hydrazi
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Migrating Away from Crystal Reports to Straight PHP
I have interesting idea for a customer who uses Crystal Reports to run their invoices and certification letters on their Intranet.
It is setup to pull data from a MySQL database, show the result in the web browser which they then click EXPORT then choose PDF and export it.
My idea is to use fPDF (or something similar) to create the same report, PHP pulling in the data from the database and organizing it, then instantly making a PDF file with the file's default name (that they normally have to type in).
Is there anything that Crystal Reports does that I could not simulate in PHP?
It is setup to pull data from a MySQL database, show the result in the web browser which they then click EXPORT then choose PDF and export it.
My idea is to use fPDF (or something similar) to create the same report, PHP pulling in the data from the database and organizing it, then instantly making a PDF file with the file's default name (that they normally have to type in).
Is there anything that Crystal Reports does that I could not simulate in PHP?
Why not use the development tools available with CR to automate the process with an ASP page
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What is the concern or reason for migrating away from Crystal and not to another reporting tool?
If it is the user interaction, there is no need to have them display the report then export it. With Crystal you can export directly to PDF then view the PDF.
Have you considered the effort involved in changing horses at this point?
mlmcc
If it is the user interaction, there is no need to have them display the report then export it. With Crystal you can export directly to PDF then view the PDF.
Have you considered the effort involved in changing horses at this point?
mlmcc
ASKER
I think changing horses at this point is just what we want to do. We are looking for faster, lower-overhead reports that go directly to PDF. Crystal Reports is becoming an increasing expense and I do not think we need all the power it comes with.
Sorry for the "anything crystal reports does" line. Much too vague. Still, the answers here are extremely helpful in that I am now convinced after much playing around with the above suggestions, that we are going to start our migration away from Crystal Reports.
Many thanks!
Sorry for the "anything crystal reports does" line. Much too vague. Still, the answers here are extremely helpful in that I am now convinced after much playing around with the above suggestions, that we are going to start our migration away from Crystal Reports.
Many thanks!
That "anything" part covers a lot of ground. But in my experience you can do a lot with FPDF. It's time-consuming to set it up the first time, but once it's working, it is lightning fast and accurate in placement to about 1/100 inch.
Is there anything in particular that you are concerned about?