27 Comments

  • I havnt tried it out yet, but I saw the demos during TechEd. It was cool and I was impressed with the integration they had done with VS.NET and also stuff like crosstabs etc, which have been simplified.

  • I haven't tried it yet, but why compare to Crystal anyhow when ActiveReports is so much better.

  • I have tried out SQL Server reporting services, and while I have not spent alot of time with it, I can already tell you it is 100% better than crystal reports ever dreamed of being. Crystal is limping along as a desktop application with server support, whereas SQL Server reporting services is built for the server environment. And it being built around XML just makes it even better.



    -James

  • I was indirectly involved in helping Microsoft realize most of the spec for RDL, and also invented ELS-Script before Microsoft's RS. Please help us get some credit, check ELS-Script Report Tool at www.epsilon-logic.net. This later tool will become an RDL colaborator as well as integrate rendering services to MS-SQL Server Reporting Services. Crystal Report does not compare at all with RS, there are several other tools that have a better match than CR (e.g. ELS-Script, Active Report, etc.). Nevertheless, Microsoft's RDL did follow the wrong design that I myself stumbled on 3 years ago. The mistake is that RDL is a template based language. The good thing however is that RDL is in XML and more importantly open. This means that it will endure several decades (just like C, C++, Basic, etc.)

  • Any comments? Contact me: gregoriogreen@hotmail.com



    I've been using it for a few days. I like it, though the cost-effectiveness for me derives from the fact that I joined MSDN to get all the many tools required. That said, having VisualStudio 2003 integration is a + and offers a developer a certain confidence that pieces play together.



    I just imported about 100 reports from an Access .adp I worked on for years - they all import and are converted to .rdl format, however there are many compilation errors. Invalid child relationships seem to be common import errors.



    I used Crystal Enterprise, or tried to. After some dinking around I decided it wasn't coming together and I didn't have the time. I've been on a dev team, I know that products can be hard to package and present to the public. Crystal Enterprise wasn't working out. SQL Reporting Services shows great promise for my line of work, which is complex reporting.

  • I agree with gregoriogreen, anyone can do Crystal Report in few seconds and a lot of ease, but when it comes to a practical and business useful report, even a simple group or summary becomes a big problem. In some cases almost impossible. There are many design problems with Crystal report designer as well. Again, Crystal Report avoids scriptive approach based on common sense, but as is the case with all hasty common senses, it has become a design flaw. Some elements of the art of report making are indeed visual, but some other elements are much easier if one can work with some syntactic structure. RDL and MS Reporting Service is on the right track. But again, please look at ELS-Script Report Tool a colaborator of Microsoft's RDL. Check it out along with MS Reporting Services.

  • From Quebec...bad english but i try to make me understandable



    I disagree. Crystal Report is an excellent end-user tool and can make reports very quickly with a little experience.



    After three years of use and an implementation of Crystal Enterprise, we are able to says Crystal rules for all our needs except one, the price of the licence.



    One thing positive for SQL Reporting, his cost and his facility to distribute report on the web with no more licence. But with this competition, maybe business Object will review their prices for the next version (11) ...;o))

  • hey

    i liked this page & the views of people here

    i am stuck in the middle of something here.



    i am working on a customer care project with an ASP(w/ VBScript) frontend & an SQL Server 2000 Backend. now i am aiming at generating dynamic reports for the same. AS this is a college graduation project, i am not in a position to buy SQL Server 2000 reporting services & it seems i have to use Crystal Reports. i am finding myself lost here as i am not even able to conceptualise how to start working no this. i am supposed to fire queries in the ASP front end & have Crystal Reports dynamically generate reports as required. can someone please help me in this regard.....? all help will be greatly appreciated!

    thanks!

  • Hi,

    We have just started a research to implement reporting capabilities in our projects. I felt very difficuly with crystal reports to created my own user-defined reports. Where as SQL Reporting Services took very less time to create my own reports. We almost implemented all the functionalities of Report designer on our own to create .RDL file, deploy the reports automatically. It is very nice tool.

  • need info on printing.....



    need to let user pick report and parameters and then just "Print" ms has a sample called "Printer delivery" but it says "for educational use only" and other stuff

    so where is a *supported* way to print? (that does not make the user do all the work)

  • I'm using Reporting Services, but it does not have the scrolling functionallity. As weel as it has not any way to modify the code.



    does somebody know how to do that?

  • I have consulted and implemented Crystal Reports and Crystal Enterprise (formerly Seagate Info) for over 7 years, in addition to 3 or 4 other report/analytic applications in addition to SQL Server Reporting Services.



    I found Haro's comments interesting...



    "anyone can do Crystal Report in few seconds and a lot of ease..."



    Yes, this comment is basically true. Any monkey can "push the button and get the banana" provided they get some basic training or pick up a book. For business, isn't that an advantage?



    What I have found over several years of consulting is that crystal reports created by developers (I throw myself in that group - but mean it in the strictest sense) have demonstrated a severe lack of knowledge of how to actually build an efficient and well designed report. Reporting is definitely a mix between art and technology.



    Haro continues with this comment, but contradicts what he just said...



    "...but when it comes to a practical and business useful report, even a simple group or summary becomes a big problem. In some cases almost impossible. There are many design problems with Crystal report designer as well"



    I don't know where the justification for this comment comes. Perhaps Haro could provide us with an example of a simple group or summary being a 'big problem'. In fact, this is one of Crystal Reports strengths. The designer has evolved over a decade and a half and is very stable and extremely easy to use...perhaps he's running Crystal Reports 5?



    With the introduction of Crystal Reports 10 and Crystal Enterprise 10, there are a lot of new features that demonstrate the markings of a mature product. CR 10 now comes with a true metadata layer with the advent of Business Views, which is essentially an abstraction layer which removes report designers from the data layer and provides business context for report developers to design with in addition to providing row level and column level security. It also shields your reports from underlying database changes and provides the ability to dynamically select datasources to run from during view time.



    SQL Server Reporting services is 'cool', but still requires the development of a lot of functionality that regularly comes bundled with mature, packaged business intelligence products.



    What it ultimately boils down to is the question "Will we build or will we buy?".



    If SQL Server Reporting Services is "100% better than Crystal Reports ever dreamed of being", I would really like someone on this thread to clarify what exactly it is that it is better at, feature by feature.



    SQL Reporting services is exciting and works really well for some companies. I am enjoying developing with SQL Server Reporting services and it fits well as a low cost solution for small shops with low numbers of reports and users. I'm looking forward to it's continuing maturity. Remember, this is Microsoft we're talking about and it is still the first release!

  • Hi all,

    I need a tool to convert Access report into

    crystal report or RDL and a tool to convert

    ms access sql into stored procedure.

    Please help me out.

    Thank you so much

  • Dear All,

    I guess there are too many who are working with MS Report Server. Myself A Developer working with Stratify Software(India) Pvt. Ltd. The company is working on Knowledge Management. We are planning to integrate MS Report Server with our product. Regarding to this I have a question in mind that How to write "Custom Code" so that we can use ToolTips while rolling over "Mouse Pointer" over the rendered image(Like for a "Bar Chart" type of Report, the "ToolTip" should show bar specific information while pointing to a specific bar or column). I have a pretty cool solution to this : As Microsoft licensed chart control from Dundas Software so can we use that very .dll(dundaswebchart.dll) specifically. Am looking for your reply as early as possible since we planned for a early release at end of this month.



    WR,

    Satyajit


  • Forget to give my mail id:schatterjee@startify.com

  • Hi Friends



    I need a source code How to integrate SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services with ASP.NET.

    It's Urgent

    Pls mail me on : amolj@quinnox.com

    Amol

  • Frankly, ever since Crystal Decisions decided to make the switch away from the simple version 4.6 (distributed with VB6) the product has never been the same! I have used versions 8, 9, and the version distributed with .NET (Windows and web forms) and in my opinion Crystal Reports are, in general a huge headache!



  • Hi all, I'm currently assigned this project in which I've to do a comparison between Crystal Reports and Reporting Services. Would like to seek advice as to the features of BI reporting tools that advanced users would be most concerned about and also, how can a comparison be drawn up (as I'm inexperienced in such a project and do not know where to get started).



    Thanks, Gene

  • Hi,



    I've taken a brief look at SQL Reporting Services and it's pretty good in my opinion. The reports are easy to create and it's a doddle to build a custom reporting interface in .NET



  • Is there a way to print the entire report (rather than right-clicking and printing it page-by-page) ? Thanks.

  • There is no a way to print a report directly :-( Microsoft says that this functionality will be implemented in a next release!!!??!!!



    What you can do is to export and than print...errr

  • This may not be the right forum for this question, so please redirect me if I'm in the wrong spot for this.



    I am new to RS. I am recreating a Crystal Report (never used Crystal either, but have reports in Crystal) in RS. I can run my query and get data, but for some bizarre reason, the data does not show up in my table. Is there some trick to get your data to display?

  • SQL Reporting Services is, from what I have seen so far, a great product. The only problem I have found is the limited support and information I have been able to find with some unusual project requirements I have had.

  • We have a very inexpensive conversion service to convert legacy Crystal Reports to SQL Server Reporting Services, just $5 to $15 per report. Please check us out.

  • We use ActiveReports for our web reporting - excellent programmability, excellent PDF quality. Looking forward to the next release when they integrate their charting tool.

  • SQL Server Reporting Services is much better than crystal report due to its web nature.

  • I came across a website that claimed "There are approximately 116 functions in Crystal Reports that do not have a direct equivalent in VB.NET or Reporting Services (SSRS)." Does anyone know what these functions are?

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