These tools fall into two broad camps – business intelligence suites where reporting is a major component, and tools that are specifically aimed at reporting. Also many of them are free.
ReportServer (free reporting tool) – This provides an extremely flexible open source reporting and dashboard environment. It supports Eclipse Birt, JasperReports and SAP Crystal Reports reporting engines in addition to its own ad-hoc oriented reporting tools. The user interface is web based and it supports a wide range of admin tools.
Central to ReportServer is the Dynamic List. This is the preferred method supporting a wide range of functions such as column selection, filtering, sorting, grouping, sub-totals, calculation and so on. JasperReports and Eclipse Birt tend to be used for ‘pixel perfect’ reporting with output to a pdf file. Finally Script Reports are used for particularly complex reports, and require programming skills to use. Interactive dashboards are supported and are generally constructed for items called dadgets (Dashboard Gadgets) – these can be anything from a report to an interactive HTML5 app.
Currently supported data sources include Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Informix, IBM DB2, mySQL, PostgreSQL, h2 and of course csv files.
BIRT (free BI suite) is an open source software project that provides the BIRT technology platform to create data visualizations and reports that can be embedded into rich client and web applications, especially those based on Java and Java EE. BIRT is a top-level software project within the Eclipse Foundation.
DataVision (free reporting tool) is an Open Source reporting tool similar to Crystal Reports. Reports can be designed using a drag-and-drop GUI. They may be run, viewed, and printed from the application or exported as HTML, XML, PDF, Excel, LaTeX2e, DocBook, or tab- or comma-delimited text files. The output files produced by LaTeX2e and DocBook can in turn be used to produce PDF, text, HTML, PostScript, and more.
DataVision is written in Java and runs almost anywhere. It can generate reports from databases or text data files. Any database with an available JDBC driver should work: Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Informix, hsqldb, Microsoft Access, Progress, and more. Columns read from text files can be separated by any character.
Report descriptions are stored as XML files. This means you can not only use the DataVision GUI but you may also edit reports using your favorite text editor.
dmyreports (free reporting tool) is a dynamic report generator for MySQL. End users will be able to select tables, fields and set conditions graphically using a web based interface to generate reports. These reports can then be saved or exported to other formats. (currently in alpha).
JasperReports (free BI suite) Server is a stand-alone and embeddable reporting server. It provides reporting and analytics that can be embedded into a web or mobile application as well as operate as a central information hub for the enterprise by delivering mission critical information on a real-time or scheduled basis to the browser, mobile device, printer, or email inbox in a variety of file formats. JasperReports Server is optimized to share, secure, and centrally manage your Jaspersoft reports and analytic views.
JasperReports is the world’s most popular open source reporting engine. It is entirely written in Java and it is able to use data coming from any kind of data source and produce pixel-perfect documents that can be viewed, printed or exported in a variety of document formats including HTML, PDF, Excel, OpenOffice and Word.
Jaspersoft ETL is a state-of-the-art data integration engine, powered by Talend. Extract data from various sources, transform the data based on defined business rules, and load into a centralized data warehouse or data mart for reporting and analysis.
A powerful eclipse-based report designer for JasperReports and JasperReports Server. Build reports from any data source, format the look and feel for print or on-screen reading, deploy to JasperReports Server or your own JasperReports implementation, and export to a wide range of formats.
myDBR (commercial reporting tool) is a web-based reporting system for relational databases that allows you build a feature rich, manageable and scalable reporting environment. myDBR manages the distribution and access rights automatically, so it also scales well to large scale installations. Users are able to access reports using just a web browser, no additional software installations is required.
With myDBR you can easily link reports together allowing you to building a report network. This gives your users a natural path for data mining and drill-down reports using business concepts close to them. Moving from individual reports to a report network makes sure you are getting the most out of your data.
MySQL Pivot Table Generator creates concise and informative web based pivot tables (cross tabulation) for any type of data summary without writing any code or conducting any database queries, and will simply and seamlessly export your pivot table’s data into Excel. It automatically updates your web based pivot tables whenever the database has been updated with new information.
NextReports (free reporting tool) provides three, free open source utilities that support report creation using a variety of database platforms.
NextReports Designer is an application to design in-grid reports, using connections to most popular databases including Oracle, MySql, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird and Derby. NextReports Designer has an intuitive interface that makes report creation a quick and easy task.
NextReports Engine is a lightweight (330 k) Java platform development library which can be used to run NextReports inside applications. This library is very easy to use, reports can be integrated with just a few lines of code.
NextReports Server supports the scheduling of NextReports and Jasper reports and to automatically deliver reports via E-mail, FTP, SSH, Windows Share, WebDAV in most popular file formats (HTML, EXCEL, PDF, etc) or in real time dashboards.
Pentaho Community (free BI suite) – main components are the reporting tools, the data integration platform, the ROLAP analytics platform and the data mining tools. With the Pentaho-Report-Designer you can create report-definitions in a graphical environment. Reports are usually published to the Pentaho-Platform, which allows you to manage, run and schedule the reports you created. If you are new to Pentaho-Reporting, you probably want to start with the Pentaho Report-Designer.
Internally, reports are executed by the Pentaho Reporting Classic Engine. Pentaho Reporting encompasses more than two dozen software projects that facilitate creating and publishing data-driven business reports.
Smart Report Maker (commercial reporting tool) – from MySQLReports provides three tools to generate reports, create charts and build forms:
Smart Report Maker provides an environment to compile and manage an unlimited number of MySQL database reports based on tables and/or queries. It’s a quick and easy PHP MySQL report generator that gives you the ability to prepare the reports that you need at the click of a button.
Smart Chart Maker is very similar to Smart Report Maker in terms of usability and functionality. As previously noted, Smart Chart Maker supports unlimited dynamic charts that are fed directly from a MySQL database and situated around the tables and/or queries.
PHP MySQL Form Maker allows web forms to be easily generated, and typically without programming.
SpagoBI (free BI suite) is essentially a very large collection of open source software brought together to create a broad business intelligence capability. In fact it goes beyond the traditional notion of BI to embrace domains such as data mining and BPM.
Support for 4 engines: JasperReport, BIRT, Accessible report, BO
SpagoBI allows to realize structured reports, using structured information views (e.g. lists, tables, crosstabs, reports) and to export them using several formats (HTML, PDF, XLS, XML, TXT, CSV, RTF).
Stimulsoft Reports Server is a complete Business Intelligence, client-server solution that provides reporting and analytics. The front end provides facility to visualize data. The back end provides data processing and storing. Stimulsoft Reports Server can work as a standalone report server as well as an embeddable solution. The software provides all features appropriate for all reporting servers – creating and editing reports, storing them, scheduling and delivering them to the client.
Ubiq (commercial report tool) is an easy to use but powerful web based reporting tool for MySQL data. You can use it to analyze your business data, create web based reports & dashboards to track signups, sales, operations, and other business information without any programming. Data can be queried using drag and drop, and dashboards are updated automatically to reflect the latest information.
In drag and drop mode charts can be created by selecting fields from a list reflecting data available in connected databases. Functions can also be applied to data by selecting dropdown options, and filters and joins can be created with changes reflected in real-time. There is a choice of most charting types – table, line, bar (stacked, group, percent), scatter plots, stacked area, column (grouped, percent, stacked), pie, donut and funnel. Charts can also be created using sql syntax, and regardless of creation method can be exported to PDF, PNG or CSV.
Dashboards are easy to create and support filters which apply to all charts on a dashboard. Charts are added to a dashboard when the chart is saved. Each chart can be moved or resized as necessary and themes can be applied to dash boards for a consistent look and feel.
MySQL databases can exist on a PC, an intranet or on Amazon RDS and EC2.
A free 30 day account is offered and subscription starts at $18/month for an individual (3 dashboards). Other plans are offered and bespoke subscriptions are available. Given the ease of use and productivity of ubiq users will quickly see a return on the modest subscription pricing.
The Windward Solution is ideal for commercial software (OEM), system integrator and enterprise developers who need to add Reporting and DocGen functionality to desktop, online, SaaS or mobile products. The .NET or Java report engines connect to virtually any data source and can be quickly integrated in 14 lines of code, meaning faster time to market. Windward enables design without restrictions through AutoTag, the Microsoft Office-based template design tool. Any user can create and rapidly revise templates, freeing up dev resources.
