SRS versus Crystal Reporting

[Erin]

Hello again,

My company is looking for reporting features. Ultimately I'm not entirely
familiar with SRS or CR but what I would like is the ability to create
reports with multiple filters, if/then, --bascially MS Access querying
functions....then have them published on a website for the users to view. My
major question is regarding these two products is that will they be able to
manipulate (Access query like) these reports from the web interface or will I
have to be continuously creating custom reports? I thought that SRS gave the
ability to filter/sort/format/export - etc within a web application but I
don't know if CR does -- can anyone tell me if I'm correct? I would like to
implement one of these solutions to go hand in hand with my project server
environment but if anyone has experience in both of these or either and can
share the benefits and disadvantages of them -- or a nice recommendation of
which one has worked best for you guys that would be great.

Thanks in advance,

Erin

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Erin]

And the other thing I need verification on was that will either or both of
these (SRS or CR) give me my enterprise fields within Project Server which i
belive they should since aren't these located in the SQL DB anyways -- anyone
know that talbe offhand?

Thanks again...

 

[tonyzink]

Hi Erin --

I don't have any recent experience with Crystal Reports, but I have
used SQL Reporting Services (SRS) in conjunction with Project Server to
generate various reports. SRS has a nice web-based interface, so the
reports that you build can be shared via the web (and the data can be
exported to MSExcel for printing or further manipulation). Also, you
can build your reports to include drop-down lists -- pre-populated with
values retrieved from the Project Server database -- to manipulate the
data in the reports (a filter, for example).

Depending upon the reports that you need to generate, there is another
option which may work for you. I've created interactive reports --
residing directly in PWA and using built-in PWA components -- which
fetch data from a database (Project Server database, SharePoint
database, etc.) and display the data using an interactive data grid
which has built-in sorting, grouping, and filtering tools. For
example... I've created a tool using this technology which displays
Issues for all projects in the system, displays them all in one place,
allows sorting / grouping / filtering, and allows the viewer to link
directly to any selected Issue or Issues List in the associated project
SharePoint site. Neat-O!

Can you describe the types of reports you'd like to generate?

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
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[Erin]

Tony,

I'm trying to create reports that will display all my enterprise fields -
and allow for web based filtering, sorting and exporting. The enterprise
fields are very important for my company to display since that has all the
important information. I'd love it if it would have the ability to sum,
filter by multiple values -- ex: Choose all Last Names that start with 'C'
and all Projects that are of a High Priority and ones that hare PHA
incidents. Just for an example. If it would have the ability to muti=filter
which excel really doesn't that would be great - and if this can all be done
in teh web based format after I create a generic report in vs.net that would
be even better -- so what do you think? Thanks again for your reponse.

 

[tonyzink]

Hi Erin --

Are we talking about displaying a master listing of projects in the
system, and performing filtering / sorting / grouping on that list, or
are we talking about detailed tasks or assignments?

If we're only talking about projects, then why can't you simply create
a PWA Project Center view which displays all of your enterprise project
fields & outline codes? The PWA Project center has built-in tools which
allow you to filter, group, search, and sort your project listing based
on the values in those columns.

If you need to see more detailed information (tasks & assignments)
across multiple projects, then you'll need a custom solution based on
(a) a reporting tool such as SRS, or (b) the PWA-embedded solution that
I previously mentioned. Both options (a) and (b) dig directly into the
database and display virtually any information your heart desires.

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

 

[Erin]

The issue I have with the PWA reports is their limited ability to filter on
mutiple factors, do some and/or functionality, etc. So I'm thinking SRS is
my best bet. The setup of this environment was done before I got here and
teh enterprise fields are just that -- not outline fields therefore we have
information already populated in them and over 700 projects entered I just
can't move over to outline fields without a lot of work. Would you or anyone
happen to know the table the enterprise fields is stored in within the SQL
database? I don't believe it's teh msp_projects or msp_tasks...

Thanks again for your help