Why should I select Crystal Report or SSRS through a regular HTML table?

Question

I am using ASP.NET MVC. Sometimes I work with ASP.NET Web Forms. I can pretty much create my queries using stored procs or LINQ and display my report with just a simple HTML table. With the right way, it should look decent.

I do not know SSRS, but I have experience with the crystal before. The only advantage I see in using the crystal for my reports against a simple HTML table is that it can be exported to PDF. But I could probably get a third-party library that can do this too. Regarding charts such as pie and bar charts, there are many javascript tools available that do this, and they are free.

I guess I'll post this to see what is missing with reporting tools like Crystal and SSRS.

EDIT: With ASP.NET MVC, creating a report is especially difficult. Just formulate the correct model, create a controller action and view it using the scaffolding (Detail), and you will immediately get the code created for you. With ASP.NET Web Forms, it's probably simpler, just use the GridView and you're done. For both cases, all that remains is CSS. With Crystal, you also need to edit the layout that you created the report, which also works.

Answer 1

The reason we use SSRS for our internal reports is because our database user can create reports without any knowledge of formatting output using code.

Answer 2

your points are valid, and I have thought of such things many times.

Personally, I used CR in the past and SSRS just recently, but my best experience was with DevXpress XtraReports, a super cool design and free end-user designer with or without Ribboned.

the difference between using a report engine or plain raw HTML is how you design reports and common features.

in XtraReports, for example, it’s great that the report is just a .cs file (C # class), and everything that you develop using the user interface designer is stored in this file in the same way as the window form designer (or ASP.NET aspx and aspx.cs designer does). This way you see the report that you are developing, and you drag and drop controls and place them where necessary. Then you have ready-made formulas, current results, page breaks, since you mentioned export to pdf, excel, jpg, html, word and much more.

If I were free to choose, I would go to XtraReport again and forget about the simple and crude encoding of the html table, let me concentrate on the real business of the application we are writing, and do not leave page breaks, exporting things and at home implemented formulas or group / current results ... at least this is my idea and approach.

Answer 3

The biggest reason to use the reporting engine is to print and paginate. You cannot always guarantee how HTML will be formatted for all browsers, and this is not very convenient for setting up hard page breaks. With a reporting solution, you can group things together to make page breaks more predictable.

This is especially important if you are looking for a more professional report.

Answer 4

As mentioned above, using a different report generator can have great advantages. I often used List and shortcut . There is a completely different concept, and depending on your needs, it will be simpler, but still more powerful, especially for .NET reporting . It is worth making a trial version (there is even a free version).