Server Side vs. Application 2

[ousoonerjoe]

We are currently trying to decide which would be a better approach, Server side reports or building them into the application directly. I've been looking all over, but would like to hear your input in to what has worked best in the field.

Thank You.

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[bburnell]

The way I am doing things is that the actual reports reside on the server (and can be accessed that way), but I have an application written in VB.net that accesses those reports off of the server and run them in a Windows application. Is that what you're looking for?

Brett

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My new website coming soon!

 

[ousoonerjoe]

yes... that is one of the options we're looking at. The other is to build the reports into the application.

Just looking for opinions and what they have found to work best for them.

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[bburnell]

Well,

The way we do it works well because the reports can be seen either way and could even be built into another application with no problem(s). Depending on what you mean by "building into" the application, you may have to recompile the application every time you change the reports. With the way we do it, I don't even have to touch the application unless I create a new stored procedure or change the parameter(s).

I hope that helps. Good luck!
Brett

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My new website coming soon!

 

[ousoonerjoe]

that's the kind of feed back we're looking for. What are the down falls to being Server side as opposed to application?

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[bburnell]

To be honest I can't think of many (if any). Maybe the only downfall I see would be that it's on the server and if the server goes down, the application will as well. In our world, the server is where the data is anyway, so we'd be screwed either way. Maybe other people can chime in on disadvantages.

My guess would also be that it's possibly faster incorporated into the application, but you still have to get the data over the same network anyway.

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My new website coming soon!

 

[SgtJarrow]

We follow the same concept that bburnell has mentioned.

We have been converting all our old Access applications up into VB over the past 18 months. Many of these Access application really did nothing but display various reports. We recreated all the reports via SSRS in one big solution (one project inside the solution per "application" to keep things visually more appealing and easier to work with) and have them all running Server-side. We then constructed one big VB application that consolidates all the reports into a one-stop shopping location.

Many of those same reports can also be accessed from various other applications or even the server directly as well.

We find this much easier because you do not have to touch the app to update reports. You can make changes to the reports all day long and just redeploy them...As long as nothing from the application side (such as parameters) has changed, there is no need to even open the application project.

As stated by bburnell, our report server is the same as our primary data server...so if one was down, they'd both be down anyway. Might as well take advantage of the multiple-processor, huge RAM base that the server has and not rely on who-know-what PC to do the rendering. Also, wtih Server-sde reports, you can optionally set them to run via cached-modes and snapshots, which can greatly reduce server hits and processing if the report does not change much, such as daily sales figures.

Just my couple of pennies....

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People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. (Calvin from Calvin And Hobbs)

Robert L. Johnson III
CCNA, CCDA, MCSA, CNA, Net+, A+, CHDP
VB.NET Programmer

 

[ousoonerjoe]

Thanks for the input, guys... You just confirmed everything i had suspected. Now to migrate what we have "locally" to the server.

thanks again.

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.