Hi all,

First, forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask, please move accordingly if neccesary.

Second, a little background. We have a proyect and this proyect uses sql server to store its data, also, it uses sql server report system from a asp.net application.

Now, the problem. The company wants to move everything to opensource (they don't really understand pretty well the concept nor the pros/cons of the technology involved, let's just say that they liked how opensource sound).

By moving everything to opensource, they mean: No more asp.net/c# apps, from now on; what we have should run on mono and what we create will be in java. No more sql server, the proyect should now work with mysql, postgresql and firebird. The issue here (beyond others one might imagine) is the report system, the proyect will need a report system that can be implemented on mysql or postgresql or firebird.

I've looked around, found a few things like fyiReporting, Report Manager, components of SpagoBI Suite, pentaho, birt... the thing is that many provide one part (e.g. the report designer only) or they are intended to a specific platform (like birt with j2ee).

The migration of this project is intended to end in a debian system so that's why there's a need to drop sql server somehow.

I don't a expect a straighforward answer or anything, just asking to see if anyone have tried this or have some kind of where-to-look-guide

Thanks for reading, and again, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask.

Well, the first question you need to answer is which DB you're going to use. You obviously don't need three. Personally, I prefer MySQL, and have had much success in making it work nicely with web pages, external ODBC drivers, etc. But you'll have to decide which one to use, to best suit YOU.

And when you say "report system", what do you mean?? If you're talking about 'canned' reports, that someone can fill in the blanks, and hit SUBMIT, there are several tools available. First, if you've already got Crystal reports, it works with MySQL, same as it would with any other ODBC database. There are also things like ReportManager (http://reportman.sourceforge.net/), BIRT (www.eclipse.org/birt), and Jasper Reports (http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net), just to name a few. Google can point you to more.

If you're talking about just ACCESS to the database, you can run OpenOffice, and point your ODBC connection to your MySQL database, and get whatever you want.

Thanks for answering

To clarify things a little bit, by report system I mean:

The current asp.net/c# application uses an instance of Microsoft Sql Server Rerporting Services.

Basically, the application save its data on the database server, an instance of sql server reporting services does a few things on the data backend (afaik), then a .aspx page is loaded in the browser, the c# code talks to this sql server reporting services instance and the user gets a nice report on the browser.

The thing about deciding about a database is true, however, this people is still considering choices, right now, part of the application is being tested on the three database systems and there's some sort of dream on having a complety-multiplataform-at-every-level-proyect that works, the same way, with whatever database they choose between mysql, postgresql and firebird (I know right!


Thanks again for reading!

No problems, and good luck.

I have very little knowledge about Windows and SQL server, etc., but I can tell you that there are several PHP products you can find, to help you get web-pages done to generate reports. I use MySQL often with PHP, with excellent results.