Main Features

Auto-formatting Multiple data sources per report document Cross-database (cross-drivers) data relations Linking (sharing) of Resource Objects Output formats: HTML, RTF, PDF, XML/XSL Table export: CSV, XLS, MDB, DBF, RDBMS Advanced grouping scales Arbitrary grouping customization SQL and VB Script calculations Recursive Calculated Fields Convertible presentation forms Programming automation

Flash Demo Basic Introduction

 

The primary objective for TARGET Reports implementation was creation of an application for delivery of comprehensive reporting solutions at a fraction of the time required by other reporting systems. Most TARGET Reports users would not need any programming or design skills to produce professional well-formatted reports.

The magic of fast and painless reporting is achieved through separation of data access, report definition and visual representation. Many existing report writers mix all three aspects of the report creation procedure together making modifications to report's definition or visual appearance extremely cumbersome after the initial setup.

TARGET Reports provides the ability to create complex, professional reports in several easy steps all of which are accomplished with simple user interface techniques like drag and drop, visual connectivity, and editing of properties.

Extensive analysis of corporate management reporting workflows demonstrated that most of the reporting tasks are based on data aggregation and the process of configuring the report could be divided into the three major steps:

- Data Source Access - Designate where to get the data that will be used to generate reports(database tables, views, stored procedures, etc.)

- Report Data Setup - Define which fields are to be used for grouping and reporting, what records shall be taken from the data source (scope definition) and specify the report type (summary, detailed)

- Visual appearance - Decide on the type of visual representation to be used for displaying the information (Plain table, Hierarchical table, Cross-Tab table, Charts.)

The existing wizard-based report writers allow simple initial report setup, but do not provide easy means for modifying any of the three reporting aspects. Unlike such tools, TARGET Reports offers a very different reporting paradigm allowing effortless manipulation of all properties during the lifecycle of your reporting project.

The primary object for setting up a TARGET report is a report page element (or Report Setup). A report page element can be connected to virtually any kind of data source. One of the distinguishing TARGET Reports features is the ability to fetch data from heterogeneous data sources. For example, you can have one SQL Server table linked to a table from ORACLE or a flat DBase file. The power and flexibility of TARGET Reports allows you to change the input data source at any time and the report setup will automatically adapt to the change.

After an input data connection is established, you can define other reporting properties: custom terms, scope, reporting fields, report type and layout. Any of these properties can be easily modified allowing iterative development of your report with instant feedback. As a result, complex, professional reports can be created in minutes, not hours or days.

Another unique TARGET Reports' feature is variable connectivity. This provides an ability to link multiple variables of the same type to each other, ensuring that their values will always be the same.

Various output formats provide an ability to observe the final reports in viewers most suitable for your needs: MS Word, HTML browsers or PDF viewers. The reporting results can also be saved to a database table for further analysis, exported to a file or returned as a stream, which can be incorporated into your own visualization tool.

TARGET Reports user interface consists of four main parts:

I The main working area displays a collection of pages contained in the document. Each page contains page elements (report elements, texts, images, etc.).

II The Property editor pane displays property editors for the currently selected page element. Each page element type has its own assortment of properties with each property editable by a dedicated property editor.

III The Document tree displays a hierarchical structure of the final document. It allows document structure modification and page navigation.

IV The Resources pane contains various resources for report creation (document resources, page resource, resources for report elements, etc.).

The TARGET Reports Developer Edition (as opposed to Desktop Edition) fully supports programming automation and can be used from any development environment.

TARGET Reports vs. Crystal Reports

In the world driven by information, it would be hard to find a more significant business task than data analysis and reporting.  Although this highly competitive market offers a number of high quality reporting tools, SiMX TARGET Reports should be a product of choice for a large segment of users and tasks.

This article intends to prove this point by comparing TARGET Reports with one of the leaders in the reporting tools industry: Crystal Reports from Business Objects.

Unlike Crystal Reports, which tends to cover virtually any reporting task and therefore is overwhelmingly complex, TARGET Reports is concentrated on the well defined management reporting workflow typical for the majority of business organizations.

Such a “targeted” reporting solution enables business users to easily produce reports avoiding involvement of trained technical specialists thus significantly reducing the overall reporting costs.

Extensive analysis of corporate management reporting workflows demonstrated that most of the reporting tasks are based on data aggregation. Virtually any summary report setup could be divided into three independent parts: a) data access, b) data processing, and c) presentation.

 

Data Access

The typical reporting tasks usually involve multiple data sources distributed among various databases and other data storages. Modern technology offers a variety of data access drivers providing access to virtually any data source.

1. Selecting and configuring data access drivers and data connections
2. Creating dynamic views by linking related table

Data Processing

Despite the possible complexity of the reporting algorithms the principle structure of a data processing setup is identical for most of reports and consists of the three components:

3. Grouping rules for creating groups and their sorting
4. Reporting Fields and algorithms for their calculation and sorting
5. Record selection limitations (scope expression)

Presentation

Aside of the artistic features and free positioning of reporting elements on the page the principle presentation forms are also limited and fall into two categories with a few variations inside each of them:

6. Tabular: Nested, Subtitled, and Cross-tab (with or w/o details)
7. Charts: Point, Line, Bar, Pie, and their variations (2D/3D)

TARGET Reports offers interactive means (as opposed to wizard-based approach) for setting the data-related setup and lets selecting/change the desired presentation form on the fly. It is the shortest way of achieving the goal for users concerned about the content of the reports (as long as reports look professional and are easy to read) rather then on their layout features.

 Feature Comparison

 

Crystal Reports offers two main workflows for designing reports: a wizard-based step-by-step walkthrough for fast and easy generation of typical reports and free editing for producing custom arbitrary reports. Crystal Reports allows creation of multiple reports, but does not support integration of multiple reporting elements into one reporting document.

TARGET Reports addresses mainstream management reporting tasks offering an extremely easy-to-use environment for generation of professional easy-to-read reports. Unlike Crystal Reports, where the WHAT to report is mixed with HOW, TARGET Reports provides a complete separation between the two with complete automation of the HOW part.  This means that the user can concentrate on WHAT to report and is able to change HOW with just a couple of clicks.