3rd Party Report Tools
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Are there any 3rd party "Report" tools available to generate simple, user-definable reports?
Thanks in advance,
Michael
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Bit of a crude method perhaps, but I've known a lot of people to use MS Access to generate reports based on their SQL databases. Dead easy to use, customise, and link to SQL Server.
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Hi Phil, you forgot to mention that Access tends to kill SQL as the majority of users wont know how to write a query properly (perhaps that's doing a disservice to most users
).Have you considered looking at Reporting services for SQL, or perhaps something like crystal reports or cognos impromptu (I don't like this last one but it's ok for people that know what they're doing).
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I would also advise caution with MS Access, even with 'expert' users, in fact, especially with expert users as they're the ones who write the complicated queries.
Take a look at MS Reporting Services, bundled up with SQL 2005 but availble on SQL 2000 as well. We also use Crystal Reports - good but licences are expensive and it can be quite difficult to use. It also tends to leave connections open on the Server but that's probably our slopy coding.
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or even sloppy coding (sloppy message posting as well).
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Certainly caution in letting users write ad-hoc queries is warranted, but is there some inefficiency built into Access that makes it a bad idea? Wouldn't the same users be able to generate the same bad queries in other tools?
You might consider creating views that cover most of the forseen ad-hoc query requirements and limit access to those views. This makes it a lot easier to address security concerns, and harder to write bad queries. You could also save yourself some grief if you log-ship your production db to a read-only database on another server, and let them write all the reports they want from there.
I don't think Access is inherently evil (as a client reporting tool), but it may be so easy to use it lowers the bar too much. Some people who have no business generating queries may be scared off by the learning curve of Reporting Services, Crystal Reports or other tools, but still think they are gurus in Access.
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Scott
Depending on how the Access database connects to the SQL Server data, you could find that all the data gets pulled down to the client machine for sorting and filtering instead of being processed on the server.
Also, there is Access's tendencey towards becoming corrupt at the most inopportune time
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Colt 45 - the original point and click interface
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I've got users who insist on linking Access to exported text files (because that's how they did it 10 years ago), instead of linking to exactly the same data in SQL Server tables. I'd be THRILLED if my only problem was they were pulling the entire table down for queries.
There are a number of third party tools available, the question is how much do you want to spend and how knowledgable/trainable are your users?
If there is a serious demand for a real reporting tool then you must look at the cost of purchasing and training. We use MicroStrategy and like it, but I believe the license/maintenance fees are in the $10,000/year range. The developers had to learn how to define the facts and dimensions, like setting up a cube in Analysis Services, but then the users can fiddle with reports without a lot of training. For that kind of investment you have a lot of choices. There is a strong feeling that the reporting tools in SQL Server 2005 will let us drop it, so you might want to save your money.
If there is not that much of a business case for buying something big right now, Access might be a good starting point. It gets points for ease-of-use and cost (many users already have it), but it is by no means ideal.
I would be tempted to spend money on an extra reporting server that I could replicate or log-ship the data to, rather than on a pricey reporting tool. I wouldn't worry about the time they waste waiting for results (I'm the DBA, not the network guy and not their manager). If they prove there's some business value in giving them a reporting tool, it should be easier to make a case for something better. The money spent on the reporting server will still be money well spent.
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I need something to generate very basic reports, user name, email address, number of classified ads posted, etc. I also need something that will not crash the DB (read only). Any web-based apps out there? The simpler the better. Will only required reports 8-10 times a year. Here's my website: http://www.mclainoutdooradventures.com/classifieds. It's an ASP Classified Ad software suite running on a SQL Server. I just need a little more info from the DB than the Admin part of the ASP suite provides.
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Just though of something else. I do not have the database schema and have recreated parts of the DB structure by looking at the ASP code. A tool that would display DB info/tables/relationships would also be great
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A tool that would display DB info/tables/relationships
Umm, how about Enterprise Manager diagrams?I need something to generate very basic reports
You need a reporting tool to present an environment to users where they can create their own reports; select columns, filter rows, change grouping and ordering, etc. If you want predefined reports to show up in a web page you just need to know how to connect to the database and run queries. Web security and SQL injection attacts are beyond the scope of this response, but a starting point is:1. Use a login from the ASP page that only has read permissions, access only to the target database, etc.Even better is a login that only has rights to execute certain stored procedures that return report results.2. Use FOR XML to return results in XML, and XSLT to convert those to HTML table definitions. -
I did say it was a crude method !!
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