By Scott - 5/26/2006
Is there a way to use StrataFrame BOs with Crystal Reports. I don't know much about Crystal so I hope this isn't a dump question.Thanks Scott
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By StrataFrame Team - 5/26/2006
I'm not familiar enough with Crystal to give you any specifics, but you could certainly use a business object to retrieve the data from the database, and then pass off the business object's CurrentDataTable or CurrentView to the Crystal component on the form that generates the report.Other than that, I can't really give you any more detail, sorry. If the Crystal component accepts a IBindingListView as a data source (like most grids and other controls), then you would be able to directly set the business object as the data source for the Crystal component.
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By StarkMike - 8/30/2006
Consider yourself lucky Ben.  I've used Crystal Reports enough to know I dont like it. I've always felt it was kind of a clunky product, not real easy to use. I've been using Access reports for years and maybe I'm just stuck in my ways.
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By Keith Chisarik - 8/30/2006
We dumped Crystal after I heard negative comments about it from just about everyone at the last SF training. We have moved to Active Reports and are so far quite happy with it. Much nicer than CR.
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By StrataFrame Team - 8/30/2006
Glad you're happy Keith 
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By Ivan George Borges - 8/31/2006
Hi Keith.While you were in the process of evaluating a Report Engine, did you try xtraReports from DevExpress ? I'm in the position of deciding between xtraReports and ActiveReports, if you have experience with them both, would you mind sharing them with me ? Best.
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By Keith Chisarik - 8/31/2006
Hey Ivan.
I asked one of my colleagues to handle the evaluation of the DevExpress report tool and ActiveReports. I am off until Tuesday but I will most certainly talk to him then and get a few more details as to why he made the recomendation he did.
To me he mentioned the code behind ability, excellent integration with the VS IDE, and the end user report writer as factors that swayed him, price apparently was almost the same between the two. I didnt ask for many more details as I trust him fully and also he will be the guy doing most of the reports 
I did do some general poking around for myself for "buzz" on both. I have a few .NET forums and groups I frequent and I did get the feeling the generally ActiveReports was better especially in the support department.
PS - while on the subject of "buzz", could people out there hate SourceSafe anymore? I lay down each night wondering when it is going to rear its ugly head and delete/trash/rollback a few months of code after reading some real horror stories on the net. I can't wait to get these projects deployed so I can justify Team Suite to my boss.
Cya... safe holiday to all.
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By Trent L. Taylor - 9/1/2006
Keith,while on the subject of "buzz", could people out there hate SourceSafe anymore? I lay down each night wondering when it is going to rear its ugly head and delete/trash/rollback a few months of code after reading some real horror stories on the net. I can't wait to get these projects deployed so I can justify Team Suite to my boss. LOL....you are exactly right. SourceSafe is better than nothing, but it is a very frustrating process. The grass truly is greener on the Team Foundation Server side of the fence. It works incredibly well even on a slow software VPN connection. When I was at the Phoenix trade show floor, I downloaded the framework and made a change, all within minutes. This would have been impossible with SourceSafe. XtraReports vs. ActiveReports
XtraReports is plenty good for all of the basic report writing and has nice UI integration features. If you are using the DevExpress controls, the XtraReports is a nice way to go from a UI standpoint because it ties into all of the skins and LookAndFeel appearances just like the rest of the UI. As for the reporting abilities, it is much more advanced than the standard .NET reporting tools which is still enough to create most of the reports required by any application. Additionally, there are some decent code-behind features that work well with StrataFrame business objects. I will say that when it comes to using XtraReports, you are pretty much on your own though. The DevExpress support is not as good as ActiveReports (at least from my few inquiries which is probably not a good enough test to base a purchasing decision on). Moreover, XtraReports was written as an add-on to their control collection. This is not their primary business, so obviously they are not going to have as many features as ActiveReports whose primary business is reporting. With that being said, I still think this is a good reporting tool and is good enough for most applications reporting needs.
XtraReports Grade: B+ ActiveReports is a very good all around reporting tool and solution. ActiveReports is in the reporting business and has been taking the market by storm. When doing a feature to feature comparison, ActiveReports stands well above the rest. They have extended features such as viewer annotations, VB.NET report scripting, extensive charting controls and displays (DevExpress has some charting abilities also), reports can be compiled within assembly or stored externally for ease of maintenance (this is also available on XtraReports), and very nice run-time editors. XtraReports also has run-time editors, but in my opinion, ActiveReports is easier for the end-user to work in and it has more abilities for the developer to wrap as a seamless solution. Also, ActiveReports has easy data-binding support for nearly any type of media. One downside to using ActiveReports in conjunction with DevExpress controls is that the preview windows and run-time editors do not follow the DevExpress themes. The UI is nice, but it does look inherantly different than the DevExpress skinned environment. Overall, this is a good solid choice for reporting. ActiveReports Grade: A- As you can see, there is not a huge difference for normal reporting environments. Ivan, in your case, I would recommend the XtraReports. I think that this is perfect for you and your team and it will not cost you an additional license fee. If anyone offering extensive templated reports to their end-users (changable at run-time) I would recommend ActiveReports. Hope this helps.
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By StarkMike - 9/1/2006
Trent.. what an AWESOME comparison.  Maybe you should start charging for such insightful information! HA HA Let me throw another contender in there and get your thoughts. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.
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By Ivan George Borges - 9/1/2006
Thanks for your feedback Keith.If you get some more information from your colleague, please, post it here. Funny you mentioned the support from ActiveReports. I wrote emails to them both, xtra and Active, got many emails from the guys from DevExpress, and none from Active. I got a bit concerned with that, maybe I should try again. But in general, people do seem to have a preference for ActiveReports. The good thing about DevExpress is that you get the whole package of components by the same price of ActiveReports. On the other subject, isn't Team Suite part of an MSN subscription ?
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By Ivan George Borges - 9/1/2006
WOW, Trent.Perfect. Thanks a lot! You can have a rest now...
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By Trent L. Taylor - 9/1/2006
Thanks, Mike I do not have as much experience with SQL Server Reporting services. Overall, SQL Reporting Services is a very good tool and has some features unique to itself that the others do not. For example, report delivery allows you to have the reports sent to a web page or via email. Obviously it has enhanced SQL Server support which is very integrated and fast and supports many background working features. Ironically, though, they do not support as many different data backends as XtraReports or ActiveReports...which I guess makes sense given the name of the engine . There are some more downsides, first would be the UI. The UI is nothing but the basics and is hard to make look nice when dropped into a DevExpress or Infragistics environment. Second, the charting features are not even as extensive as XtraReports out of the box. Ultimately you can make the reports look anyway you want (including charts) but requires a lot of work on the developers part. SQL Server Reporting Services is more cumbersome to setup and requires someone with some IT abilities to install. So if this is used internally this is generally not an issue. However, if your end-user application will be installed in the field, this is an immediate show stopper. Last is cost. It is much more expensive if this product is going to be redistributed since a license is required at each location using the product. This is one MAJOR benefit of using XtraReports or ActiveReports...royalty-free runtimes. Very last , if your application needs to support end-user modifications of the reports, it is possible, but will kill your support department since it is designed for developers and is generally way over the heads of the end-users. SQL Server Reporting Grade: C+
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By Keith Chisarik - 9/1/2006
On the other subject, isn't Team Suite part of anMSN subscription ?
Yes, I dont have one ATM.
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By Ivan George Borges - 9/1/2006
Just for a good laugh Keith.I went everywhere trying to find what sort of subscription ATM was. At the moment, I'm feeling really silly.
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By Trent L. Taylor - 9/1/2006
Ivan,Just for future references, you can always go to www.acronymfinder.com to figure it out ATM = At the moment.
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By Keith Chisarik - 9/8/2006
Sorry about that Ivan, I will refrain from using acronyms here.
Alos, I talked to my Active Reports guy, he is currently having trouble with it due to a new release that has some problems. He still thinks it was the best choice based on the features, but is currently working through some issues.
One thing we are missing about Crystal is the slicknes of the drilldown reporting, it seems ActiveReports uses links instead of displaying the drildown in a treeview like Crystal does.
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By Ivan George Borges - 9/8/2006
NM, Keith.AFAIK, IMO, NTF. IAC, Trent, BTW, helped me with that. TTYL.
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By StrataFrame Team - 9/8/2006
The computer field is the only one that I know of that has more acronyms than the US military
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By Keith Chisarik - 9/8/2006
rofl
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