How about a reporting product that...Prints reports?

I waited to see if sp2 would address this issue; it does not.
Don't get me wrong, I like RS in general, but, where is the ability to print?
This seems, well, fundamental in a reporting tool. Can you name any other
serious reporting or BI product that doesn't let you output to paper? I
can't and I've been around the block a time or two.
Yes, I know sp2 adds client-side printing and that's nice, but it misses the
point.
How is one supposed to have the boss's report waiting for him in the printer
in the morning using RS? There are still some people that want reports on
paper.
You should see the looks on people's faces when, in the course of telling
them why we should consider replacing our current reporting tool with RS,
that RS does not have the ability to automatically print a report. It's a
pretty awkward feeling.
Come on, Microsoft. You can do better than this.In the samples folder that installs with the product, you'll find a printer
delivery extension. (complete with source code if you care to see how it is
done)
When you install that extension, you'll be able to use the subscription
mechanism to automatically send a report to the printer so it is sitting
there waiting for your boss in the morning as requested.
Regards,
--
Rob Labbé, MCP, MCAD, MCSD, MCT
Lead Architect/Trainer
Fidelis
Blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/roblabbe
"dj" <dj@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:62871B7A-70B5-48A3-9BF0-FE4372235F27@.microsoft.com...
>I waited to see if sp2 would address this issue; it does not.
> Don't get me wrong, I like RS in general, but, where is the ability to
> print?
> This seems, well, fundamental in a reporting tool. Can you name any other
> serious reporting or BI product that doesn't let you output to paper? I
> can't and I've been around the block a time or two.
> Yes, I know sp2 adds client-side printing and that's nice, but it misses
> the
> point.
> How is one supposed to have the boss's report waiting for him in the
> printer
> in the morning using RS? There are still some people that want reports on
> paper.
> You should see the looks on people's faces when, in the course of telling
> them why we should consider replacing our current reporting tool with RS,
> that RS does not have the ability to automatically print a report. It's a
> pretty awkward feeling.
> Come on, Microsoft. You can do better than this.
>|||While we would love to add every feature in the product, we simply don't
have resources to do so. So we have to pick and choose. It turns out every
person that you ask considers a different feature "absolutely critical".
Some of these "must haves" that we have added for SQL 2005 include
multi-valued parameters, a date picker, and an end-user report designer.
Other "must haves" that we didn't have time to do include rich text, style
templates, and Word output (to name a few).
Are you saying that you would rather have server-side printing instead of
client printing? If so, you have different priorities than the set of
customers we talked to (which is understandable) before we decided to add
client print. Anyway, if enough people really think this is important, it
can be easily written using the extensibility mechanism in RS. Or, you can
wait until we get a chance to build it in.
--
Brian Welcker
Group Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
"dj" <dj@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:62871B7A-70B5-48A3-9BF0-FE4372235F27@.microsoft.com...
>I waited to see if sp2 would address this issue; it does not.
> Don't get me wrong, I like RS in general, but, where is the ability to
> print?
> This seems, well, fundamental in a reporting tool. Can you name any other
> serious reporting or BI product that doesn't let you output to paper? I
> can't and I've been around the block a time or two.
> Yes, I know sp2 adds client-side printing and that's nice, but it misses
> the
> point.
> How is one supposed to have the boss's report waiting for him in the
> printer
> in the morning using RS? There are still some people that want reports on
> paper.
> You should see the looks on people's faces when, in the course of telling
> them why we should consider replacing our current reporting tool with RS,
> that RS does not have the ability to automatically print a report. It's a
> pretty awkward feeling.
> Come on, Microsoft. You can do better than this.
>|||Brian -
I probably could have expressed my frustration somewhat better.
You and your team deserve a lot of credit for delivering a solid, useful
reporting tool.
And you are right on target that not everyone has the same needs or
priorities.
As you can tell, server-side printing is a major priority for us. Trying to
move to
RS from Access and CR-based reporting is a challenge we are currently
working through. Converting and losing a capability we previously had makes
things more of a challenge.
Not to labor the point, but I can't help but think that when most managers,
executives, etc. think of the term 'report', they think of a piece of paper.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but judging from the response I've seen personally, this
would appear to be the case.
Certainly, we have many reporting scenarios, as most shops do, and printing
does
not figure in all, or even most of them. It's just frustrating to not be
able to
deliver on all your client's requests. Hmmm, does that sound familiar?
So, let me try this again:
Brian, if you're not already doing so, please consider adding server-side
printing
to the next release of Reporting Services.
Best regards,
Dexter Jones, MCSD
"Brian Welcker [MSFT]" wrote:
> While we would love to add every feature in the product, we simply don't
> have resources to do so. So we have to pick and choose. It turns out every
> person that you ask considers a different feature "absolutely critical".
> Some of these "must haves" that we have added for SQL 2005 include
> multi-valued parameters, a date picker, and an end-user report designer.
> Other "must haves" that we didn't have time to do include rich text, style
> templates, and Word output (to name a few).
> Are you saying that you would rather have server-side printing instead of
> client printing? If so, you have different priorities than the set of
> customers we talked to (which is understandable) before we decided to add
> client print. Anyway, if enough people really think this is important, it
> can be easily written using the extensibility mechanism in RS. Or, you can
> wait until we get a chance to build it in.
> --
> Brian Welcker
> Group Program Manager
> Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> "dj" <dj@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:62871B7A-70B5-48A3-9BF0-FE4372235F27@.microsoft.com...
> >I waited to see if sp2 would address this issue; it does not.
> >
> > Don't get me wrong, I like RS in general, but, where is the ability to
> > print?
> > This seems, well, fundamental in a reporting tool. Can you name any other
> > serious reporting or BI product that doesn't let you output to paper? I
> > can't and I've been around the block a time or two.
> >
> > Yes, I know sp2 adds client-side printing and that's nice, but it misses
> > the
> > point.
> > How is one supposed to have the boss's report waiting for him in the
> > printer
> > in the morning using RS? There are still some people that want reports on
> > paper.
> >
> > You should see the looks on people's faces when, in the course of telling
> > them why we should consider replacing our current reporting tool with RS,
> > that RS does not have the ability to automatically print a report. It's a
> > pretty awkward feeling.
> >
> > Come on, Microsoft. You can do better than this.
> >
>
>|||I certainly appreciate that this is an important feature for many people. I
cringe every time I look at the features that we end up having to cut to
meet our schedule. One of the ways that we try to mitigate the fact that we
can't get everything in is by providing extensibility interfaces that people
can use to add functionality we didn't have time to do. Printer delivery is
one of these that is possible to add. It is not going to make it into SQL
2005 as we are already code complete with the product and are in bug fix
mode. It is very high on the list for the post 2005 release.
--
Brian Welcker
Group Program Manager
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
"dj" <dj@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1F422F95-A85D-4C66-BC2D-DB65563D5113@.microsoft.com...
> Brian -
> I probably could have expressed my frustration somewhat better.
> You and your team deserve a lot of credit for delivering a solid, useful
> reporting tool.
> And you are right on target that not everyone has the same needs or
> priorities.
> As you can tell, server-side printing is a major priority for us. Trying
> to
> move to
> RS from Access and CR-based reporting is a challenge we are currently
> working through. Converting and losing a capability we previously had
> makes
> things more of a challenge.
> Not to labor the point, but I can't help but think that when most
> managers,
> executives, etc. think of the term 'report', they think of a piece of
> paper.
> Perhaps I'm wrong, but judging from the response I've seen personally,
> this
> would appear to be the case.
> Certainly, we have many reporting scenarios, as most shops do, and
> printing
> does
> not figure in all, or even most of them. It's just frustrating to not be
> able to
> deliver on all your client's requests. Hmmm, does that sound familiar?
> So, let me try this again:
> Brian, if you're not already doing so, please consider adding server-side
> printing
> to the next release of Reporting Services.
> Best regards,
> Dexter Jones, MCSD
>
> "Brian Welcker [MSFT]" wrote:
>> While we would love to add every feature in the product, we simply don't
>> have resources to do so. So we have to pick and choose. It turns out
>> every
>> person that you ask considers a different feature "absolutely critical".
>> Some of these "must haves" that we have added for SQL 2005 include
>> multi-valued parameters, a date picker, and an end-user report designer.
>> Other "must haves" that we didn't have time to do include rich text,
>> style
>> templates, and Word output (to name a few).
>> Are you saying that you would rather have server-side printing instead of
>> client printing? If so, you have different priorities than the set of
>> customers we talked to (which is understandable) before we decided to add
>> client print. Anyway, if enough people really think this is important, it
>> can be easily written using the extensibility mechanism in RS. Or, you
>> can
>> wait until we get a chance to build it in.
>> --
>> Brian Welcker
>> Group Program Manager
>> Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>> "dj" <dj@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:62871B7A-70B5-48A3-9BF0-FE4372235F27@.microsoft.com...
>> >I waited to see if sp2 would address this issue; it does not.
>> >
>> > Don't get me wrong, I like RS in general, but, where is the ability to
>> > print?
>> > This seems, well, fundamental in a reporting tool. Can you name any
>> > other
>> > serious reporting or BI product that doesn't let you output to paper?
>> > I
>> > can't and I've been around the block a time or two.
>> >
>> > Yes, I know sp2 adds client-side printing and that's nice, but it
>> > misses
>> > the
>> > point.
>> > How is one supposed to have the boss's report waiting for him in the
>> > printer
>> > in the morning using RS? There are still some people that want reports
>> > on
>> > paper.
>> >
>> > You should see the looks on people's faces when, in the course of
>> > telling
>> > them why we should consider replacing our current reporting tool with
>> > RS,
>> > that RS does not have the ability to automatically print a report.
>> > It's a
>> > pretty awkward feeling.
>> >
>> > Come on, Microsoft. You can do better than this.
>> >
>>