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Is there a decent .Net report writer out there?

We have painfully been going through the process of looking for a .Net report writer.  The original application was written in FoxPro.  My client has shone me how easy it is to create reports with FoxPro's report writer.  Sure enough, it's easy.

Ok, should be as easy with a .net report writer, right?  Well, I started with Crystal Reports XI.  

System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for "CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ReportDocument" threw an exception. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040154): COM object with CLSID {F0A36D7F-4068-44B5-809D-9E91AE74FBDB} is either not valid or not registered.

at CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ReportDocument..cctor()

Seems they are using a COM dll that gests registered during the install.  Not an option for us as we no touch deploy\click once our application from a web server over http. 

Active Reports and XtraReports do not provide a way in the IDE to create calculated columns. Both are also weak at bringing back a schema from a select sproc that has input params.  We have over 600 reports to build and 2 .Net developers. A non .net\support person needs to be able to build these reports, as easy as it is to build one in FoxPro or Access.  Drag, drop, set a property or two then Run.  Both of these products require a knowledge of a .net language and coding.

So, what does one do? 

 

 

 

Posted: Mar 29 2005, 01:38 PM by gregarobinson | with 25 comment(s)

Comments

YouDontwantToKnow said:

Outsource!! :)
# March 29, 2005 1:55 PM

Beevis said:

Wait for Report Builder to be released with SQL Server 2005. It too uses no touch deploy\click once.
# March 29, 2005 2:02 PM

Corrie Meyer said:

Hi,

We have maybe something for you. Please have a look at www.uniswift.com.

Corrie
# March 29, 2005 2:05 PM

Greg Robinson said:

"Wait for Report Builder to be released with SQL Server 2005"

We have to support SQL Server 7.0
# March 29, 2005 2:07 PM

Greg Robinson said:

"We have maybe something for you. Please have a look at www.uniswift.com"

I took a look at your product. Right away I see many lines of code to do a calculated field. Though I can do this, a non .Net developer cannot, which is one of our issues, making this easy for a non .Net developer.

Thanks for the feedback though.
# March 29, 2005 2:15 PM

Thomas Wagner said:

I've had good success with ActiveReports. It allows you to reuse data access code. So instead of jumping through hoops to get data again for a report, although you can do that if need be, you can also just hand your data object (table, ds, BO .. whatever) to the report and let it bind. It can produce a bunch of different outputs like PDF, RTF, Excel and HTML. I found their support was very responsive as well.
# March 29, 2005 2:35 PM

Micah Swigert said:

I second ActiveReports. I've used its ability to host a designer to let users create their own reports - it would be easy to support a user creating a calculated column on a DataTable, then binding a DataTable to a report.
# March 29, 2005 2:50 PM

Igloo Coder said:

I've had extensive experience with both Crystal and Active Reports and have not found that neither will easily do what you are looking for. Crystal has always had problems with deployment of run-times and, to the best of my knowledge, there are no provisions for deploy/click once.

Like you Greg, I initially worked with Active Reports and was unable to get Active Reports to do calculated columns. After some significant trial and error, I have managed to get calculated fields to work through the use of the Scripting (C#) portion of the report. It's not pretty, has no debugging until run-time and certainly is not for non .NET developers, but it will provide you with the ability to do any calculation you can write in code.

Am I a proponent of Active Reports? No. I've had far to many bad experiences with it. I have written a comparison of the two <a href="http://igloocoder.blogspot.com/2005/03/crystal-reports-vs-active-reports.html>here</a> that gets into more detail about my personal issues with both.

# March 29, 2005 3:22 PM

Steve Campbell said:

The Microsoft SQL Reporting Services designer is suprisingly good, although I have only done a few simple examples with it. It can work with SQL 7.0 data, although you probably need a SQL2000 "reporting server" to store and execute the reports.
# March 29, 2005 3:27 PM

Mike Shaffer said:

I'll third Active Reports. I'm guessing that it can do exactly what you're looking for. Maybe a little work required up front, but I've used it in an end user self serve mode on a number of projects.

To throw a new one in the mix, have you looked at Microsoft Reporting Services? Can't speak for the SQL 7 req, but we are using it in a number of situations, specifically pushing report design and layout out of development and into the business. It seems like a lot of work up front (and it is) but the end result has been radically improved over our mishmash of AR, Crystal and, gulp, home grown reports.
# March 29, 2005 3:28 PM

Tom Chamberlain said:

This might sound odd but I use Aspose's Aspose.Excel which is a component that generates excel files. The templates are just excel files so the reports are (reasonably) easy to create and users can then modify the data themselves (since most know Excel)

I've even got a few users who now develop their own reports and since Excel is on most business computers, there's 0 footprint.

Anyway, you can take the product for a free test drive (www.aspose.com) so it is at least worth a look. It turned out well for me.

Hope it helps,

Tom
# March 29, 2005 5:59 PM

Alex Kazovic said:

With Widbey there are report controls for Windows forms which my understanding is that they are SQL Reporting Services but without a server.
# March 29, 2005 10:39 PM

Issam Elbaytam said:

In ActiveReports you can simply set the DataField property of any text control to an expression, for example a price field would be
=Quantity * UnitPrice
# March 30, 2005 5:04 AM

Leigh Kendall said:

I'll put my vote in for Active Reports. I use it extensively, and have had great success with the product. Plus, the company's support is top-shelf. As Issam mentioned, calculated columns are pretty straight-forward too.

Anyhow, the power with AR is awesome once you get to know how to use it, which is easy since the programming model is so similar to WinForms or WebForms.

HTH...
# March 30, 2005 7:49 AM

Greg Robinson said:

We are giving Active Reports a 2nd look today. Thanks for the feedback.
# March 30, 2005 10:40 AM

Jonathan Clark said:

Can you continue to use the Foxpro report Writer?. As a Foxpro developer, Foxpro can access most database backend including SQL Server.

# August 24, 2006 11:33 AM

Chris said:

I've gotten the same error.  I know it's related to file system access.  Specifically, the Common Files area (by the Local Services account), and C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC (by the Network Service account, Read and WriteAttributes access).  The latter may have to be set at the c:\windows level and propagated down.

I think there's others too, so be sure to set auditing on, and check your event viewer Security log to see where and what complains.

# October 10, 2006 11:55 AM

avinash said:

HI,

Can anyone tell me about The type initializer for 'CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ReportDocument'

about this exception. i am getting this after installing my applications setup at client m/c

# November 6, 2006 11:40 PM

Mike Prascak said:

Take a look at www.logixml.com.   We have used this report writer for over five years.   You do not have to know a single line of .net code to use it.  The builder is component and object based drag-and-drop and fill in the options.  I've been using and evaluating report writers for 20 years and I've not seen or used anything like it.  "Programming" experience, skills and thinking is helpful but you don't have to know a lick of any language syntax to get going.  If you have even the slighest knowledge of vbscript or .net, you can really pump up the features, but it is not essential for 98% of your reporting needs.  I am not a programmer, but I've been able to develop dozens of reports, some in as little as two hours.  If already know the SQL query statements to build the report you can create a report the first day.  (Like any report writer, you have to know your data.)  And their tech support resources on the web are incredible.  The entry level fully deployable version is free, and you can purchase more advanced versions as your needs expand.  We've been using the freebie version for five years and are only purchasing the next level this year.

# December 7, 2006 12:11 PM

Paul Taylor said:

Thanks to all for the very helpful reviews above. I am also looking for a report writer that can be deployed as part of an ASP.NET 2.0 application to a shared web-server. The challenge in this scenario is that most commercial shared servers only grant Medium Trust to applications. That means that report writer assemblies must have the AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers attribute set to True and not require permissions that are denied in the Medium Trust permission set.

Unfortunately, both Crystal Reports and Active Reports fail in this respect. Can anyone tell me if they have come across a report writer that could be used in this scenario?

Paul Taylor

# January 8, 2007 6:09 AM

vivek said:

COM object with CLSID {F0A36D7F-4068-44B5-809D-9E91AE74FBDB} is either not valid or not registered

# April 9, 2007 5:56 AM

Kevin Farrow said:

We use the Stimulsoft report writer at www.stimulsoft.com

# April 24, 2007 8:46 AM

Mike said:

I too am looking for a decent .net report writer who can easily make non technical users do their own reports.  I've heard that SQL Reporting Services have such feature but not sure though.  Anyone can clarify this?

Thanks

www.lugaluda.com

# January 7, 2009 4:34 AM

Alan said:

The latest version of XtraReports supports calculated fields, parameters, Medium Trust in Web and a lot of other features.

If you're interested in it, you can check its features at www.devexpress.com/.../index.xml.

# April 16, 2009 9:51 AM

Jeff said:

Crystal actually does have clickonce prerequisites that you just have to add to your application under the project properties. Thats how we are distributing Crystal Reports currently with our click once app.

# June 9, 2009 2:46 PM
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