Reporting Solutions

[Brad Rhoads <br...@zethcon.com>]

This is a summary of my research and testing of reporting solutions. I've
gotten a lot of help here. So I hope this information will be useful.

My requirements were to be able to run reports (ideally Crystal Reports) via
JSP, ideally on a Linux box. If a Crystal Reports solution couldn't be
found, I needed a cost effective alternative with similar ease of use and
power as Crystal.

First, the latest version of Crystal Enterprise will under Solaris (not
Linux) but the license starts at 20-40K.

Sometime ago, I made pretty good progress by building Java wrapper classes
for the CR COM Object. It was pretty difficult to figure out a lot things
and at some point I got stuck trying to retrieve & set the report parms
programmatically. The biggest problem with this was that I had to send the
Oracle userid & password as part of the query string. And of course I still
needed the reports running on an NT server. If you're interested in a making
wrappers for COM Objects, see http://www.infozoom.de.

Another option that also requires an NT server is Parallel Crystal. It's
also too expensive, but may be a good solution if you need scalability.

Parallel Crystal Pricing:
http://www.dynalivery.com/products/parallelcrystal/pricing.html

Parallel Crystal Architecture:
http://www.dynalivery.com/products/parallelcrystal/parallelcrystal2_6.html#a
rchitecture

I also looked at Actuate (http://www.actuate.com/products/server/index.asp).
I can't find my pricing notes, but it was expensive. They did an email
campaign saying "Instantly Convert Crystal Reports". But they don't have a
converter in their system, it's a manual conversion service.

I considered http://sourceforge.net/projects/jasperreports/, but determined
that's it's not mature enough to give to our clients. Looks promising
though.

I found two options that would require writing reports from scratch, as they
don't support or convert Crystal. The first is JReports. It was quite a
while ago that I look at JReports, so I don't remember a lot of details to
pass on. But I do remember that I liked it and it would be option, if I
abandoned Crystal. Tech support was very good.

Corporate Background:
http://www.jinfonet.com/corporate.htm
JReport Overview:
http://www.jinfonet.com/JReportOverviewWeb.ppt
JReport Product Brochure:
http://www.jinfonet.com/JReportFlyer.pdf
JReport Product Overview:
http://www.jinfonet.com/products.htm
JReport Tutorial:
http://www.jinfonet.com/help/tutorial.htm
Free Download:
http://www.jinfonet.com/download.htm
Other Docs
http://www.jinfonet.com/docs.htm
Register for Evaluation:
http://www.jinfonet.com/JReportRegister.htm


JReport Enterprise Server 2 conc. users/reports 1 CPU $3,500
     Annual Maintenance $700
JReport Enterprise Server, unlimited for 1 CPU $19,000
     Annual Maintenance $3,800

You can also choose to license only a specific number of CPUs.
For example, it is possible to purchase a 2 CPU license
for a 4 CPU computer.  Likewise, it is also possible
to purchase a 4 CPU license for a 2 CPU computer to
anticipate future expansion.

The other alternative to Crystal that I found is FlexReports. It's basically
a Java-based Crystal knock-off. If you know Crystal, you can use
FlexReports. The only thing I found that wasn't completely intuitive is that
parm fields have to be placed on the report, although they are invisible.

The limitations I found with FlexReports are:

    1. No way to programmatically get a list of parameters from a .flx.
    2. No way to force a page break.
    3. No way to use the viewer as an applet.
    4. No PDF support.

Tech support was 1st class.

Pricing is done on a case by case basis. But here's what I found. (BTW - I
didn't sign any non-disclosure on any of the info I'm providing.)

Development License


1 developer license = 459 USD

To avail discount on developer licenses, purchase our team licenses:

4 Team license (4 developer licenses)  = 918 USD

8 Team license (8 developer licenses)  = 1836 USD


Maintenance License

The Maintenance License fee is for a period of 6 months. Maintenance license
is priced at USD 1250 .

Maintenance would include the following benefits for a period of 6 months

Free technical support through email and Instant Messaging.
Hot fixes through email notification.
Free upgrades of the New Releases, If any
Please note that this maintenance license is applicable for a period of 6
months only. You would have to purchase the same again for extended support
beyond this period.

Runtime License

Runtime License price for each sale of your product developed using
VisualSoft FlexiReports USD 999


When I started my research Crystal Clear had to many holes to consider. But
now with version 3, I have my solution! Crystal Clear 3.0 provides a
Java-based Crystal Reports compatible engine, well 90% compatible anyway;
see http://www.inetsoftware.de/English/Produkte/CrystalClear/Default.htm.

Not only did Crystal Clear turn out to be my best solution, it also turned
out to be the cheapest. How often does that happen?! $1290 for 1 CPU,
unlimited clients. See
http://www.inetsoftware.de/English/scripts/FrameSetSub.asp?path=http://www.i
netsoftware.de/English/Produkte/CrystalClear/Lizenzen/&name=pricing_informat
ion.htm.

Besides missing one feature that one of our reports needs, the only other
problem I've found is that it doesn't prompt for parms used in only in
formulas. You can work around that though by putting the parm on the report
& setting it's format option to suppressed.

HTH. Feel free to ask questions.

Brad Rhoads
Zethcon Corporation












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