Help with reporting: use XML/XSL/CSS??

[Zachary Wells]

First, I apologize for the cross-post but as you'll see my question really
does involve all these various groups.

I'm trying to do something different with my VB/SQL app. I'm in the process
of writing the reports for the app and am running into some questions.
First, I really don't want to use a 3rd party solution such as Crystal
reports for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that this companies MIS
department uses it for one of their standard apps and I don't want my app
causing version conflicts with theirs (its already happened with another app
of mine). Second, I don't want to be stuck with the headaches of upgrading
the plug-ins or changes to the object model or whatever, that can come from
a 3rd party util like that. So, my brilliant idea is to write my reports to
be displayed and printed from a web browser. Basically, I want my VB app to
spit out an HTML (or XML) document and open the users web browser to
view/print the report. Note, I'm just creating a file, this is not going to
be using a web server or anything like that.

What I'm going over in my head right now is whether I want to go with
XML/XSL or HTML/CSS or XML/CSS. Obviously XML/XSL is the "forward-thinking"
option but its also, IMO, a little early to put all your eggs in that
basket. I'm kind of leaning towards XML/CSS but I'm not sure if that will
allow me to do everything I need and provide the flexibility of XML/XSL.
Either way my thinking is that I should be able to distribute the XSL or CSS
templates with the app and then have the XML/HTML that is generated from the
app use those templates as needed. This would allow me the ability to easily
change report formatting without require a new EXE (which crystal reports
does). It also allows certain users the ability to customize specific report
layouts for their individual needs (this is a good thing). I'm not an expert
on XML, CSS or XSL so its tough for me to make a decision. Does anyone have
any thoughts or arguments one way or the other regarding which combination
of technology is better than the other? I'm open to any ideas or thoughts.

Oh, and IE version *shouldn't* be an issue. All users are guaranteed to be
on IE. They will most likely be on V5 or higher (if not I can upgrade them
so that's not an issue).

Thanks.

--
--------------------------------------------
Zachary Wells, MCSE
IT Manager
ACT 1
Technical & Professional Services
ZWe...@Act1Corp.com

[David Marrero]

One of the advantages of using XSL would be the ability for the user to
dynamically sort or filter the page very easily. Since the page won't
necessarily reside on a web server, you cannot return to the browser to
resort the report, etc. Using XSL, this is very easy and can be done
generically for most reports, reducing any special code needed most of the
time.

"Zachary Wells" <zwe...@act1corp.com> wrote in message
news:#nOuZ1TkAHA.1460@tkmsftngp03...

[Zachary Wells]

True. However, that leads me to one other important aspect: Printing. The
most important aspect of this is that the output looks correct on the
printer. Basically, wrapping text, for example, is bad. In CSS I know I can
use the Position parameter, is there an equivalent option in XSL?

--
nib, non-spell casting swordsman
n...@Springmail.com
Unofficial (and out-dated) FAQ: http://www.mindspring.com/~zachw/ac/faq

"David Marrero" <dmar...@kiva.net> wrote in message
news:#d2O$nUkAHA.1568@tkmsftngp04...

[Kirk Graves]

in XSL you can generate any valid HTML you might have generated in the CSS.
So yes, that should be possible.

"Zachary Wells" <zwe...@act1corp.com> wrote in message

news:uGK5YtUkAHA.1848@tkmsftngp03...

[G]

XSL fo's - formating objects. I haven't used them but last I looked there
was a bunch of them that allow you to do all kinds of formatting - way above
and beyond CSS.

"Zachary Wells" <zwe...@act1corp.com> wrote in message

news:uGK5YtUkAHA.1848@tkmsftngp03...

[Zachary Wells]

Yeah, I thought of that after I posted this. I think that's my solution. Use
XSL with embedded style info. Should be pretty nice.
Thanks for the response.
Zach

"Kirk Graves" <mcsd...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Ojaz41UkAHA.1136@tkmsftngp04...

[Zachary Wells]

Good call. That was the next chapter (after XSL) in my XML book. Should
have thumbed through that before posting. That looks like the last nail in
the CSS route coffin.

Thanks,
Zach
"G" <ger...@bwn.net> wrote in message news:OpcuD9UkAHA.1892@tkmsftngp05...

[Rowland Shaw]

As a great believer in not reinventing the wheel, I took a look at the
current feature set of Crystal Reports -- it seems that there is a DHTML
viewer as part of version 8 [1]

At least it gets round your plugin/dll conflict problems :o)

NB, I see they do a "developer version" as of version 8 too...

[1]
http://www.seagatesoftware.com/products/crystalreports/downloads/scr8new_Fea
tures.pdf

"Zachary Wells" <zwe...@act1corp.com> wrote...