Nine to Five Reports and Rev

[Brad Allen]

One of my clients is still using HyperCard and Reports DataPro, but 
I'm working on migrating him to mySQL with a RunRev standalone UI.  I 
haven't delved into report generation yet, but I know there are 
plenty of specialized SQL-based report design applications available, 
such as Crystal Reports, Elixir Report, Express Report Pro, and many 
others. So, I'm tentatively planning on not using Revolution for any 
but the most simple reports, and finding a dedicated app to build 
more complex reports.

Of course, this may not work well. Most of the business logic lives 
in the Rev client app, and outside report generation tools probably 
won't have access to that business logic. I'm not yet clear on 
whether this will be a problem.

Clearly it would be beneficial to have report generation tools within 
Revolution, similar to those found in dedicated reporting apps. But 
it might also be possible to find an existing tool that can 
communicate with a Rev app, maybe through a protocol such as SOAP. 
That way, business logic can be centralized, without having to write 
separate code for the report generating app. I'll report back here if 
I find anything useful along those lines.