Re: Web Reporting Tools

I have used SQL Server Reporting Services also. What I like about it was
built from the ground up for Web Reporting. I have also used Crystal and it
was not built that way.

On the other side, SQL Reporting Service was very different from Crystal and
much more difficult to get used to. Some definite quirks that it took a
while to get around.

As far as how to get the data out. I always, always create a stored
procedure. Either an SQL stored procedure or a RPG service program. I
switched over to using service program later because they were faster.

Test and develop the stored procedure separately and then just use it in
report. All the business logic to produce the report is encapsulated and it
makes it easy to verify you are getting the right data.

Always use OLE and set your OLE to return dates as date data types, not
character.

On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Evan Harris <spanner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi John

Just to clarify - did you use the SQL Server Reporting Services over data
resident on the i ? Can you provide some details on what approach you used
to make that work ?

Regards
Evan Harris

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Taylor
Sent: Tuesday, 2 June 2009 8:59 a.m.
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Web Reporting Tools

Hello, everyone. We have yet to venture into web-based reporting, and
I have not seen any recent discussion on the topic here. We have an
academic ERP system (DB2/RPG) that does finances as well as student
information recordkeeping. Reporting is a sore point. We do not want
a data warehouse that copies the data on a scheduled basis and produces
stale reports. It's live, real time, or nothing. We anticipate that
most queries would be developed in IT and published for the users to
run, perhaps with some parm options.

I have seen lots of press on IBM Web Query, as well as competing apps
from independent software vendors. I would be very interested to hear
what you have chosen for your shop and what the deciding factor was.

SQL Server Reporting Services.

Why? Because it's included as part of SQL Server, which we run anyway, so
it
was "free" and readily available to play with. Once I got the hang of it, I
was producing nicer reports in a fraction of the time it would take to
produce an inferior result using RPG.

I've never tried IBM Web Query, so I can't compare the two for you. I'm
very
happy with SSRS, and see no reason to spend lots of cash on IBM Web Query
or
one of the third party apps.



--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.