Re: Any report writer suggestions?

date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:04:13 -0600
from: "Troy Hyde" <troy.hyde@xxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Any report writer suggestions?

For more than 40 years we've been using (mostly) RPG to create reports for
our clients who have their data on the System 36, AS400, iSeries, and now
IBM i midrange servers.

As the data becomes more accessible (via ODBC & etc), many of our clients
are using various tools such as Microsoft's Power BI to create some of
their own reports, charts, Internet dashboards & etc.

We are now hoping to find a tool (open source or otherwise) that will
allow non-programmers to create reports that can be run against the IBM i
data. It would need to be able to not only access the straight data but
also utilize SQL procedures and functions we provide for complex
calculations.? We would want to be able to write reports that our clients
can run but also allow them to write their own reports. A Wysiwyg editor
would be the ideal.

I'm just beginning to look at this but two products that pique my interest
are JasperReports and Crystal Reports. I'm sure there are myriad others.

Any recommendations based on experience from the group? Would either of
the two meet the needs I've described? Are there better products available?

Vendors comments welcome.

Thanks, Troy