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Charting Software for custom SharePoint web (chart) parts

Hi all,

I'm just wondering what the best charting software would be for my particuliar situation (ie. Dundas, Chart FX, Crytsal Reports, MS RS, etc.). I basically just need a low-cost charting solution which will plug into the SharePoint framework and enable the development of nice looking charts which pull data from a SQL Server OLAP database and Excel sheets & pivot tables. I will be developing the SharePoint chart web parts in C#. I am interested in all comments/suggestions- I just need a way to create some visually appealing charts that will communicate important business info within SharePoint to those who need it.

Thanks a bunch in advance for all advice!

PS: (my points for this question will go to the most clearly explained and comprehesive answer I recieve (of the first 3).

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Chris McGuigan

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EllsworthAdhesives

ASKER

Thanks Chris- that was an excellent answer to my question. 'Exactly the info I was looking for. I think SSRS would be the way to go for my circumstance (I am the DBA, the only app developer (have done extensive application development in ASP.NET with C# and VB.NET since 2003) for my company, a mid-sized corporation, and I have good deal (3+ years) of SQL query writing experience). I'm a novice with MDX queries though, and from the looks of what I've seen in SQL Mag, it doesn't look incredibly easy (or at least incredibly similiar to ANSI SQL or T-SQL). If you have any advice for good MSRS query writing/chart-developing resources (texts, sites, etc.) I would be all ears!

Thanks again,

Colin

Chris McGuigan

With SSRS, you don't need to know MDX unless you really want to do extremely complex stuff. The OLAP is drag and drop (SSRS 2005 - RS2000 is not as good with OLAP).

I'm not well placed to recommend learning resources as I am largely self taught because at the time no books were available, I was on the 2005 beta program too so I learnt as the thing was developing. Getting started though I would highly recommend the step by step tutorials in MSDN - they helped me alot. Also the Microsoft forum for RS was good - I haven't been on it in a long while but it was a good source of info especially as MS staff regularly answered queries - but that died off considierably around the time 2005 was released.

Experts Exchange is a good source generally although RS is not particularly prominent (I've answered 6 questions in 2 days total and I'm already in the all time top 15 for DB Reporting!) .

Feel free to contact me if you want more advice.

Thanks for the points.

Cheers
Chris McGuigan