cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

crystal reports and jboss

Former Member
0 Kudos

Good day, everyone!

I'll be short and simple. I just started a new job as some what of a product and project manager for a manufacturer. They make devices that can be managed via wireless networks. The management application is presently built by a 3rd party development firm using jboss. This management gateway manages and controls the devices at a client.

I was just brought on to help manage this effort. At present, there in the stages of needing to develop a web-based reporting framework for the end users of very simple tabular and graphical (bar, pie) views of the information the gateway application collects and stores in an oracle 10g embedded DB.

The current method of reporting is an old-school, hand-coded HTML output using JBOSS. Prior to my arrival, it's kind of gotten the job done. Now they need to include graphical charting, drill down capabilities, and their jboss engineers found JFREECHART to incorporate into the project.

My background does NOT include JBOSS expertise, but it does include tons of BI (from the simple to the enterprise).

So here's my question:

I'd like to utilize Crystal Reports as a report design platform to speed up the report development process. But I do not know if it is possible to embed a Crystal Viewer into a purely Java/Apache/JBOSS environment. As a wizard on Crystal, I"m sure I could help them rapidly implement their reporting requirements. BUt it's this question of embedding and accessing the report from their current application platform.

I have personally coded C#, VB.NET web and windows applications embedding the Crystal Viewer for web-based reporting solutions.

My dilemma is to identify whether Crystal Reports have a Java-based viewer that can be programmatically controlled via JBOSS/Java/Apache environments running on Windows Server 2003.

I'm not exactly asking for any step by step instructions, just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to utilize Crystal Reports in a predominantly "open source" developer community.

This isn't the first time I've experienced a development house that wants to build their own HTML table driven reporting solution. But our company doesn't have the time to waste. If we can some how integrate Crystal REports into the JBOSS/JAVA/Apache environment, we may be able to continue to utilize the existing custom developed application gateway while taking advantage of the power of the Crystal Reports Designer, Runtime, and reporting platform.

My only other idea is to have IIS co-exist in the environment and use VS.NET to develop web forms with embedded Crystal REports. The only issue here is that the 3rd party developer is really an anti-Microsoft, pure open sources tools company, and i'm sure I'd lose the war for even suggesting a "mixed mode" of application tools.

To be very truthful, friends, I really think if I can research the ability to have a Crystal Report consumed/Displayed via Java/Apache, I can help my firm out greatly. It's a shame that this 3rd party developer wants to hand code HTML reports when there are BI and report writing tools with free runtimes that could greatly increase the feature richness and robustness of the reports as well as get to market so much faster.

I respect the open source community and capabilities as it' has contributed much towards the development of my firms application gateway. However, there is a real need to integrate a mature BI and reporting platform and I'm hoping this is possible smoe how.

thank you for any and all advice!

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Adam_Stone
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

You would want to look at the Crystal Reports for Eclipse product which is a pure java solution. You can find more information on it [here|http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/crystalreports-java]

Answers (0)