VB to generate Access Reports

[yippie_ky_yay]

Hello forum,

I have created a database and several reports in Access as a planning phase. Now I would like to re-create everything in VB (it's for a course I'm in).

I figured out all the ODBC stuff, but now that I'm trying to re-create my reports I am noticing a HUGE difference. It doesn't seem to support many of the features that I had originally used in my Access reports (ie mult. columns or "CanShrink" to suppress blank lines).

Has anyone else found the same limitations? I know of Crystal Reports but have never even seen it - would it solve the issues described above?

Thanks,

-Sean

 

[JonH]

Hitching a ride on this thread.

JonH.

 

[yippie_ky_yay]

Thanks again Pat.

I was worried about running out of time for this project so I ended up doing just what you suggested - run the reports from VB (code that I found in either this forum or tek-tips.com - and it works great!). As a bonus, once you exit the preview view (either by "close" or hitting the design view button) access closes - which makes it at least a little more secure.

My only issue is that my VB program was working perfectly on it's own as a stand-alone .exe without access installed - but now I think it will need to be available.

I did start to make some good progress with Crystal - but didn't really have the time (plus I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it once I was finished - ie how I was going to integrate it into my VB stuff).

Thanks again - sorry for the rambling (just wanted to pass on the info for anyone interested!)

-Sean

 

[Travis]

I disagree with Pat on the Crystal Reports. My experience has shown Crystal Reports to work much better with VB then the Access Reports. I prefer Crystal's ability to accept a RecordSet over having a RecordSource (Which means more flexability with Disconnected Recordsets).

To answer your question on how you are going to integrate the reports with your VB App. I have found adding the Reports to a Custom made VB DLL has worked best for me.