Aware's Reporting - Jasper Reports upgrade for next release?

BenHayat

To Support;

Is there plan to upgrade Aware'a Reporting system with the latest "Jasper Reports" for the next major update?

kklosson

There's been lots of discussion on this and I will try to summarize...

The Jasper licensing scheme has apparently changed significantly.
The Jasper products have changed significantly.
Incorporating (or re-incorporating) AwareIM concepts to any new Jasper (or other) report engine is a significant undertaking.
I've not heard of anything on the roadmap to improve the reporting engine.

It seems that there are no alternatives having a good ROI for AwareIM. There may be no real alternatives period.

That said, I've done a lot with the report engine and it's critical to my app. There are issues that I would like to see resolved, the biggest in my view is that the engine's pagination calculations get screwy and will often throw a page break when it's not needed, especially when you have embedded reports.

If there was a shiny new report engine available and I had to pay more money to use it, I would. But as things are, I am getting by.

BenHayat

Thanks KK, Hope support has some new plans.

Powerm

We had talks about that, it was not on the road map 🙁

New Report Writer Coming!!>

BenHayat

Powerm wrote
We had talks about that, it was not on the road map 🙁

New Report Writer Coming!!>

If you are at the conference, can you press on this issue to see, what Awaresoft's plan is, to use another product and what it would take to do so? Just saying "It's a big job isn't an answer to our client's".
Telerik has an excellent Report writer that works with many systems.
Even if I had to pay extra for new report writer, I would because reports are very critical to business apps.

Imagine Lexus is still using a transmission that's a decade old in their new cars. You thin people are going to overlook that? We really need a plan...

weblike

Hi,

Yes this would be a great evolution to the product.
I had recently spoke wiht Vlad, but they don't intend to upgrade this section because that was pointed above.

It would be great if this problem is raised in the conference. Also integration with Active Reports (http://activereports.grapecity.com/), Crystal Reports would be OK, if we can call the reports from AwareIM.

Nice day,

ask180

I understand the issues with upgrading Jasper reports, because of its integration. So leave it as it is.

But I need another reporting solution (no reason why AwareIM can't include a second reporting option, where we can build reports in some other tool (or tools, such as Crystal), and be able to call them seemlessly from the AwareIM environment. Passing parameters by some mechanism (such as the command line) would make it very useful.

The AwareIM solution is brilliant, but is let down badly by poor reporting functionality.

Powerm

I like this one : http://www.dundas.com/gallery/sample-dashboards/#executive-dashboard

himanshu

Hi Support,

Any plan or road map for the reporting tool upgradtion...

We are currently struggling with current version of Reporting (Jasper Reports). :!:

Please Please !! accommodate our request to enhance the reporting feature.

himanshu

Hi Support,

There are issues that I would like to see resolved, the biggest in my view is that the engine's pagination calculations get screwy and will often throw a page break when it's not needed, especially when you have embedded reports.

Currently struggling with report extra page like in previous post Kklosson has post it. I have created a one page report while troubleshooting 4 out of 10 report has extra blank page.

Can you suggest something to fix it ?

weblike

Hi,

Unfortunately it's true. The reporting tool is a section which has remained 10 years in the past while AWIM evolved a lot.

Support said in many related posts that upgrading the reporting tool is very big work and they will not include this part in their todo list.

In nowadays the reports are very important (good looking reports). In many cases that makes the difference between web apps.

Let's forget about Jasper. It's difficult to upgrade,etc...
Like ask180 said: Giving us the possibility to integrate with other Reports Servers and to call/import those reports seamlessly in AWIM, would be also great feature.

I pray every day that Awaresoft will reconsider in giving us more options in using gorgeous reports in AWIM. 🙂

Cheers,

ninap

a more logical approach is simply state the top 3 reporting packages/tools which everyone would like; or document the lacking features - find those in another package and let the market drive the solution.

a) What is the top reporting Tool which you feel is best suited as an AddOn?
b) What features is AIM lacking in reporting which are MUST Haves (follow the MoSCoW rule)
must haves, should haves, could haves, wont have

once we each understand what it is that is the issue then there is something tangible to solve.

i for one would invest in development to have a 3rd party tool which could integrate..

txs (my two cents) nina 😉

Powerm

I like those Dundas one's :

http://www.dundas.com/gallery/sample-dashboards/#drilldown-to-reporting-services-report

hpl123

100+ for more options if it´s a new reporting tool/engine or an integration to another/some other tool.

RocketRod

My view is that AwareIM should not try and embed a report writer within their application . There are many report writers that can work off a SQL or MYSql DB and have all the features that one would ever need. I currently use Microsoft reporting services off a SQL DB and launch the reports from within an AwareIM process using the display URL command. So I have no issues with reporting. To me this is the way to proceed so it never is an issue again. Reports should be designed outside of AwareIM and from within AwareIM we just need a way to call the reports from a process, VP etc. AwareIM then only have to manage and maintain the calling process and not the report writer itself. So I would have AwareIM remove the current Jasper reporting tool from within AwareIM and then just provide ways of calling the main report writing tools like Crystal etc.

Cheers Rod

customaware

I prefer it incorporated in AwareIM as I can do basically everything I need
within the one environment and don't have to worry about my users having
to fire up and learn another tool.

BenHayat

eagles9999 wrote
I prefer it incorporated in AwareIM as I can do basically everything I need
within the one environment and don't have to worry about my users having
to fire up and learn another tool.

I agree... That's why I came to Aware for an integrated development environment.
I'm sure many prospects walk away, when they see an antiquated reporting in Aware.

I started this thread back in April, and Support never responded.

RocketRod

My thoughts.

Report writing usually involves two parts, building the SQL statement which provides the attributes available to the report and designing the layout of the report itself. Usually a developer writes the SQL code or imports a query previously written. The issue for users or non SQL code developers is the first part. So if you could easily import AwareIM query SQL into a report writer you would alleviate this concern. Once the SQL is loaded then the rest of the report build is as it is now. You click the DESIGN button of the report and start laying it out, dragging your attributes onto the report. Already the existing report writer can be run independently using the reportdesigner.bat file. This may be all too simplistic for AwareIM and not possible, but if it could be achieved it would give you I believe what you want and a report writer that could be kept more up to date. So to me AwareIM need to work on keeping report writers interdependent but allow AwareIM SQL to be easily accessed and utilized. They should not alter the design part of a report writer.

Cheers Rod

yuri.rj

I HATE reports in aware! Really really hate!!!!
So what I use is JASPERSERVER COMMUNITY EDITION AND JASPERREPORTS.
My users have an attribute called jasperlogin and jasperpassword
And I have some BO To insert new reports and ask for their parameters.
Then I open these reports using DISPLAY URL directly from jasper server
User don't even know where it came from.
The problem is charts.. Charts ask for the parameters IN jasperserver... So when displaying charts, users realize that they are going on another application.
For me it was not a problem and I can even create more reports without need to stop and update aware application

Cheers

weblike

yuri.rj wrote
I HATE reports in aware! Really really hate!!!!
So what I use is JASPERSERVER COMMUNITY EDITION AND JASPERREPORTS.
My users have an attribute called jasperlogin and jasperpassword
And I have some BO To insert new reports and ask for their parameters.
Then I open these reports using DISPLAY URL directly from jasper server
User don't even know where it came from.
The problem is charts.. Charts ask for the parameters IN jasperserver... So when displaying charts, users realize that they are going on another application.
For me it was not a problem and I can even create more reports without need to stop and update aware application

Can you share how you call the reports from jasper server and how you declare the data in those reports? if I want to create an invoice for example.
Thank you,