Real World Enterprise Reports Using VB6 And VB .NET 
Buy it at Amazon
Read a Sample Chapter From The Publisher
Author Carl Ganz, Jr.
Publisher APress
Length 696 pages
vbRad Rating: 4 fingers up. (4 out of 5)
Reviewed by Robert Gelb

I spent my entire career running from Crystal Reports. I hated it in early releases of VB, and I still do in VB6 and .NET. Years ago I found refuge in vsReports, an innovative product that let you reuse reports you've created in MS Access. Recently, I've had to deal with Crystal Reports on the web, because that's what the client had already purchased. I was still amazed that after all these years Crystal hasn't learned how to display the real database error, rather than a generic error. Regardless, I avoided books on reports because they were mostly books on Crystal Reports.

This one is somewhat different. Crystal still gets several chapters to its name. But at least there is an extensive discussion of other products like vsView, vsPrinter, ActiveReports, etc… And of course the book goes into an extensive discussion of web-based reports, including using the above products.

Those who use MS Office to tie everything together won't be disappointed either. Chapter 7 describes how to use the constituent parts (Word, Excel, Access) to generate high-quality reports.

The author even goes of the charted path and delves into a discussion of reporting on the PocketPC and Palm OS. On top of it all, the book is written in a style very conducive to easy reading. Overall, good buy.


Want more reviews and sample chapters? Click here.