How do you facilitate report design

[mierlp]

Hi,

 

I was wondering how you give the users the possibility to create his own report.

I'm not looking for a technical solution,- there are good FastReport examples

(by Ronak) which works great, but i'm looking more how you deal with it.

 

I'm developing several commercial tools where the user may create report for

printing labels, badges etx (i use FastReport). The finishing touch is the

reporting.

 

I was also thinking about developing a Windows .exe including the FastReport Designer

and a connection to the database/website so the user uses this .exe file for creating reports.

 

So how are you facilitate reporting within you're commercial applicatoins:

- Are you developing the reports for the user...and if so...has the customer to pay for a report?

- Do you store reports into a database or as a file?

- Are you using Microsoft Word/Excel for reporting?

- Do you have other suggestions?

 

Lot's of questions and i hope other developers have ideas which they would like to share.

 

Regards Peter

[mierlp]

Hi

 

Nobody a solution for it ?

 

Oke...what if i create a .exe containing the FastReport Designer as a

standalone desinger and is it possible to execute a .exe file from

within UniGui (ISAPI or Stand-alone server)

 

Regards Peter

[andersa@ellenshoej.dk]

If you want the user to be able to customize a report, or build a new report from scratch via a web page, you must build a custom report designer using html/css or UniGui components. It would be hard to do.

[mierlp]

Hi,

 

That's what i need. That's why i'm thinking of a combination from a uniGui web application

and a Windows .exe file which has to be executed from whitin the Unigui application.

 

Creating the FastReport Desginer as a standalone .exe file isn't the problem (is finished)

Executing a .exe file from within uniGui works BUT i could only test it on my local machine

and where the uniGui apps is started as a .exe file. Couldn't try it as isap.dll

 

FastReport has also a rptdll.dll which can be used, but i don't know if it's the designer,

can't find i on my machine

 

If other have solution for this...let's share because more of us are looking for a

report designer solution

 

Regards Peter

[MariusTurnkey]

Hi,

 

That's what i need. That's why i'm thinking of a combination from a uniGui web application

and a Windows .exe file which has to be executed from whitin the Unigui application.

 

Creating the FastReport Desginer as a standalone .exe file isn't the problem (is finished)

Executing a .exe file from within uniGui works BUT i could only test it on my local machine

and where the uniGui apps is started as a .exe file. Couldn't try it as isap.dll

 

FastReport has also a rptdll.dll which can be used, but i don't know if it's the designer,

can't find i on my machine

 

If other have solution for this...let's share because more of us are looking for a

report designer solution

 

Regards Peter

 

Hi,

 

You can possibly investigate the use of FastReport Server, it will cost you some extra money, but maybe it will provide you with a solution.

 

Fast Report Server

 

Hope it helps.

 

Regards

Marius

[mierlp]

Hi Marius,

 

I know about Fast Report Server and if there's no other solution

then i will buy it....but i think there must be a other solution

as i described, but i can't test if it's possible to 'start' a .exe

file from within a isapi.dll version of the application

 

In the FastReport demo directory there's a demo directory called DLL,

(but this demo is not working) and i think they use the rptdll.dll

to create or show a report.

 

Regards Peter

 

Hi,

 

You can possibly investigate the use of FastReport Server, it will cost you some extra money, but maybe it will provide you with a solution.

 

Fast Report Server

 

Hope it helps.

 

Regards

Marius

[Oliver Morsch]

but i think there must be a other solution

as i described, but i can't test if it's possible to 'start' a .exe

file from within a isapi.dll version of the application

 

You can start a .exe in ISAPI-Module using ShellExecute or CreateProcess, but that is not that what you want, because the program will run on Server (on client you will see nothing). So it makes only sense to use this for starting "command line programs" (without windows/forms). I use CreateProcess to start such processes on server.

 

Or you can send the .exe to the client and the user must intsall/execute it on the client. But then you have the problem to access the databasse server...

 

=> You need a report builder created with UniGui or other web framework.

[mierlp]

You can start a .exe in ISAPI-Module using ShellExecute or CreateProcess, but that is not that what you want, because the program will run on Server (on client you will see nothing). So it makes only sense to use this for starting "command line programs" (without windows/forms). I use CreateProcess to start such processes on server.

 

Or you can send the .exe to the client and the user must intsall/execute it on the client. But then you have the problem to access the databasse server...

 

=> You need a report builder created with UniGui or other web framework.

 

Well...the problem is that's not so simple to create a report builder with UniGui because of the

visual aspect. Viewing is not a problem but give the use a report desinger is a other issue.

 

Well ...there are two option i think and that's Fast Report Server or the option building a .exe file

and give it to the user. My Win32 apps is also based on a client which has to be installed and the

database are on the web server. That's works good and it's a serieus option. It's also possible to

create a virtuel file from it using VMware Thinstall...in that case no installation has to be done.

 

Regards PEter

[Oliver Morsch]

Well...the problem is that's not so simple to create a report builder with UniGui because of the

visual aspect. Viewing is not a problem but give the use a report desinger is a other issue.

 

I have found a report designer running in web browser:

 

using flash

 

or

 

using ajax (otimized for touch/tablets)

 

Well ...there are two option i think and that's Fast Report Server or the option building a .exe file

and give it to the user. My Win32 apps is also based on a client which has to be installed and the

database are on the web server.

 

Intranet or internet? In intranet it is OK but i think it is not a good idea to make a database directly accessible over the internet...

 

Regards

Oliver