New Report Writer Coming!!

tpis001

Shame... this is only my hope for the future...

Is there any hope that the report writer will be updated within Aware?? It currently ships with a super old version of Jasper.

These days it's critically important to be able to turn data into useful information that is easy to understand for end users.

The ability of Aware to do this is well below how could it be - even if it had a closer integration with a newer version of jasper.

We've found the more reporting options we have, the more the customer becomes interested in it and we're going to have to look at 3rd party tools if Aware can't handle it.

Come on support! Make the reporting as good as the rest of the system!

tpis001

tpis001 wrote
Shame... this is only my hope for the future...

Is there any hope that the report writer will be updated within Aware?? It currently ships with a super old version of Jasper.

These days it's critically important to be able to turn data into useful information that is easy to understand for end users.

The ability of Aware to do this is well below where it could be - even if it had a closer integration with a newer version of jasper, this would be a big step forward...

We've found the more reporting options we have, the more the customer becomes interested in it and we're going to have to look at 3rd party tools if Aware can't handle it.

Come on support! Make the reporting as good as the rest of the system!

weblike

Oooo this would be lovely...like 100 steps forward for report designer...

+10

Powerm

Correct, that Jasper version of the designer is like having a floppy disk reader attached to a Mac Pro 🙂

pbrad

I thought it was Christmas but it turned out to be April Fools Day. I am working on a number of reports right now and am wanting to output a wide variety of interactive, parametric charts and graphs with the ability to output to screen, pdf, word and excel.

The shortcomings of our current report writer are truly exasperating. I know that a number of users have requested improvements in this area for many years and there were some good suggestions put forward last year (

hpl123

1+ for better reporting and also info on vision/timeline. Thanks

kklosson

The last time I heard from AwareSoft on this I think they stated that the Jasper open source licensing model has changed and that integrating AwareIM concepts into a new version of Jasper is a big lift. It would be good to hear from them again on this issue.

What are the current best options to modernize the report engine?
Does AwareSoft have the bandwidth to take on the project?
What potential costs might there be to developers?
Can modernization be crowd-sourced?

himanshu

It will really going to be big update for awareim developers.
+1

tpis001

Some really useful / interesting comments here. The one thing that is clear is the universal support for wanting to see this very important area of Aware improved.

There are obviously considerations such as the best approach to take / timescales / costs and I can't help feeling that all roads leads back to Aware support joining the dialogue about how best to make this happen...

In the meantime, perhaps it would be helpful if we all gave some thought to what specifically we'd like to see so that Aware know what they're aiming at. I'm happy to start this process... I think these days we need:

fully interactive charts / graphs (there are plenty of options out there)
the ability to easily pass parameters with AND / OR logic to the outputs
the ability to drill down within reports to make the presentations of data easy to understand for people
Full export options created in a report writer with a preview area, to save having to put the bsv under test the whole time

What does everyone else think?

Does anyone have any sensible options for integrating a solutions?

Support- would you be able to join this conversation and would you be willing to join a conference call to discuss options once everyone has given their thoughts about what needs doing in this area?

Andrea

+1 from me...big headache to use especially for multi-page reports.

aware_support

Thanks for your input, everyone.

Our thoughts:

1) We are not big fans of making radical changes to this area of the system because:
a) It's a very big job
b) No matter what we do there will be people who are unhappy. We do not want to compete with professional report writing tools like Crystal Reports and Aware IM will never be as good as them anyway

2) Despite some shortcomings most people seem to get by OK - it may not have all the bells and whistles, and sometimes it takes a while to develop a report, but the end result is still there most of the time

3) Version 5.9 includes a feature that addresses one of the shortcomings of the report writer - it allows users to save their ONLINE CHARTS as images, which can then be used in a report.

4) We have seen many threads about different shortcomings of the Report Designer, but we couldn't see anything CRITICAL there. So, if you have a missing feature that is CRITICAL, please describe it here.

Rennur

I wouldn't consider the current Report Writer as a "Feature"

kklosson

We can all agree that the report writer could be better. I refer all to a previous thread in which many suggestions were made for improvement:
Report designer plugins>

My AwareIM application generates one extremely complex report composed of roughly 30 subreports. The main issue I have had with the report writer is that it has a pagination issue - it does not seem to properly calculate remaining page length and will generate a page page break inappropriately under certain circumstances. This is discussed in the aforementioned thread.

I can imagine certain requirements that the report writer may not be able to support but so far, I've been able to meet my own requirements.

No question that Crystal Reports is the king of the hill here. Has anyone ever employed Crystal in an AwareIM app? If you want the best possible report writer, there it is. But what it takes to make it work, I don't know.

hpl123

I haven´t used the report tools enough to share any useful comments but one thing I thought of was this. As Awaresoft states, "changing" the report engine/tools completely is a big job and currently not an option but how about improving the tools? If we list all of the biggest limitations and "bugs" Awaresoft can possible work on fixing/improving the tools instead of completely changing engine.

hpl123

hpl123 wrote
I haven´t used the report tools enough to share any useful comments but one thing I thought of was this. As Awaresoft states, "changing" the report engine/tools completely is a big job and currently not an option but how about improving the tools? If we list all of the biggest limitations and "bugs" Awaresoft can possible work on fixing/improving the tools instead of completely changing engine.

First being the pagination issue? Seems this is a problem many developers experience.

kklosson

YESSSSS!

This is a serious bug. Support could use a good BSV example. I've had good intentions but serious time challenges.

weblike

aware_support wrote
Thanks for your input, everyone.

Our thoughts:

1) We are not big fans of making radical changes to this area of the system because:
a) It's a very big job
b) No matter what we do there will be people who are unhappy. We do not want to compete with professional report writing tools like Crystal Reports and Aware IM will never be as good as them anyway

2) Despite some shortcomings most people seem to get by OK - it may not have all the bells and whistles, and sometimes it takes a while to develop a report, but the end result is still there most of the time

3) Version 5.9 includes a feature that addresses one of the shortcomings of the report writer - it allows users to save their ONLINE CHARTS as images, which can then be used in a report.

4) We have seen many threads about different shortcomings of the Report Designer, but we couldn't see anything CRITICAL there. So, if you have a missing feature that is CRITICAL, please describe it here.

Support, could you reconsider this?
JasperSoft announced a new integration component which could make your work easier to integrate.
Please take a look to their new js component: http://www.jaspersoft.com/meet-new-jaspersoft

i think this would be a revolution for AWIM as well.

thank you

himanshu

This is cool !

Thanks for sharing....