Compare ActiveReports Reporting and Business Intelligence Tools for .NET

This section compares Data Dynamics Reports with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and covers differences and similarities between the two products.

• Why compare Data Dynamics Reports with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)?

  • Both use the Microsoft Report Definition Language (RDL) format:

    Data Dynamics Reports uses the Microsoft Report Definition Language (RDL) as its reporting format. Data Dynamics Reports supports all of the features of the SQL Server 2005 version of the RDL specification, plus adds a number of enhancements.

  • The two share a similar report design experience:

    The overall report designing experience is similar between Data Dynamics Reports and the SSRS Design time tools.

  • For a number of customers, these features are important for two reasons:

    1. They are already using SSRS and are looking for .NET reporting tools that work with SSRS and have additional unique features.
    2. They want a familiar reporting model but would still like their reporting applications to be independent of any SQL Server licensing restrictions.

• Reporting tool with no external dependencies.

  Data Dynamics Reports is a self-contained .NET component and toolset with a built-in full-featured reporting engine and can be used against a variety of data sources with no limitations or dependency on any server software. SSRS is only available as an add-on technology with a SQL Server license and is constrained by the need to purchase a SQL Server license for every server that needs to use Reporting Services.

• Simple developer-based licensing model.

  Data Dynamics Reports has a simple developer-based licensing model like other GrapeCity products, with royalty-free deployment and zero run-time fees. It also offers a Developer Site License option that covers an unlimited number of developers at a single location for one flat fee. There are no additional licensing costs for testing, staging or run-time deployments either on clients or on servers, including Web servers.

• Embeddable End User Report Designer component.

  Data Dynamics Reports includes an End User Report Designer for Windows Forms, a component that you can embed inside your .NET application and customize it to create your own report designer for your end users.

• Data visualization controls for business reporting.

  Data Dynamics Reports includes advanced data visualization controls that make it easy to analyze business data by highlighting key data elements. Spark lines allow users to see trends while also viewing the primary data display. Bullet graphs give users an instantaneous view of how a KPI or other statistic is currently doing, broken down into two to three ranges and displaying an optional target—all in a space-saving display. The ColorScale visualization maps a numeric value onto a range of colors, reducing the complexity of dealing with a large number of discrete data elements. Also included are Icon sets, range bars and data bars that can be used to visually indicate relative information, numbers and number ranges, actual progress vs. planned progress, etc.

• Master-child report templates for report re-use.

  Reporting templates provide report authors with a consistent base layout to work from, as well as common data sources, data sets, report parameters, embedded images, themes, and custom code. Developers use these templates to give end users a set of content and formats they can start with.

• Report themes for consistent look and feel.

  Theme support allows report designers to use a standard set of colors, fonts, and images throughout a set of documents—not only creating consistency across documents, but also enabling the look of a whole family of reports to be updated by changing just one theme file.

• Excel transformation.

  Data Dynamics Reports includes a new Excel Transformation Device that makes it possible to analyze numbers using the familiar Excel environment. More than a simple export, the Excel Transformation Device allows users to change their exported Excel spreadsheets by changing the data bindings or the data and see the display change as they perform what-if analysis.

• Export to e-mail.

  The e-mail rendering feature allows you to create an e-mail from your report output that is truly compatible across browsers and e-mail clients like Google, Yahoo, etc. It allows you to export your report to a .NET MailMessage object that you can use to send e-mail via the .NET API.

• Barcode report item.

  The Barcode report item gives report authors the ability to select from over 20 of the most common barcode symbologies.

• FormattedText report item.

  The FormattedText report item outputs XHTML and CSS content into the report body.

• BandedList data region.

  The BandedList data region mimics the way that reports are structured in ActiveReports, Access, and Crystal Reports. It combines the free-form report item placement of the List data region with the grouping support found in the Table data region.

• Conclusions

  You can either use Data Dynamics Reports as your fully embedded .NET reporting solution or use it as a front-end to SQL Server Reporting Services.

• Option 1: Use Data Dynamics Reports instead of SSRS.

  If you are looking for a complete .NET reporting solution that is easy to embed within your .NET applications, does not need any server software and has a simple developer-based licensing model with no additional fees to worry about, then Data Dynamics Reports is your solution.

• Option 2: Use Data Dynamics Reports with SSRS.

  If you are using SQL Server Reporting Services for reasons such as tight integration with SQL Server or because of its server-side features, you can still benefit from using Data Dynamics Reports as a front-end to SSRS.

  • Data Dynamics Reports can consume SSRS reports.

    As long as the reports are in the 2005 RDL format, they can be directly consumed, edited and presented using Data Dynamics Reports.

  • SQL Server Reporting Services works with Data Dynamics Reports.

    The reverse is also true as long as you are not using the Data Dynamics Reports features that extend beyond the RDL specifications in your reports. If you stick to the core RDL reporting elements, you can design, edit and save the reports using Data Dynamics Reports and be confident that they will be compatible with SQL Server Reporting Services.