Query Builder / Report Making

[Akshay Shah]

> Does Telerik have the capability of Ad Hoc Query Building / Report Making in real time, on the fly from the front end GUI?

> Like is possible with the software available at this link

Akshay.

[Steve]

Hello Akshay,

We still lack end-user/stand-alone report designer. It is logged in our TODO list and would be implemented for a subsequent version of the product for sure.

We will update our Roadmap accordingly as soon as we have our plans set.

Best wishes,
Steve
the Telerik team

Instantly find answers to your questions on the new Telerik Support Portal.
Check out the tips for optimizing your support resource searches.

[chrisL]

Hi.

I see this post is from 2009. Did this functionality ever get built?

Thanks
Chris

[Steve]

Hello Chrisl,

Currently we don't have ad-hoc report builder. However this feature is highly demanded and we hope to be able to deliver a first version in the upcoming six months.

Best wishes,
Steve
the Telerik team

[chrisL]

That's great news (although shame about the reliance on Sliverlight).

So if I buy the Premium Collection subscription now i will have access to it when it is released?

[Vassil Petev]

Hello Chrisl,

The new ad-hoc report builder is built on a new platform and may (or may not) be part of Telerik Reporting. We are still to discuss the integration with Telerik Reporting, so we cannot answer your question just yet. We will have more clarity on this in a month or so. Please, note that we will not release this tool with Q3, but afterwards (especially if you have short-term needs for such a tool).
 
I am not at liberty to discuss this tool further at this time, but we will have more information in a month or so.

Stay tuned.

Regards,
Vassil Petev
the Telerik team

[Michael]

Is an graphical end user query builder like EasyQuery.net or Active Query Builder still on the horizon?

[chrisL]

Yes, let's please have an update. This was a significant reason I purchased the package that I did.

Thanks.

[Kristijan]

Hi,

is there any news on this, what's the release date for the tool ?

Regards

[Steve]

Hi guys,

Thank you for your interest in Telerik Reporting and the end user designer functionality.

This feature is a work in progress and we're currently gathering feedback on its functionality. We would appreciate if you share how you envision an end user designer, in what technology do you see it would best fit, if you have any specific requirements that you want covered, please share them with us there and we would have them in mind for the final product.

Regards,
Steve
the Telerik team

[chrisL]

Do you have a timeline for when this feature will be available? In 6 months maybe?

I would like to see it built with ASP.Net AJAX controls. Not silverlight. Forcing users to have to use silverlight will be a problem for many applications built for sale to large enterprises with strict user environments.

Users of a website could choose columns from a pick list of tables and views and some but not all of the associated columns. This would be pre-defined by the programmer with the ability to have the column names different to the actual column names of the DB's schema. E.g. I would want Shipper_City to appear as Shipper City.

User should be able to create their own database views and joins between tables.

Grouping, sorting, filtering, hierarchical abilities for tabular data just like RadGrid and the same exporting to excel, csv, word, pdf would be necessary.

Easy charts and graphing and pivot tables based on above tabular data similar to in excel should be simple for the user to create.

Saving your query design for running again later is obviously essential. We would need to be able to write code that executes a saved report (E.g. executing a report on a schedule) and be able to grab the results in what ever format and then email it to the user is essential.

Again, please give us some indication of time lines.

Many thanks. Looking forward to it. I'm sure you guys will do your usual excellent job.

[chrisL]

By the way, Michael above mentions it being similar to Easyquery.net. That appears to be for technical users. There's SQL everywhere!

We're looking for a product that can be used by non technical business users with an easy to understand interface. I appreciate there is a level of technical know-how required when using any kind of ad hoc report builder. But ideally the programmer designing the builder should have the ability to shield the business user from that as much as possible.

Thanks

[Michael]

chrisL is correct in pointing out that Easyquery.net is rather technical and ideally I would also prefer a simple user friendly ASP.Net AJAX control set that supported grouping, sorting, exporting, and the ability to save the created query. To the point of usability, I would think it would be better for my end users if I were able to obfuscate the existence of tables from the end user by creating custom masks for the column names and then creating custom groupings around the column names so that I could group things like customer, shipping, and invoice data together in a manner that matches the end users understanding of the data.

 

Table relationships should be built off of their FK constraints; however, it would be nice to be able to define relationships outside of this (for those troublesome databases).

 

The ability to define columns that relate to functions would also be appreciated (example: Current Balance).

 

The ability to let the user specify showing information if it exists would also be nice (join type) as well as limiting the input by a users results (or even predefined functions such as “in the current month”).

 

Having easy options for previewing a limited number of returns would probably be helpful to the user as they are building their report

 

Example user story that pertains to what I would like to accomplish:

 

1. User navigates to reporting UI
2. User selects “Custom Report” tab of reporting UI
3. User selects create new query
   1. User clicks add column, chooses the “Customer Information” column grouping, chooses “Customer Account Number”
   2. User clicks add column, chooses the “Customer Information” column grouping, chooses “Customer Name”
      1. User sets the “Customer Name” to be “sorted” by “ascending order”
   3. User clicks add column, chooses the “Customer Information” column grouping, chooses “Customer Phone Number”
   4. User clicks add column, chooses the “Customer Information” column grouping, chooses “Customer Enrollment Date”
      1. User sets the “Customer Enrollment Date” to “not displayed”
      2. User sets the “Customer Enrollment Date” to “limit results” by type “greater than” an input of “1/1/2012”
   5. User clicks add column, chooses the “Invoice Information” column grouping, chooses “Invoice Number”
      1. User sets the “Invoice Number” to display “If exists” to limit the returned data to just invoiced accounts
   6. User clicks add column, chooses the “Invoice Information” column grouping, chooses “Invoice Date”
      1. User sets the “Invoice Date” to display “Most Recent” to limit the returned data to just the last invoice
   7. User clicks add column, chooses the “Balance” column grouping, chooses “Current Balance”
   8. User clicks the Preview button and validates the five returned results
   9. User clicks the Generate Report button
   10. User names Report “Test report 1”
   11. User saves Report as “viewable by all”
   12. User exports report results to Excel to their desktop
4. User navigates away from reporting UI

(may still be a tad technical for the average user)


Mike

[chrisL]

Hi Telerik.

Any updates on the release of this report builder feature?

thanks
Chris

[Steve]

Hi Chris,

We've released a beta of the standalone report designer for the Q1 2012 release. It is shipped along with the product and you can find more info about it in the following links:

• Report Designer
• Telerik Report Designer blog post
  

Regards,

Steve
the Telerik team

[chrisL]

Hi. Just checked out the video tour.

This is nothing to do with a web based report builder as discussed in this thread. This is an exe that users install!?.

Even having to establish a data source simply isn't possible if you're users have to connect to our underlying DB of a SaaS application.

Is a web based report builder on the roadmap?

Chris

[Steve]

Hello Chris,

The Telerik Report Designer is a desktop client tool (WPF-based) packaged as a single EXE file, which does not require installation. Currently our focus (respectively the roadmap) is on catching up with some important features for a tool like this (working with data, version support, displaying .trdx files in existing viewers etc.).

Greetings,
Steve
the Telerik team

[chrisL]

Ok, fair enough.

But do you have an ad hoc web based report builder on the roadmap at all? As the world is going web surely there is a demand for this? And especially for SaaS vendors.

In our research for such a solution (as discussed in this discussion by myself and one or two others) the only reasonable product out there seems to be ActiveReports Server. This short video explains how we (as admins) would need to disguise the data model so that our end users can use the report builder. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcW8IGWCv9c

[Svetoslav]

Hi,

Thank you for the feedback. I can assure you that we keep a close look to the global technology trends and we are aware of our customers' current and future needs. Anyway things take time and priorities change so as soon as we have a clear vision on the upcoming features/products we add them to our road map.

Kind regards,
Svetoslav
the Telerik team

[JARROD R]

Any update on this thread?  Specifically, is there an Ad Hoc query building tool that is user friendly and can be integrated into a web application.  It should be similar to the one mentioned in the first post of this thread.  We are looking for something that is easy for users who are not technical to build queries within our application for reporting.

Thank you,

[Peter]

Hi JARROD,

Please elaborate further on your request? Do you need a query builder web control/widget like the Query Builder integrated in Visual Studio or you are asking for a web report designer to create report definitions?

Regards,
Peter
Telerik

 

 

[JARROD R]

Hi Peter,

I am asking for what I think everyone else on this thread is asking for, a user-friendly query builder for an ASP.NET application.  It would be used within an app to allow users to build their own queries and return result sets.

2 days ago when I posted to this thread, there was a link on the very first post to what this post was about.  It has been removed and now only shows the words "<removed advertisement>" But it wasn't removed completely and there is a tiny line that still contains a link to the example he was referencing.  Not sure why after over 5 years of activity on this thread you all decided to remove that link. It actually helped this discussion.  We customers are looking for a way to use a Telerik solution over another company's.  Hope this explanation helps.  Thank you.

[Peter]

Hello JARROD,

Thank you further elaborating. We wanted to make sure that you are asking only for a query builder because in this thread the word report and report making is frequently used and for Telerik Reporting this means a full blown report designer.

We will consider this feature request again. In order to track your request development consider following or adding information for your request in the corresponding feedback portal item.

About removing the links to other products this is done based on the current admin judgment. This is why it was removed.

Regards,
Peter
Telerik

 

 

[Peter]

Hello,

In Q3 2014 the Standalone Report Designer provides a Query Designer to help you create queries to retrieve data from a relational database. Use the query designer to explore the database tables and views, interactively build an SQL SELECT statement and view the result of your query.

This is not a separate control but a functionality part of the Standalone Report Designer.

Regards,
Peter
Telerik

 

 

[Andrew]

Like everyone else I have been waiting a long time for an end user report builder. Decided to go with izenda. It's very good and easy to integrate and customise.

Come on Telerik. Listen to your customers. New controls are ok but your missing a huge gap in the sass environment.

[Stef]

Hi Andrew,

Telerik Reporting provides a Standalone Report Designer tool that is a desktop application. the same is used by Telerik Report Server to allow the creation and editing of reports residing on the server.

Additionally, the reporting engine can be used in code by your custom UI helping end-users to  select data and the way it will be visualized, where the settings are handled in code.


Any additional feedback is welcome. Feature requests are gathered in our feedback portal, where community members can vote for them and can raise their priority.

Regards,
Stef
Telerik

 

 

[Lance B]

Is there any news on a visual query builder control that can be used as a component integrated into our apps? 

[Milen | Product Manager @DX]

Hi,

Hi Lance,

No news for sharing about that.
Each UI suite product has a dedicated feedback portal that may be found at https://www.telerik.com/support/feedback . Please locate the one that concerns your inquiry and add a new feature request for such control. Do first try to search the feedback portal for an existing request and if found you will get more details about its progress and will be able to vote for it.

Regards,
Milen
Progress Telerik