Rails - Mar 2006 - (slightly OT) Reporting tools (Jasper, DataVision, etc.)

We''re evaluating reporting tools right now, both open source and
closed.
I saw that a bunch of people on this list have considered Jasper/iReport 
-- is this coincidence, or is this the best open source report writer 
right now?  The proprietary tool we''re comparing them to is Crystal 
Reports. Reports will need to be editable by end users, and they''re 
running Mac OS X.

We''ll be spending a bit of time integrating whatever report writer we 
choose, we think, so we don''t expect anything to be fully integrated 
with Ruby or Rails ... we just want to start with a good base.

So, is Jasper the best? Are there others that look good? Here''s a short
list I''ve compiled:

* iReport/Jasper
* DataVision
* OpenRPT (only works with PosgreSQL currently)

There are others, but I haven''t found any others that work on Mac OS X 
and have a designer tool that looks like an end user could learn to use 
in relatively little time.

Thanks!

Jen

Microsoft Reporting services.  Honestly, it beats the heck out of any of
these, and the price is really good!  (Free! If you have SQL Server 2k)

---------------------------
Brian Corrigan
---------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org
[mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of jennyw
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 4:32 PM
To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
Subject: [Rails] (slightly OT) Reporting tools (Jasper, DataVision,
etc.)

We''re evaluating reporting tools right now, both open source and
closed.

I saw that a bunch of people on this list have considered Jasper/iReport

-- is this coincidence, or is this the best open source report writer 
right now?  The proprietary tool we''re comparing them to is Crystal 
Reports. Reports will need to be editable by end users, and they''re 
running Mac OS X.

We''ll be spending a bit of time integrating whatever report writer we 
choose, we think, so we don''t expect anything to be fully integrated 
with Ruby or Rails ... we just want to start with a good base.

So, is Jasper the best? Are there others that look good? Here''s a short
list I''ve compiled:

* iReport/Jasper
* DataVision
* OpenRPT (only works with PosgreSQL currently)

There are others, but I haven''t found any others that work on Mac OS X 
and have a designer tool that looks like an end user could learn to use 
in relatively little time.

Thanks!

Jen


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I''m also looking at reporting tools and, while my needs are slightly
different from yours, JasperReports is currently at the top of my
list.

It''s a shame, because I really don''t like having to install
and
maintain a Java subsystem just to get occasional reports out - it
feels like taking a sledgehammer to a walnut.

Haven''t found anything better though

Regards

Dave M.

On 29/03/06, jennyw <jennyw@dangerousideas.com>
wrote:
> We''re evaluating reporting tools right now, both open source and
closed.
> I saw that a bunch of people on this list have considered Jasper/iReport
> -- is this coincidence, or is this the best open source report writer
> right now?  The proprietary tool we''re comparing them to is
Crystal
> Reports. Reports will need to be editable by end users, and
they''re
> running Mac OS X.
>
> We''ll be spending a bit of time integrating whatever report writer
we
> choose, we think, so we don''t expect anything to be fully
integrated
> with Ruby or Rails ... we just want to start with a good base.
>
> So, is Jasper the best? Are there others that look good? Here''s a
short
> list I''ve compiled:
>
> * iReport/Jasper
> * DataVision
> * OpenRPT (only works with PosgreSQL currently)
>
> There are others, but I haven''t found any others that work on Mac
OS X
> and have a designer tool that looks like an end user could learn to use
> in relatively little time.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jen
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

David Mitchell wrote:
 > I''m also looking at reporting tools and, while my needs are
slightly
 > different from yours, JasperReports is currently at the top of my
 > list.
 >
 > It''s a shame, because I really don''t like having to
install and
 > maintain a Java subsystem just to get occasional reports out - it
 > feels like taking a sledgehammer to a walnut.

I know what you mean. I''ve been looking at both open source and 
commercial solutions, and none of them is really meeting my requirements 
well, with the possible exception of iReport/Jasper.  The runs-on-a-Mac 
requirement is the main barrier for most of the commercial report 
writers I''ve seen.

Does any one have any other suggestions?  I''m kind of surprised at the 
scarcity of reporting tools (with visual designers that run on a Mac).

Jen