Right reporting solution in a .Net environment

Question

I have a reporting requirement in my web application for which I am looking for off the shelf solution. I don't have any experience of reporting softwares so thought of checking with SO community if anyone have any idea of reporting solution which fits my requirements.

The application will be developed in .Net and apart from other functionalities, I need reporting capability. The look and feel of the entire app should look same.

Is embedding a reporting software into a .Net application is possible or a separate server instance is required? Which one is better?

I need to expose few tables from my database and user should be able to create any kind of queries(report) on that. User should be able to save the queries and name them.

A query saved by a user should be only visible to him. A user belongs to a group. A User can create a report which is visible to whole group as well if he choose so.

I am currently looking at izenda to see if it supports my requirement.

Answer 1

We've been using LogiXml, which probably has all the reporting features you need, but doesn't embed too nicely. We were able to integrate it with our product using very simple HTTP POST authentication through their gateway, and by integrating directly with their database to synchronize users and roles.

It's worth looking at, but I can't recall what the licensing fee is to run it in a production instance.

Answer 2

Try DevExpress XtraReports Suite.

Answer 3

There are two sides to preparing reports. One is getting your data and another is rendering them. Assuming you are interested in just rendering, you can look at Microsoft's ReportViewer component which is available both web and desktop. You cans look at it here

Pros: It's free, has all standard functionality (tables, colors, sub-reports, cross-tab). Has build-in visual basic script that can be used to calculate values of columns, or choose colors based on the values. It's similar to what Visual Basic built into Excel

Cons: You can design your reports only in Visual Studio or with tool from MS-SQL 2005. The new standalone Report Builder cannot be used, since it's not compatible, it produces rdlc files with newer format.

There are more into that, but I would suggest to take a look.

Answer 4

Izenda Reports is very good solution if you need web-based report editor on HTML, without Flash or so on. It is very easy with setup and use. But it doesn't support custom report design.

Answer 5

FastReport .NET it's the good solution for reporting for Web and Win applications.