Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

IntelliView is another entrant into the reporting field with an interesting pricing structure: the designer is relatively inexpensive, while the viewer is free. Beyond that, you can go for IntelliVIEW Reporter to integrate everything into a comprehensive, Web-based .NET or Java solution for the enterprise.

The designer which you can download in a free evaluation version. This is probably where you will want to start. If you have used any reasonably modern report designer, this one should seem familiar. You can create either banded or free-form reports using a variety of controls, including text, graphics, raw HTML and so on. Data can be drawn from any ODBC or OLE DB data source. It is impressively easy to make a banded report with alternately colored rows and data in neat columns. Grouping, filtering and sorting in the designer are likewise trivial.

You can also design crosstabs and a variety of graphs and charts. Fields can be calculated with an expression builder, but there is no active scripting attached to reports. When you are done designing, you can save the report design as a single file.

With the IntelliView Report Analyzer, anyone can open one of your reports for free. The Report Analyzer is not entirely passive, either. You can change fonts and colors, filtering, and grouping and sorting options. The end experience is much closer to using a spreadsheet or an OLAP viewer than it is to using a report client that just zooms and prints.

Finally, you might wish to go to Synaptris Reporter to integrate these reports into your enterprise. I did not evaluate this part of the solution, but it promises zero-client reporting via ASP.NET or Java integration, a central report repository, and user and group access control among other things.

The pricing is attractive if you just need a standalone reporting solution, and the growth path to the enterprise is there if you need it. The ease of use of the designer and viewer impressed me as well, so this is one to consider for your unscripted reporting needs.

Mike Gunderloy, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, is a contributing editor for MCP Magazine. He is the author of numerous books and articles on database and development topics. You can reach him at MikeG1@larkfarm.com.