content of the output won't be known
until runtime.

My dilemma is that I want only somewhat better control over the output
than at present but I'd prefer not to spend many hours learning how to
do run-time design with one of the major reporting tools like Crystal
(which I know next to nothing about right now). But my impression is
that trying to control reasonably detailed printing using just the
native VB2005 commands is going to be a lengthy and time-consuming
approach also.

So, my question is whether there is any basic reporting control that
anyone can recommend that might be limited in its capabilities, but is
nonetheless suitable for run-time report definition?

(Ideally it would be good to have PDF output but this would be a
nice-to-have.)

Jan 29 '07 #2
John Dann wrote:
I'm writing a VB2005 program that needs to generate some printed
output, including a main table. At present I'm doing this output
simply as a text file, which works well enough to allow printing via
eg NotePad, but there are a couple of important refinements that I'd
like to add: one or more images per page and, ideally, some slightly
better control over the appearance of the output, ie use of colour,
different fonts etc.
How about constructing it with HTML, for the zero-budget option?

Andrew
Jan 29 '07 #3
On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:00:03 -0800, "Matt F"
<mf************ ****@nospam.nos pamwrote:
>I use the DevExpress controls which include a report generator which is
extremely simple to use and is extremely powerful...
Thanks for that - I'll take a closer look,

Just to clarify - yes a relatively inexpensive (up to $200-300 max per
seat) third party .Net control would certainly be considered.

And let me underline that for this application I'm really not
interested in design-time interfaces for the reporting tool, ie
wizards, report designers available to users etc. What's much more
important to me here is ease-of-use in defining reports at run-time
(ease-of-use also very much implying good, accessible documentation.)
Jan 29 '07 #4
IMHO, you should not be afraid of using crystal. It is very easy to handle
and there is no reason to buy a licence for a different Report generator if
you have one.
"John Dann" <ne**@prodata.c o.ukschrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:cm******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...
I'm writing a VB2005 program that needs to generate some printed
output, including a main table. At present I'm doing this output
simply as a text file, which works well enough to allow printing via
eg NotePad, but there are a couple of important refinements that I'd
like to add: one or more images per page and, ideally, some slightly
better control over the appearance of the output, ie use of colour,
different fonts etc.

Crucially, the structure and content of the output won't be known
until runtime.

My dilemma is that I want only somewhat better control over the output
than at present but I'd prefer not to spend many hours learning how to
do run-time design with one of the major reporting tools like Crystal
(which I know next to nothing about right now). But my impression is
that trying to control reasonably detailed printing using just the
native VB2005 commands is going to be a lengthy and time-consuming
approach also.

So, my question is whether there is any basic reporting control that
anyone can recommend that might be limited in its capabilities, but is
nonetheless suitable for run-time report definition?

(Ideally it would be good to have PDF output but this would be a
nice-to-have.)

Jan 29 '07 #5

John Dann wrote:
I'm writing a VB2005 program that needs to generate some printed
output, including a main table. At present I'm doing this output
simply as a text file, which works well enough to allow printing via
eg NotePad, but there are a couple of important refinements that I'd
like to add: one or more images per page and, ideally, some slightly
better control over the appearance of the output, ie use of colour,
different fonts etc.

Crucially, the structure and content of the output won't be known
until runtime.

My dilemma is that I want only somewhat better control over the output
than at present but I'd prefer not to spend many hours learning how to
do run-time design with one of the major reporting tools like Crystal
(which I know next to nothing about right now). But my impression is
that trying to control reasonably detailed printing using just the
native VB2005 commands is going to be a lengthy and time-consuming
approach also.

So, my question is whether there is any basic reporting control that
anyone can recommend that might be limited in its capabilities, but is
nonetheless suitable for run-time report definition?

(Ideally it would be good to have PDF output but this would be a
nice-to-have.)

There was a post on this group recently for PDF: http://
groups.google.c om/group/microsoft.publi c.dotnet.langua ges.vb/
browse_frm/thread/f4eec3fc8011402 e/c75e4e973106704 9#c75e4e9731067 049

The 4th post (Tom Leylan) has some links you might find useful.

Jan 29 '07 #6
"msdnuniv" <nb@nowhere123. comwrote in
news:Oo******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP04.phx.gbl:
IMHO, you should not be afraid of using crystal. It is very easy to
handle and there is no reason to buy a licence for a different Report
generator if you have one.
Crystal has an upgrade option for VS.NET users - I believe you can get the
full Crystal XI developer package for ~350.00.

The full version of crystal is a MAJOR improvement over the bundled
version.

The biggest advantage that I've seen with Crystal is that it can report off
multiple database and it has the ability to write generic, non-database
specific reports (i.e. you can fill the report using a dataset)
Jan 29 '07 #7
lose the training wheels and learn Crystal Reports or Reporting
Services.

a developer who works with databases that can't use one of those two
programs is close to worthless.

sorry; but I speak the truth.

I've been doing reporting for 10 years; I really like Reporting
Services... but I wish that they would make 'forms services' or
something similiar for data entry.

-Aaron


On Jan 29, 7:53 am, John Dann <n...@prodata.c o.ukwrote:
I'm writing a VB2005 program that needs to generate some printed
output, including a main table. At present I'm doing this output
simply as a text file, which works well enough to allow printing via
eg NotePad, but there are a couple of important refinements that I'd
like to add: one or more images per page and, ideally, some slightly
better control over the appearance of the output, ie use of colour,
different fonts etc.

Crucially, the structure and content of the output won't be known
until runtime.

My dilemma is that I want only somewhat better control over the output
than at present but I'd prefer not to spend many hours learning how to
do run-time design with one of the major reporting tools like Crystal
(which I know next to nothing about right now). But my impression is
that trying to control reasonably detailed printing using just the
native VB2005 commands is going to be a lengthy and time-consuming
approach also.

So, my question is whether there is any basic reporting control that
anyone can recommend that might be limited in its capabilities, but is
nonetheless suitable for run-time report definition?

(Ideally it would be good to have PDF output but this would be a
nice-to-have.)
Jan 30 '07 #8
John Dann wrote:
So, my question is whether there is any basic reporting control that
anyone can recommend that might be limited in its capabilities, but is
nonetheless suitable for run-time report definition?
My suggestions would be:

- consider HTML (as already suggested in another response). It's easy to
construct, you probably know how to use it already, and it gives you fairly
good control over the presentation. It's not going to give you PDF output
without third-party (and probably awkward-to-use) components however.

- I'd also take a look at the ReportViewer. This allows you to create report
layouts by selecting Add New Item in a VS2005 project and then selecting to
add a Report. The layout can then be fed into the ReportViewer which is able
not only to display the report but also save it to disk in various formats
(including Excel and PDF). All the bits are already included in VS2005.

HTH,

--

(O)enone
Jan 30 '07 #9
Many thanks for all the responses.

I've tracked down something called Siberix Report Writer
(www.siberix.com), which generates PDF (and XPS) documents. This looks
promising for my particular application and is available at a good
discount for small businesses. I'll give it a good workout on a trial
basis but interested to hear whether anyone else here has tried it -
good or bad comments??

JGD
Jan 31 '07 #10

This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion.

Similar topics

1
2438
by: Mir Nazim | last post by:
Hi, I m planning to use ZODB for an applicaton. Is any one aware of report generators like Data Vision, Crystal Reports, fo python object databases. Some of you may have faced/solved similar problem some where. Help appreciated. Thanks
0
1108
by: Irving Kimura | last post by:
At work I've been assigned the task of writing a brief (1-2 pages) report on the state-of-the-art of XML databases. The goal of this report is to inform a working group on possible choices for a systems specifications proposal (i.e. it's a case of "the blind leading the blind" :) ). I sure could use some words o' wisdom from you folks. I understand that there are two broad approaches to making databases for XML data. One is to build...
6
3155
by: Peter E. Granger | last post by:
First, I would like to apologize in advance if this is not the appropriate place to post this message; of the .NET-related newsgroups I found, this seemed to be the most general. If the information I'm requesting is covered in a FAQ somewhere, please point me to it, and I'll be happy to read it. A group of friends and I, mostly professional developers, have decided that it is time for us to learn .NET. We are (variously) versed in C, C++,...
3
1489
by: Jaycee66 | last post by:
I am new to MS Access 2000 and I am trying to create a report that would produce the last seven/any number days of data input through a form? In addition, recommendations of any good Access books that would explain how to create various forms and reports. thanks jaycee66
5
2793
by: MGFoster | last post by:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I've converted an ACC97 .mdb file to an ACC2K2 .adp. A report that worked in ACC97 doesn't work in ACC2K2. Report setup: ACC97 ACC2K2 (SP-2) -------------- ---------------------------
0
2770
by: Chris Green | last post by:
I'm after a good report generator for a postgresql database. I am using Rekall at the moment which is quite good but I'm not quite able to do some of the things I want. Has anyone got any recommendations for forms/reports generators for postgresql? I can probably get the forms I want from Rekall so the bigger requirement is a report generator. The particular thing I can't manage in Rekall at the moment is a 'running total' output...
7
1577
by: Hans Merkl | last post by:
Hi, Can anybody recommend a combo box control (textfield + dropdown list) for ASP.NET? I have looked at some products and it seems they all have some problems. I haven't yet found a combo box control that works on IE, Firefox and Opera. I am open to commercial and open source projects.
4
4059
by: Contralto | last post by:
Hi, I can convert my report to Adobe PDF, but the photos are very poor. They were taken as RAW images and I've tried saving them at different resolutions as JPEGs, but it doesn't seem to make much difference in the PDF output. I have about 500 images in the 200ish page report (unless I split it into several smaller ones). Each photo should be about 6-8cm on the longest side. Any recommendations on what res to use would be most...
1
1397
by: Cramer | last post by:
I would appreciate your recommendations for report writers for .NET Windows Forms applications. I could google this topic to get a list - but that's not what I'm after. I would like recommendations based on your personal experience with the report writer(s). I am aware of Crystal (which I'm inclined to avoid like the plague) I am aware of ActiveReports from DataDynamics (which is generally great)
0
8683
marktang
by: marktang | last post by:
ONU (Optical Network Unit) is one of the key components for providing high-speed Internet services. Its primary function is to act as an endpoint device located at the user's premises. However, people are often confused as to whether an ONU can Work As a Router. In this blog post, we’ll explore What is ONU, What Is Router, ONU & Router’s main usage, and What is the difference between ONU and Router. Let’s take a closer look ! Part I. Meaning of...
0
9170
Oralloy
by: Oralloy | last post by:
Hello folks, I am unable to find appropriate documentation on the type promotion of bit-fields when using the generalised comparison operator "<=>". The problem is that using the GNU compilers, it seems that the internal comparison operator "<=>" tries to promote arguments from unsigned to signed. This is as boiled down as I can make it. Here is my compilation command: g++-12 -std=c++20 -Wnarrowing bit_field.cpp Here is the code in...
0
8871
tracyyun
by: tracyyun | last post by:
Dear forum friends, With the development of smart home technology, a variety of wireless communication protocols have appeared on the market, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Each protocol has its own unique characteristics and advantages, but as a user who is planning to build a smart home system, I am a bit confused by the choice of these technologies. I'm particularly interested in Zigbee because I've heard it does some...
0
7739
agi2029
by: agi2029 | last post by:
Let's talk about the concept of autonomous AI software engineers and no-code agents. These AIs are designed to manage the entire lifecycle of a software development project—planning, coding, testing, and deployment—without human intervention. Imagine an AI that can take a project description, break it down, write the code, debug it, and then launch it, all on its own.... Now, this would greatly impact the work of software developers. The idea...
1
6528
isladogs
by: isladogs | last post by:
The next Access Europe User Group meeting will be on Wednesday 1 May 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC+1) and finishing by 19:30 (7.30PM). In this session, we are pleased to welcome a new presenter, Adolph Dupré who will be discussing some powerful techniques for using class modules. He will explain when you may want to use classes instead of User Defined Types (UDT). For example, to manage the data in unbound forms. Adolph will...
0
5862
by: conductexam | last post by:
I have .net C# application in which I am extracting data from word file and save it in database particularly. To store word all data as it is I am converting the whole word file firstly in HTML and then checking html paragraph one by one. At the time of converting from word file to html my equations which are in the word document file was convert into image. Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveDocument.Select();...
0
4371
by: TSSRALBI | last post by:
Hello I'm a network technician in training and I need your help. I am currently learning how to create and manage the different types of VPNs and I have a question about LAN-to-LAN VPNs. The last exercise I practiced was to create a LAN-to-LAN VPN between two Pfsense firewalls, by using IPSEC protocols. I succeeded, with both firewalls in the same network. But I'm wondering if it's possible to do the same thing, with 2 Pfsense firewalls...
0
4622
by: adsilva | last post by:
A Windows Forms form does not have the event Unload, like VB6. What one acts like?
3
2007
bsmnconsultancy
by: bsmnconsultancy | last post by:
In today's digital era, a well-designed website is crucial for businesses looking to succeed. Whether you're a small business owner or a large corporation in Toronto, having a strong online presence can significantly impact your brand's success. BSMN Consultancy, a leader in Website Development in Toronto offers valuable insights into creating effective websites that not only look great but also perform exceptionally well. In this comprehensive...

By using Bytes.com and it's services, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

To disable or enable advertisements and analytics tracking please visit the manage ads & tracking page.