Reporting on server and client

Question

I'm looking for a reporting solution that works on the server and in the front-end. The problem is that the front-end technology has yet to be decided from ASP.NET web forms, ASP.NET MVC or Silverlight.

So I'd like to use the same reporting framework for generating reports on the server (business layer abstracted through WCF) to PDF format and also present reports in a viewer through ASP.NET or Silverlight, where users can preview the report, adapt filtering and eventually export to PDF or Excel/CSV.

My client also likes to have a report designer.

Would I be able to do all that with Crystal Reports? Also, would I be able somehow to use the same report definition on the front-end and back-end? Other framework suggestions are also welcome, although we don't want the SQL reporting services approach here because it requires a seperate reporting service application in IIS.

Thanks

Answer 1

I'd take a look at Teleriks offering (http://www.telerik.com/products/reporting.aspx) as it provides solutions for Silverlight, WPF and ASP.NET (not sure about ASP.NET MVC).

Answer 2

I work for Telerik. Telerik Reporting allows you to create .NET native reports using its Visual Studio based report designer. These reports can be viewed an any of the included report viewers, ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF, and WinForms. If you decide to go with MVC, its also possible to use that as well, see here (http://www.telerik.com/community/code-library/reporting/general/using-telerik-web-reportviewer-in-asp-net-mvc-application.aspx). Exporting to PDF, and several other file formats, is also possible with Telerik Reporting.

If you are interested in trying it out, a free trial version is available for download on the Telerik website (http://www.telerik.com).