[DUG] Reporting experience
Jolyon Smith
jsmith at deltics.co.nz
Tue May 13 18:01:30 NZST 2014
Something to bear in mind with ReportBuilder is that they do not (or did
not used to) provide full source for 100% of their product, even with the
highest SKU. As a result, if you are using aspects of ReportBuilder which
rely on these components, you are beholden on their releasing a new version
with support for new versions of Delphi as they come out.
This is one of the reasons that in previous projects I have been involved
with where ReportBuilder has been used particularly extensively, the
project source becomes stuck in legacy versions of Delphi as the business
of upgrading becomes progressively more difficult as you cannot simply rely
on re-building the version of ReportBuilder you are comfortably using in
your project but are forced not only to upgrade your license(s) but also
deal with any breaking changes that arise from later/newer versions of
ReportBuilder itself.
The extent to which this is a problem will depend on your use of
ReportBuilder, but one project I was involved in languishes in Delphi 2006,
and the tight coupling and high degree of reliance on extensions to core
ReportBuilder components on which it relies and the inability to simply
rebuild from source for later Delphi versions was a dominant factor in that.
This problem isn't unique to ReportBuilder of course. Any 3rd party
component that does not provide full source is subject to the same caveats
and risks. ReportBuilder is however fairly unusual - if not unique - in
not providing 100% source at even the highest price point for a license.
Also, given the history of reporting technologies in Delphi, this reliance
on the vendor is something to bear in mind, should it go the way of
previous Delphi reporting technologies....
*Caveat:* This lack of 100% source was the case for the Delphi 2006
Enterprise version and as far as I know remains the case, though it would
be worth checking to see if this issue remains in the current version (I
had a look on their web site and can't find any confirmation one way or the
other).
On 13 May 2014 10:59, Paul Hectors <Paul at powershield.com> wrote:
> Hi Gary,
>
>
>
> We use ReportBuilder at PowerShield and I am personally not that impressed
> with it however it is coded into the product and difficult to justify
> changing.
>
>
>
> Things I personally do not like about ReportBuilder is the lack of
> feedback provided when it does not like what you are trying to do. This
> typically is around layout issues and as a result causes blank pages or
> blank areas between sections of the report.
>
> If you are doing something wrong the other result is a complete blank
> report with very little clues as to where it is failing.
>
> These kind of problems ruin productivity as you spend a lot of time
> ‘fighting’ with ReportBuilder until you get the result you want.
>
>
>
> I am personally not coding but managing the project and over time there
> have been at least 3 developers doing reports and I believe none of them
> are a fan of ReportBuilder.
>
>
>
> We have found product support to be very good by the makers of
> ReportBuilder, so all credit to them.
>
> So if you are considering ReportBuilder please make sure you move beyond
> the marketing hype and give it a try with your requirements.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> *From:* delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [mailto:
> delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] *On Behalf Of *Gary T. Benner
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 13 May 2014 9:45 a.m.
> *To:* delphi at delphi.org.nz
> *Subject:* [DUG] Reporting experience
>
>
>
> HI all,
>
> With recent changes to reporting in Delphi, I was wondering if a few of
> you could provide some feedback on the effectiveness of the various
> reporting modules.
>
> With Rave going the way of QuickReports, the territory seems to now be
> that of ReportBuilder, FastReports etc. Any others?
>
> We recently had major issues with Internationalisation using Rave and the
> ability to handle the export to PDF, which in our experience is now
> demanded more than actual printing on to paper, as we move to a paperless
> office as norm.
>
> So, any comments as to the best tool?
>
> Any horror stories?
>
> kind regards
>
> Gary
>
>
> Gary Benner MNZCS ITCP
> Information Technology Certified Professional
> Onlearn Limited <http://www.onlearn.co.nz> - Online Learning Hosting &
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> *Email:* gary at benner.co.nz
> *Skype:* garybenner
>
>
> Ref#: 41006
>
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