Joshua's .Net Tips

I agree it all looks compelling. Don't know about the license stuff. But I'm curious why Crystal keeps disappointing you.

You'll be disappointed again, I'm afraid. It looks like reporting services is not free after all. And you still need a SQL service license. Check out this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/SQL/2005/2005Webcasts/ReportingServicesQandA.aspx

Right at the top you'll see this:

gregor Asked: Will reporting services with sql 2005 come out before sql 2005 itself?
Answered: No, Reporting Services 2005 is part of SQL 2005 and will not ship separately.

But there's no separare license required for the client software.

Somethings that disappointed me when I read all this:
alex Asked: i heard that reporting writing for Reporting Services is mainly in VB.NET, are there any plans to include C# too??
Answered: No, not currently.

The ReportViewer Control iitself comes with Visual Studio 2005 at no additional cost and can be redistributed with your applications. Check out this FAQ http://www.sqltalk.org/ftopic19289.html.

Use of reporting services requires a SQL Server license. For serious reporting you will end up with the need to scale out using additional processors and/or machines for which you will need additional SQL licenses.

Thanks for your input - as far as I can tell, Reporting Services is really Microsoft's framework for management and deployment of RDL-based reports. The 2005 version also includes a report authoring tool, deployed through the ClickOnce from a Reporting Services web site. This Reporting Services requires SQL Server licenses.

However, anyone can write an RDL report file and/or a viewer for rendering a report based on it. With Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft has provided an RDL editor as well as two runtime renderers (web and windows). The renderers, or "report viewer controls" allow free runtime distribution.

The result, as I understand it, is that reports can be shipped with your application without the need for any kind of special report software licensing. However, if you want the management, deployment, and user-customization features of Reporting Services, SQL Server licensing will be required.

Hmm... I can't imagine that it would be that difficult to store RDL files in a non-SQL Server database and serve up the reports through the ASP.Net report viewer. Will have to look into that...