Brad, No worries. How often are these reports going to be rendered? What size of a data set will they be calculated upon?
As for Flex reporting, here is an example site: http://demo.quietlyscheming.com/ChartSampler/app.html The code for the report demos are downloadable from: http://www.quietlyscheming.com/blog/2006/08/30/all-flex-samples-on-quietlyscheming-updated-and-now-downloadable/ Teddy On 10/3/06, Brad Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Teddy, thanks for the insight. I will try to address a couple of the > questions you posed... > > I guess the main reason why I am suggesting CF would be the logical > solutions for our reporting is simply because all of our other > interfaces we have right now are CF. All operations functionality > (including the current reporting module) is part of a "CF front-end / MS > SQL back-end" web app. Our current set of programmers are CF > programmers, our front-end expertise is CF, and our current servers are > Linux (I.E. .Net is limited in my mind since it is married to its > platform). All logins, authentication, tracking, and Contact manager > data (which the reports link directly to) are all part of the CF web > app. So in my mind, it just seems logical that to change technologies > would be a shift in gears for our company. It would also cause a rift > in our technologies where integrating links directly to order details > and contact manager would be across systems. Also, we would have to > re-build our security model and a new authentication system for a second > web app written in a different language. It just sounds like so much > work! :) > > You mention that there is network overhead for CF to connect to the SQL > servers to run the report. That makes perfect sense, but wouldn't you > have just as much overhead for a SQL reporting server to also connect to > the database? Maybe I don't understand how the SQL server connects to > the database, but it is still a separate server connecting across the > network to your database to run a select or a prepared statement, right? > > I am especially interested in hearing from anyone who has used any of > the Flex charting stuff. I am curious as to how hard it is to create > them. > > Job security is not a concern here. I'm just trying to keep my company > from chasing after every pretty "technology" butterfly it sees and > ending up with 15 different technologies which are all poorly integrated > or thought through. (But, yes, I may be a little selfish in wanting > things to stay in CF) :) > > Some of my main concerns with our reporting mechanism are having the > flexibility we currently have with the HTML/CF interface we are using-- > especially if we move to a Flex solution. All of our reports have > dynamic criteria the user can select as they run the report. The > interface needs to be able to create form fields of every type, exact > validation against those fields, and then capture their values and plug > them in to the query that is run to populate the report. I don't know > if that can be does easily with action script even. > > Anyway, enough rambling. I KNOW there are some people out there with > opinions/experience in this area. Nobody would shut up about the cfif > recordcount, and now I can't get anyone to talk! lol > > ~Brad > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Teddy Payne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 12:47 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: reports reports reports > > Brad, > The question here is why do you feel that ColdFusion needs to do the > reporting? Is the data set ideal for CF? > > In the server farm that I work with, we have dozens upon dozens of > database > and multiple data warehouses. > > We use the report builder for SQL Server 2000 and it is quick and gets > the > reports to those who need it. The SQL Server reports also have an > option to > deploy the calculated report to an HTML page, which is a static result > of > the finished compilation. > > Now, don't get me wrong here. I have used CF for 8 years and use it for > the > majority of my solutions, but it is not meant to report everything. > > You have to think about CF connecting to the servers you want to run > reports > on as additional network overhead. > > You can create static reports in CF as well and can offer lots of pretty > graphing options. You can go as far as building a Flex Charting > solution as > well for even better results. I would recommend Flex Charts over CF > Reports > for more options and flexibility. > > Now, who is going to build these reports? Are they asking you to create > the > reports or the DBAs? Is job security a concern? > > Just be objective here and figure out what is the best option instead of > asking if CF should get the oppurtunity. From what I have seen on the > calculations for some of the larger reports, the SQL report builder is > quicker on the recompilation of a report. CF is quicker when rendering > aggregated data sets that do not need to recompile the data sets. > > Teddy > > On 10/3/06, Brad Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I'm looking for opinions advice here. My DBA is going nuts over the > SQL > > Server 2005 reporting services. He wants to replace our current > custom > > built (CF) reporting mechanism with it. I think ColdFusion report > > builder would be a better option since we are, after all, a ColdFusion > > shop, not .NET. And not to mention all of our production servers run > > Linux. > > > > > > > > Nice features our company seems to want often in reports is the > ability > > to sort and filter data, add/remove/re-arrange columns from the > report. > > Keep stats on when the report was last run, by whom, and how long it > > took. Change the server the report runs off of on the fly. > > > > > > > > The problem I have is that I know nothing about the SQL Server 2005 > > reporting service, OR the ColdFusion report builder other than they > are > > all free. > > > > A couple of the guys on the database team are already playing around > > with the SQL version and making a collection of cool reports to use in > > their argument for why we should use it. Before all the pointy-haired > > bosses get sold on that I want to make sure ColdFusion report builder > > gets its fair say. > > > > > > > > Can anyone with experience with one or the other comment on the > > following: > > > > > > > > Which one is faster? > > > > Which one is better? > > > > Which one has more features when it comes to manipulating the data > after > > running the report? > > > > Which one will get my morning coffee and bagel for me? > > > > Which one has the easiest learning curve? > > > > > > > > I anxiously await advice. > > > > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > > > > ~Brad > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:255232 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
