Ron,

I have been using Shazam for the past 2+ years and my users love it.  I
only wish it supported TTables and indexes so that I could use it with
Flash Filer.  I also use Crystal Reports, Quick Reports and Report
Printer Pro.  I have used Lotus ScreenCam to create some basic how-to
movies for my users along with some basic documentation of how the
database is layed out and their off.  I just wish that Shazam would
finally include the data dictionary they have talked about for the past
two years.

- Lou

Hello All,

What are some of the better report writer tools availabe for Delphi
3.0 and SQL databases.  I'm somewhat familiar with QuickReports and
QRDesign.  

Anyone using "Shazam Report Wizard" ?

We need our end user to be able to generate their own reports.

Comments please

Ron Simonsmeier
acl...@agt.net
Ron Simonsmeier
Enhanced Business Systems Inc
acl...@agt.net

You have to look at Ace Reporter Pro!!!

We have been using it for two years also and in that time, we have fallen in
love with it!!!<g>

I have used a ton of different banding report generators, and for the last
couple of years I thought Access was the best... but now I find myself
wishing I was using Ace when I am forced to write another Access report!!!

It is very graphical  - and simple reports are a no-brainer...

However, we have done things in Ace that no report generator should be asked
to do!!! and it has done them all!

The more I use it, the better I like it!!! - and the support is
great!!!!!!!!!

Ace has its own NG and questions are answered very quickly (even at night
and over the weekends!!!) - a definite plus for those "code warriors" who
work over the weekends<g>.

Just my .02   - good luck,
--Raymond

On Sat, 14 Nov 1998 22:12:28 -0800, Lou Feliz <lfe...@lclipboard.com>
wrote:

Since Shazam provides Adhoc reporting capabilities, is there a way to
prevent the user from retrieving a huge result set?

On Sun, 15 Nov 1998 00:58:49 -0600, "Raymond J. Schappe"

Can you give examples of what these are?

Lou,

Thanks for the Info.  I downloaded the demo and it looks impressive.

On Sat, 14 Nov 1998 22:12:28 -0800, Lou Feliz <lfe...@lclipboard.com>
wrote:

Ron Simonsmeier
Enhanced Business Systems Inc
acl...@agt.net

you are asking A LOT here...<g> It is NEVER easy to describe something
difficult! (plus, you can't see me waving my arms and pounding my fists as I
explain it<g>)

Yikes, the hardest part is thinking of which to describe!!!

Ok, well we have done complete Billing and Collection / Accounts Receivable
reporting systems (this would comprise of about 20 different reports of
various difficulty). Of course, all the Tax reports are included in that set
as well!<g> Many of these monthly reports run into 200+ pages...

Production systems... yea, I know the one...

A order entry / production system for a counter top manufacturing plant. We
created all the manufacturing schedules in Ace for the plant use - which
materials to be used by which stations, scheduling, material ordering and
stocking, various stages of production...

The one that I personally pulled out the majority of my precious hair on was
a the material ordering report for materials that go into various tops...

If you are with me so far, here is the scenario:

Each db Order record contains info regarding a cust order
each db OrderItem rec contains info on that particular item being ordered
(so far so good...)
now an OrderItem - in this case a Kitchen Countertop has all the info on
colors, depths, etc... well, once all that info is entered, the users
actually order SEVERAL tops from that one OrderItem
e.g. Kitchen Top, Red, 25" deep, 5.5" high, Lengths: 120" 100" 90" 28.75"
12.5" - so in this case 5 kitchen tops were ordered.

Now just for those die hard DA's out there, yes we did initially try
normalizing this out fully, and but did the users love the extra data entry
<not> we fixed that and the SPEED killed us! We denormalized to our current
design and this helped  _A_LOT_<g>

So each record is really several Tops... (which means we are driving from
the database, but yet we also have to drive from each compound record as
well - e.g 5 OrderItems but material for 23 tops needs to be ordered....)

Ok, so now we needed to sort on Manufacturer of Laminate, Colors, widths,
lengths (getting more complex but still ok)

But now we needed to combine for the most efficient use of materials!!! And
of course, materials (in this case laminate and particle board) come in
interesting sizes like 3' 4' 5' 6' 8' 10' 12'

Putting this all together (along with the fact that certain tops need to be
routed to certain work-areas - but again these different tops can be ordered
in the same order, etc) made this a particularly {*word*193} one. We tried this in
Access, Clarion, Crystal Reports, and a new product to us called Ace...
(this was quite a while ago!)

Long story end... Ace was able to pull it off (I think the Crystal Reports
is STILL RUNNING<vbg>.)

I only wish that I knew as much about Ace back then as I do now!!! - I think
I could have even done more<g>.

Good luck,
--Raymond

Can you give us an URL, please?

--
Joachim Meyer
BASYS EDV-Systeme GmbH
J...@basys-bremen.de

Can you give us an URL, please?

--
Joachim Meyer
BASYS EDV-Systeme GmbH
J...@basys-bremen.de

Ooops, sorry about that!

Here is the home of Ace Reporter http://www.sct-associates.com/

Good luck,
--Raymond

JoeM
Das ist www.shazamware.com

Ron Simonsmeier

On Mon, 16 Nov 1998 08:49:07 +0100, "Joachim Meyer"

Ron Simonsmeier
Enhanced Business Systems Inc
acl...@agt.net

On Mon, 16 Nov 1998 01:32:47 -0600, "Raymond J. Schappe"

Sorry, I did not mean to ask for that much detail.  But I appreciate
them.

Lito,

I downloaded the Shazam Demo.  Unlike Quickreports on the first page
of data is displayed and very quickly.  I believe Quickreports
generates the entire report even if you might only want to print the
first couple of pages.

Also after looking at ACE Reporter, it appears that ACE Reporter does
not have the facility for the end user to design their own reports.

Ron Simonsmeier
acl...@agt.net

Ron Simonsmeier
Enhanced Business Systems Inc
acl...@agt.net

On Wed, 18 Nov 1998 03:57:55 GMT, acl...@agt.net (Ron Simonsmeier)
wrote:

My concern is not how fast the report generator starts displaying
data, but how long  does the database process the query.  Anytine you
give the user the capability to formulate their own Select command,
you run the risk of retrieving a huge result set which consumes a lot
of server power that can otherwise be used to process other queries.
Does Shazam provide a way to cancel such a query?

To my experience, the best report writer is Report
Builder(digitial.metaphors.com).

HBZhang