Report Builder for C# App

Nuttzz

I'm building a c# app and would like the user to edit or create new reports within the application without the developers/support team having to do so

Any suggestions on what might do that for me, was thinking crystal

Graham

Nuttzz wrote: »

I'm building a c# app and would like the user to edit or create new reports within the application without the developers/support team having to do so

Any suggestions on what might do that for me, was thinking crystal

It really would depend on the type of reports and the experience level of the users. It's quite possible (likely) you would need the developers/support team to write the reports in Crystal for the users.

Nuttzz

Thanks Graham,

Other than crystal is there any other suggestions you might have?

Graham

Nuttzz wrote: »

Thanks Graham,

Other than crystal is there any other suggestions you might have?

Sorry Nuttzz, nothing that's going to achieve your objective. I can almost guarantee whatever reports you deliver won't be enough or of the type your users require. I'd also put money on your dev/support guys being called on whatever the solution.

At the end of it all, you'll probably find your users will cut & paste your lovingly crafted reports into Excel where they can butcher the data directly.

Aswerty

Graham wrote: »

Sorry Nuttzz, nothing that's going to achieve your objective. I can almost guarantee whatever reports you deliver won't be enough or of the type your users require. I'd also put money on your dev/support guys being called on whatever the solution.

At the end of it all, you'll probably find your users will cut & paste your lovingly crafted reports into Excel where they can butcher the data directly.

Graham hits the nail on the head here. A data dump my be a better option than trying to go down the route of allowing end-users create their own reports. On numerous occasions I've taken the approach of just exporting a database to an .xslx file. The users typically had to select a few parameters so they didn't end up getting the whole database.

But if you're adamant you need end-users to design their own reports you probably won't do much better than Crystal.

Jim2007

Have a look at the reporting solution offered by DevExpress or the reporting engine in SQL server perhaps...

Another possibility would be to look at XML/XSL-FO, but you'd need to do some coding yourself to set something like that up. I have a large application generating Factsheets an and similar client reports for about 5000 customers using this approach. Power users can change the layout or look and feel of a report by changing the xml template or style sheet being used to generate the report.