J
Jon in Canby Or.
I have a client who currently has information for THEIR clients in a SQL
Server db from small business server, I believe. We use MS Access to create
reports that they then print to a pdf file and email to their clients. They
now want to have their clients be able to run the the reports themselves from
their website, with perhaps some drill down ability. They also want to be
able to get some of the information in a format which they can import into
Excel spreasheets as well as importing information into their accounting
systems (which likily requires a csv format). I have a lot of experience with
VB6, VBA, and ASP, but only an academic knowledge of C#, ASP.net, XML, XSLT,
etc. (I've read hundreds of pages of textbooks but haven't used any of it). I
want to move away from the old tools and use the new stuff. I can think of
plenty of strategies for accomplishing this using old and new technologies,
but I'm interested in hearing how people with experience with other tools
would approach this task and what techniques they would use. XML/XSLT would
seem to be part of the answer. I think they also own a version of Crystal
Reports that they bought with the intent of using it for this but they don't
have enough in house knowledge to make use of it, but it's something I could
pick up easy enough if it is worth it. I'm also concerned about licensing
issues regarding the use of SQL Server.
How would you approach these tasks?
Server db from small business server, I believe. We use MS Access to create
reports that they then print to a pdf file and email to their clients. They
now want to have their clients be able to run the the reports themselves from
their website, with perhaps some drill down ability. They also want to be
able to get some of the information in a format which they can import into
Excel spreasheets as well as importing information into their accounting
systems (which likily requires a csv format). I have a lot of experience with
VB6, VBA, and ASP, but only an academic knowledge of C#, ASP.net, XML, XSLT,
etc. (I've read hundreds of pages of textbooks but haven't used any of it). I
want to move away from the old tools and use the new stuff. I can think of
plenty of strategies for accomplishing this using old and new technologies,
but I'm interested in hearing how people with experience with other tools
would approach this task and what techniques they would use. XML/XSLT would
seem to be part of the answer. I think they also own a version of Crystal
Reports that they bought with the intent of using it for this but they don't
have enough in house knowledge to make use of it, but it's something I could
pick up easy enough if it is worth it. I'm also concerned about licensing
issues regarding the use of SQL Server.
How would you approach these tasks?