Report Builder vs JasperReports/iReport

Hi folks, I'm in need of a visual report builder. Can anyone tell me if they have experience with either Adobe's Report Builder (which I've downloaded and played with a little bit) or Jasper Reports/iReport? We're up in the air over using PHP or CF. I'm pushing CF and my boss is pushing PHP (*sigh*). He's also insistent on being able to build the report visually, like he does in Fox Pro, or like using Crystal (except that's too expensive). I almost think I've got him convinced that we need to use CF, but he's pushing back hard on me to come up with reasons why we can't use PHP (not really why CF would be better, but why PHP would be worse/slower). I've already mentioned to him that Jasper is written in Java and that CF can talk natively to all the objects, and that to do the same in PHP requires a third party (all be it open source) PHP/Java bridge, and then jumping through several hoops. This only turned him off to the idea of JasperReports, not to the idea of using PHP. Any information on how folks are typically generating complex reports (visually) would be great. Heck any help in general would be fantastic. Thanks, Chris -- http://cjordan.us

Microsoft SQL Reporting Services is free with SQL and it is a lot like Crystal. You use Visual Studio as the report builder and it works well and ports to the Web. The only problem is that I have yet to hear about anyone using ColdFusion to display the reports on CF Web pages. On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:21:45 -0500   "Christopher Jordan" <chris.s.jordan@gmail.com> wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Thanks for responding Lee. What about using Microsoft SQL Reporting Services with PHP? See, I've never used Crystal or anything like it, so all this is pretty new to me. I'm unsure of how I connect my web app to a report template or skeleton (for lack of better terms). How do I call the report? How do I feed it data? I'm a bit lost in this respect no matter which report builder I end up using. So if you have thoughts on those sorts of questions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks heaps, Chris ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

I know SQL Reporting Services is suppose to use Web Services to do a lot of what you are asking. It's fairly straight forward to set up the internal Report Manager Server and view internal reports through a Web browser. Integrating them into a live Internet facing Web site is what I also need to learn. On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:45:48 -0500   "Christopher Jordan" <chris.s.jordan@gmail.com> wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Chris, Can you clarify what you need a little bit?  I read what you are saying as you have an existing web application that you need to integrate reporting service but one of the requirements is that you need a visual report generation interface.  Is that correct?  If so, what is the existing web application running on? Rich Kroll