SQL Server Performance Forum – Threads Archive

2005 Report Designer vs. Crystal Reports Designer

My organization is considering switching from Crystal Reports to Report Designer provided by SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. I am looking for feedback from experienced Crystal developers that are currently using the SQL Server 2005 Report Designer. My areas of concern are as follows: 1) Was it easy to transition from Crystal to SQL Report Designer 2005 if you do not have a .NET background? 2) How clean is an Export into Excel from the SQL Report Designer 2005? Is it as good as Crystal, better, worse? 3) How do subreports work in the SQL Server product in comparison to Crystal? Are you able to pass variables to the main report and use them in main report formulas. 4) Is there an equivalent to the Running Totals function? 5) Is conditional formatting applicable on detail objects, sections, summaries, running totals, subreports, etc. If there are any limitations or changes in with conditional formatting, please elaborate? 6) Do you need to know .NET programming to create "formulas"? 7) Can you have multiple sections for each report level (details a, details b, group1 a, group1 b, etc)? Any information you can provide on differences from a Crystal Report developer’s perspective would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

1. it is not that hard. just different
2. I am unsure.. havent had to do that to be able to speak right abt it.
3. sub reports work similar. Yes, you can pass parms back and forth.
4. Not that I have seen. I wish.
5. yes.
6. No.. just basic VB
7. No. and I havent figured how to "roll up" a line when null. It is not that bad, but not as powerful as Crystal, but the end user tools and the web functionality are excellent. Some of those require more licensing in CR (enterprise!!!) than here.. Mike Michael B
Sr. DBA "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1:7

No you can’t convert crystal report to SSRS. (good marketing point got microsoft)
there is a good comparison between them
http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/SSRSandCR_Conclusion.asp —————————————-
Contributing Editor, Writer & Forums Moderator
http://www.SQL-Server-Performance.Com

Thanks MikeEBS and dineshasanka. Both of your responses were extremely helpful. Since my posting I’ve taken a the virtual lab Microsoft offers for Reporting Services. I was able to answer some of my questions. It appears you must have a working knowledge of VB in order to really get the most of the product. When I desing a CR report, I code formulas, selection critieria and conditional formatting, using Crystal Syntax, not VB. I’ve taken VB courses, but never actively used the knowledge. I know as much of VB of the top of my head as I remember Spanish from a high school course in 1986. I’m the lead report writer, so switching overnight may not be the best thing unless we want to take our VB/.NET programmer off of application development and put him on report writing duty. Oh, I’m sure he’d love that. Most developers look at report writing like DBA’s look at MS Access. Again, thanks for the info. More comments are welcome.

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