Real World Enterprise Reports Using VB6 and VB .NET

Although reports are frequently overlooked in applications until the end of the development process, they often represent the key selling points to management, as a software application's primary value lies in its output.

Real World Enterprise Reports Using VB6 and VB .NET discusses report writing from a developer's perspective. Author Carl Ganz, Jr., covers programming reports using such tools as VSView, Preview, and ActiveReports. The programmatic interface offered by Crystal Reports and the delivery of reports to handheld wireless devices are also examined.

If you have ever had to build reports into an application, are currently in the process of selecting a reporting tool, have `discovered` limitations to the reporting tool you're using, or just want to make sure that your application is positioned for scalability to other delivery technologies, this book is for you.

User review
Good overview but often too basic
Ganz has put together a fairly good book that provides an overview of several different reporting options for VB/VB.NET developers. His coverage of different 3rd-party solutions such as Crystal Reports and ActiveReports is one of the highlights of the text. I was unhappy with the focus on tabular reports, with basically no coverage of more graphical presentation options like charts and graphs. These are often more challenging to develop, and expert advice from a source like this would be quite valuable. The book also seemed to have too much of a focus on building specific reports for specific business requirements, and not enough on building more generalized solutions to cover a wider range of reporting problems for end users.

User review
Business requirements driven Reporting Book
Most of the technical books on the market are organized to address a specific technical issue.
This book allows you to search based on business requirements. This is a very unique approach
and helpful for developers. Additionally, there are many effective working examples.
It also discusses different reporting tools such as VS-View, Crystal Reports, Active Reports, and OLAP.
I would strongly recommend this to any company which uses more than one reporting package.
It is a valuable reference tool. It will certainly be helpful in making technical/reporting decisions.

User review
Hits All Important Issues
A clear concise guide to the ever changing landscape of reporting tools and their myriad uses. The discussion of different data source types and example code for each case was very useful to me - from Office to VB6 to .NET, it's all here!

User review
A Reporting Bible!
Clear, practical and concise coverage of almost every reporting topic and technique. Chock full of examples and side bars, beginning to advanced users will find something worthwhile in its pages. Coverage of popular reporting tools such as Crystal Reports and Active Reports prove informative, but more informative, interesting and cost effective yet was the discussion on using the ubiquitous Microsoft Office as a reporting tool from VB6 and VB.NET. I found the authors' advice on creating general purpose criteria screens for reporting, invaluable in several of my consulting projects. If you want to weigh your reporting options, become a better report smith, build a reusable reporting library and impress your clients, buy this book!