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SQL (ORACLE) MENU/REPORT GENERATOR Program

One of my companies just switched to a new accounting system. The data is in an oracle database. I have access to the database and I'm currently learn the file structure/layouts. The owner wants custom reports written and would like them to be on a menu driven program so the Project Managers can enter in search data and get a nice looking report. I've seen a few programs that will do this and will allow us to drill down any report if need. The cost of these programs are massive per user. I would like to know if anyone knows of a way to do something like this that's a little more cost effective?

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Geert G

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Ganesh Gurudu

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slightwv (䄆 Netminder)

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Chris Slack

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I am a developer. The software company doesn't play well with other so I'm in the database trying to figure out tables/data layouts. My customer wants to move fast and they don't have time for me write the interface. That's why looking for something half way there to start. We looked at Crystal Report server. It nice but we are hoping to find another vendor.

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slightwv (䄆 Netminder)

OK, in the triangle you've already selected fast. Now pick the one other option: Do you want cheap or good? Remember, you can't have all three!

Oracle has OBIEE and Oracle Reports. Neither cheap but play pretty nice with an Oracle database so it should be fast to implement.

Something to think about: Other storage/search engines. I recently heard about this combination. It is open source and free. Thus far I have only read about them but what I've read has been decent: Elastic Search and Kibana. I hope to play with it someday soon!

The link below talks about Oracle performance views but you should be able to integrate just about any Oracle data.

https://www.elastic.co/blog/visualising-oracle-performance-data-with-the-elastic-stack

Geert G

now there is an idea from steve we are going into: report views

what you basically need is a program which reads data from a view and dumps it into a report
> even sqlplus can generate html reports
https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQPUG/ch_seven.htm#SQPUG017

sample with pl/sql
http://aleckaplandba.blogspot.be/2015/07/generate-html-report-from-plsql-by_26.html
albeit not very generic
a generic approach is way easier within a development environment

a html report can use css for fancy effects
you can even add interactive graphs with D3
https://d3js.org/

and this only takes up "a lot of your time"

and something else ... what management always seem to forget:
having a reporting tool is just the beginning.
every report takes time to write and to maintain ... and to change upon request
the report is usually written by someone who more or less knows what's in the tables and what they mean