Report Tool or report application system?

Report tools and report application system can be counted as the scope of the report software, some users in the selection can not be a good distinction between the two differences, may be misled by the sales staff, so as to purchase inappropriate products. Knowing the difference between these two products makes it better to determine the right software for your needs. In fact, the Report tool and report application system each have each advantage and the limitation, also each has each usage scene.

First, report application System .

From the user's end users, the report application system has a separate login interface, after login can see their role within the permissions of the menu (feature tree or drop-down menu). The main interface is commonly used reports and charts, often referred to as dashboards or management Kanbans. Select the report name on the menu to show the different report contents.

from the perspective of the user System Builder (IT department), the reporting application system is configured to deliver the consumer. In addition to the report design, presentation function, the report application system also has a separate application system management functions, including: Department, user management, role management, function management, rights Management, management Kanban management.

It is not difficult to see that the reporting application system is intended for end users to use directly. The advantage is: 1, do not need to find integrator development and integration, can be delivered to use. 2, with ready-made interface configuration tools, user and rights management can be used directly. 3, in the interface aesthetics and user experience, through a certain degree of design, the interface is more friendly and beautiful.

The limitation of reporting application system is: 1, the integration is weak, integration to other application system is more difficult. 2, has not been customized development, can not realize the personalized needs of users. Therefore, the reporting application system is less suitable for integrators integrating into other application systems.

Therefore, the end-user or only to the user to do implementation work (rather than development work) of the integrator is more appropriate to select the report application System products. The following aspects of the product are recommended for purchase:

• Product authority whether the organization is applicable to the actual situation of users;
• Whether the interface is beautiful, style and the user already have other systems are consistent;
• Whether the data source supported by the product is compatible with the existing business system;
• On-line also need to have how much custom work, new features need to add, whether the need for product manufacturers to participate.

Then look at the reporting tools .

Reporting tools cannot be delivered independently and must be integrated into other applications. For example: An integrator developed a hospital management information system, in which to add a report module, used to create, display a variety of reports, you need to use the reporting tools, rather than report application system.

The benefits of reporting tools are mainly embodied in the integration. There are two major aspects of integration:

1, the function can be integrated. Reporting tools are available to different integrators, and integrators have a variety of application systems. As a result, the reporting tools must be ready to be easily integrated with a functional interface that seamlessly blends with integrator's application systems.

2, compatible with a variety of heterogeneous report data sources. Integrators for the user-built application system is generally integrated with a variety of data sources, after years of development, will form more heterogeneous data sources. The important task of reporting tools is to extract data from a variety of heterogeneous data sources. More important is to take out the data after the unified calculation to meet the needs of users to query the report.

The limitations and advantages of reporting tools are also corresponding: report tools focus on the calculation and presentation of report data sources, and peripheral functions need to be developed by integrators on the basis of reporting tools. For example: User management, Rights management, interface management, and interface beautification and user experience.

integrators or end users with development needs are better suited to select reporting tools products, and the following aspects of the product are recommended when purchasing:

• Performance, support for diversity data sources;
• Integration, providing easy-to-use APIs, and more.

Other aspects of the reporting tools are not very important, such as: The interface is not important, because it is ultimately the programmer's own custom developed to meet the user's needs of a beautiful interface, the provision of a number of common data sets of the management of the dataset is not very important, Because integrators can leverage the API of the reporting tools themselves to accumulate data sets in the industry, this is more appropriate for integrators.

Run dry set calculation report is a professional reporting tool, rather than end-user-oriented reporting application system. It has good integration, strong ability of watchmaking and computing, and no peripheral user organization and Rights management functions.

In the area of functional integration, the Taglib and API two methods are available, and integrator programmers can easily invoke the report program in both JSP and Java programs. For Web applications, the Taglib provides rich control properties and is simple to invoke. Functional integration structures such as:

In the heterogeneous data source aspect, the aggregate report has built-in the collection engine, can connect the data source including: The relational Database (Oracle, DB2, etc.), the text file, the NoSQL database (MongoDB etc.), Hadoop (HDFs, Hive). Supports both JSON and XML-formatted data sources and HTTP data sources. Such as:

Report Tool or report application system?