October 27, 2010 at 7:30 am
I have to give a presentation on SSRS which I had prepared but some questions still remain which are:
Why should one choose SSRS over CR? What are its advantages over CR?
Was there any type of reporting services before SSRS in SQL Server?
Please tell me.
October 27, 2010 at 8:49 am
In my view there are quite a few benefits that RS has over CR,
I have listed them below
1) Really easy to create simple reports with less formatting, in CR if you want to create a simple report in table format it is quite difficult to do as you have to format everything and you are unable to get the same level of consistency with the fields. With RS all the fields within a table give a much better result.
2) Data Driven Functions - This allows you to send reports based on the results of a query. For example if you want to send a report to all customers who have made orders and not include those who have not made any orders then you can do this quite easily. I have seen the CR equivalent in XI R2 but it is difficult to set up in comparison to RS.
3) MHTML or Web Archive format - In RS you can send report data within an email in CR this is not possible.
4) Export to Excel - The export to excel format is excellent compared to the CR export. All the column widths and sizes are perfect.
5) Cost - There is a significant cost difference between RS and CR, RS is a lot cheaper.
Obviosuly there are lot more benefits to RS this is just a quick list
This link will provide some more info
http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/SSRSandCR_ExecSummary.asp
//http://reportingservicestnt.blogspot.com/
October 27, 2010 at 9:23 am
One advantage CR has over RS is that you can buy CR as a stand-alone product. RS has to come bundled with SQL server.
October 27, 2010 at 11:55 am
4) Export to Excel - The export to excel format is excellent compared to the CR export. All the column widths and sizes are perfect.
While I use both and generally prefer RS over CR -- in part b/c the exporting to Excel is better in RS than in CR -- "perfect" is simply not the case. For example, if you create a header with several textboxes and they don't extend the entire width of the report, you can get empty columns or merged cells. Merged cells make sorting the report's table in Excel impossible: you'll get a warning to unmerge the cells first.
Bigger problem: subreports in SSRS 2005 don't export at all to Excel. You just get a note that the report was too complex to be exported or something similar. No data whatsoever makes it from RS to Excel. Fortunately, MS fixed this in 2008 (R2?), which was the reason I upgraded to RS 2008. (Not having IIS installed was a big plus too, but the failure to export subreports to Excel was an enormous issue in 2005.)
Again, I would generally agree with Abs-225476: the quality of Excel exports is far superior in RS compared to CR, and the other points, too.
One thing that has surprised me: I thought I'd see a huge use of user-driven subscriptions, but in fact I do not. I think it's a very cool feature, but users seem to want data on-demand, not on-schedule.
HTH,
Rich
October 28, 2010 at 1:54 am
Yes data driven subscriptions are a great plus.
I also forgot to mention report linking, this is a really good feature which allows you to create a link to another report from a field.
What makes it better is the fact that you can pass parameters through the field so you could allow users to jump from one report to another without entering parameters.
October 28, 2010 at 3:22 am
Thanks to all. They will help in my presentation. 🙂
October 28, 2010 at 6:51 am
randheer, I thought I'd add some additional comments as to why I prefer RS over CR, beyond those listed elsewhere in replies to your post:
- Simplicity of design environment. This one may be a function of my CR being an older version (Developer XI) compared to my RS version (2008 R2). But I simply find the VS designer to be a much better development tool than the CR. For example, when you drag elements around in RS, faint line-up lines appear across the screen and visually "snap" on other existing elements. Every product has snap and grid, but my version of CR doesn't have those alignment lines to tell you visually which other element is being snapped to; RS does.
- Integration with SQL. Too obvious maybe? With RS I can run queries to tell me when a report was last run, who has run it, what subscriptions exist, etc.
- Windows Security. This is a big one. If users browse with IE, they don't have to log in. I can control access to all reports and folders using Windows AD security and easily control who can run what. So I create an AD group for our Financial Aid office, add all the Financial Aid users to the group, give permissions to the group to Browse that folder of reports and I'm done. Then I do the same for Administration, add the Administration group to the Financial Aid group and voila: everyone in Administration now has access to all the Financial Aid reports. If someone leaves, I disable/delete their AD account and they are now blocked from all reports automatically.
I am a long ways from being a Microsoft fan-boy, but I have to say, I think there's a lot to like about RS.
Good luck with your presentation,
Rich
October 29, 2010 at 3:48 am
One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned.
As far as I remember the Enterprise edition (report server version) of CR requires an ActiveX object to be installed on the client, if you upgrade the CR Server you need to upgrade this Activex object. This is all fine and dandy in an open environment where the enduser can install it on request but in a locked down environment this can be a right pain as it is not as if an AD deployable msi is provided by BO for this.. one of the reasons the organisation I work for dropped CR and moved to SSRS.
SSRS doesn't need this and integrates much better with Windows clients and seemlessly with SharePoint (if you are using it).
October 29, 2010 at 3:52 am
Ahhh, forgot about sharepoint, if you install RS in integarted mode you cam really customise the front end for the user.
Also I have seen some 'dashboards' in sharepoint which look pretty good amd you can't really tell that this information has come from an RS report.
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