Did you search the archives? There is a package that is much closer
to what you are asking for then the suggestions so far. I've
mentioned it before, but happy to do so again:
http://reportwell.com/main.php?siteName=DrawWellTech&lang=us&name=home
The reporting engine is called ReportWell, and there is a user app,
DrawWell, for designing reports. The user loads the data model, then
drag entities and attributes onto the page. If you are using
CoreData, they can import a model directly; if not, you can define
your data model in an EOModeler-style text format. The user can define
criteria for selecting and sorting records, etc. It's probably not as
flexible as Crystal Reports, but it's a step in the direction.
You can download a trial to try it out. They have data model support
for AddressBook and iTunes, too, so you can experiment without
building an app.
FYI, I have no affiliation with the company.
HTH,
----
Aaron Burghardt
abu...@mac.com
On Jan 16, 2009, at 9:09 AM, Jon C. Munson II wrote:
Thanks Gary!
I've been a DB developer for many years, albeit on the PC side.
Report
writing was usually part of the tools, or, something easily found
elsewhere
in the PC world. Not so easily found on the Mac side though, hence my
original question.
I know that writing reports is a total *****, so I'm looking for a
better
way - hopefully one that doesn't mean re-inventing the wheel. There
is both
a personal and developmental time interest involved in finding a
tool with
which I could work. Products can't sell if they aren't available
and any
unnecessary delay can be a deal killer!
For Chris' benefit: a report writing tool is one that allows a
developer/end-user to construct reports using WYSIWYG controls (like
the IB
widgets), some sort of macro language (from simple sums/page counts,
to
extensive page formatting), and can either be called from within or
externally linked. This is a parallel to IB, though a wee bit more
advanced
yet specialized. Programs like FileMaker and Microsoft Access are two
examples of such things (though they are also capable of quite a bit
more).
Crystal Reports is also another example. If one isn't familiar with
them,
Googling them will yield relevant results.
Those types of products are easy to find for the PC, but I started
running
into walls trying to find something similar for the Mac.
I should think that if the Mac is to be better positioned in
"line-of-business" (as you state it), these tools should be/have
been more
readily available. However, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Doesn't mean
there isn't anything out there, just means they're harder to find or
highly
specialized.
Thanks, guys, for all the answers so far - I appreciate it!
Peace, Love, and Light,
/s/ Jon C. Munson II
P.S. Regarding an Access port to the Mac: my personal opinion is
that the
disk-based technology that FoxPro used which got bundled in MS
Access (after
MS purchased FoxPro) is the sole reason it isn't ported. I could be
quite
wrong on that note though since it really isn't all that important
to me
other than I wish Access were ported over.
-----Original Message-----
From: cocoa-dev-bounces+jmunson=his....@lists.apple.com
[mailto:cocoa-dev-bounces+jmunson=his....@lists.apple.com] On Behalf
Of Gary
L. Wade
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 2:03 AM
To: cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com
Subject: Re: Report writer for Cocoa?
In defense of the original poster, I understood perfectly what he was
asking, and the responses he received showed others did, too.
Pretty much
everyone who has heard of FileMaker and Microsoft Office, two
extremely
well-known products each available on the Macintosh for well over a
decade,
as well as heard of them in the same sentence, has most likely heard
comparisons between Access and FileMaker (as well as heard comments
about
why Microsoft hasn't ported Access to the Mac), and can probably
surmise
they operate similarly.
In case you're still not informed about what a report writer tool
is, it's
typically a subsystem of a software product or a standalone product
that
allows an end-user to develop reports to be used in an application.
Comments by others on the forum have given suggestions that an end-
user
might just as effectively develop an HTML template (a technology
many people
on the list understand and may even have used) that the original
poster
could utilize to produce such a report, while others have suggested
utilizing Interface Builder to design one (a technology that people
on the
list typically get maligned if they don't use).
If you are still confused about what a report writer is, try
Google. And,
getting back to Microsoft Office, keep in mind that a number of its
components, which are line-of-business applications, originated on the
Macintosh.
On 01/15/2009 6:50 PM, "Chris Hanson" <c...@me.com> wrote:
On Jan 14, 2009, at 12:01 PM, Jon C. Munson II wrote:
I could be missing the obvious, however, my question is whether a
report
writer tool (like Crystal Reports or MS Access, by way of example)
exists
for Cocoa?
In the future, it might make it easier to get help if you explain
more
specifically what you're looking for.
Developers who have been working on the Mac platform exclusively for
quite a while may have no idea how Crystal Reports or MS Access work.
The Mac world has also historically been much less focused on Line-
of-
Business applications than the Windows world, so what "report writer
tools" do for the software developer may not be readily apparent to
many experienced Mac developers who might otherwise have suggestions.
-- Chris
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