Gustav Brock
Gustav at cactus.dk
Sun Apr 29 11:33:22 CDT 2007
Hi Arthur et al Yes, this is indeed another paradigm. However, users more and more often request reports as files, and having a server engine to unload your report generation is certainly not a bad thing. I located these pages on Reporting Services: How to install RS for SQL Server 2005 Express: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365250.aspx http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365166.aspx Download the toolkit to install RS: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/download/ Some elaborate examples: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964128.aspx Note that Reporting Services for Express is somewhat crippled compared to the standard version - mostly regarding connection to remote databases and options for file export. /gustav >>> fuller.artful at gmail.com 29-04-2007 16:23 >>> Yes, RS is what I had in mind. There is an interesting shift in paradigm, if you're used to working with Access and including all your reports inside the app itself. Although you could kludge up some method of calling the reports from within your app, typically that's not what you'd do. You'd deploy them to a target server and send a link to the users, and they could use any browser to display/print the reports. Now that I'm more used to the idea, I like it a lot better. Back in the days when I worked at that travel agency, there must have been a couple of hundred reports. It got so ridiculous I sometimes had to ask the users how to navigate to the place from which you could print some report. The killer feature in RS, from my point of view, aside from the neat wizards and the very nice crosstab designer, is the drill-down. Over the years, I have been asked for that ability a hundred times, and had little to respond except to say, "I can't do it in Access." To be sure, this capability is a teensy bit counter-intuitive, but a few trial runs and a willingness to experiment will convince you, I think. Arthur On 4/29/07, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote: > > Hi Arthur > > Is that so, Arthur? You have 2005 Reporting Services in mind? > > /gustav > > >>> shamil at users.mns.ru 27-04-2007 18:15 >>> > Hi Gustav, > > AFAIU Arthur means MS SQL 2000 or 2005 Reporting Services - correct > Arthur? > The VS2005 IDE designer for report running via these services seems to be > available in VS2005 Standard Edition: > http://msdn2.microsoft.com/ru-ru/vstudio/aa700921.aspx > > I'd think Crystal Reports is more powerful (more feature rich I mean) than > MS SQL Reporting Services but I must say I just played a little bit with MS > SQL 2000 Reporting Services and I have never used this technology in real > life development and therefore I can be wrong in what I'm telling here about > it (Arthur please correct me) unlike CR, which I used in real life projects > and yes, it was RPITA to get on speed with it after MS Access but as I noted > already I think CR is more powerful and flexible report designer/engine than > MS Access...