.NET Reporting against and Orcale Database

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  • Larry Dooley

    .NET Reporting against and Orcale Database

    Here's my issue. We've decided to replace a very critical (without it
    the business would lose lots of money) departmental reporting system
    with a built from scratch system based on .NET. The key component is a
    datagrid (it really turned the CIO's head).

    The issue is that the data source is Oracle. We've got a very complex
    reporting system that produces dynamic sql and sends it to oracle and
    takes back the result set and displays it. Each report has at least 3
    filters and some more than a dozen. Each filter can either be a single
    item, a list of 1 to N items or left blank. The idea is to push this
    into Oracle stored procedures and get back a refcursor. The
    filters/parameters effect not only the where clause, but can effect the
    select clause, the from clause (what tables are queried) and when either
    the from clause or select clause are effected the group by clause is
    effected. This is a complex database (not large by data wharehouse
    standards) with indexes and structure that are not friendly to
    reporting. Speed of the reports is a critical issue. It's something
    we've fought pretty sucessfully in the old system.

    We've also got to have a batch component. That is a number of reports
    need to run overnight and be available first thing in the morning. This
    can't be just a single job that runs a bunch of reports. We need each
    report to run separately. Oh and it needs to not start before certain
    jobs are finished on the Oracle database.

    Oh we've got a schedule of six months - nine months max and the clock is
    ticking.

    For the first issue. Has anyone done something similar. If so any key
    problems with this (forget buy crystal, cognos etc. It's not cost they
    are rounding error in our bottom line, but that decision is pretty set
    also forget a data wharehouse - no time)

    Second issue - does anyone know a good scheduler that will integrate
    well with a .NET solution.

    Thanks in advance.
  • Jim Kennedy

    #2
    Re: .NET Reporting against and Orcale Database


    "Larry Dooley" <larrydooley@ya hoo.comwrote in message
    news:Xns97BC63A 0CF7Elarrydoole y@216.196.97.14 2...
    Here's my issue. We've decided to replace a very critical (without it
    the business would lose lots of money) departmental reporting system
    with a built from scratch system based on .NET. The key component is a
    datagrid (it really turned the CIO's head).
    >
    The issue is that the data source is Oracle. We've got a very complex
    reporting system that produces dynamic sql and sends it to oracle and
    takes back the result set and displays it. Each report has at least 3
    filters and some more than a dozen. Each filter can either be a single
    item, a list of 1 to N items or left blank. The idea is to push this
    into Oracle stored procedures and get back a refcursor. The
    filters/parameters effect not only the where clause, but can effect the
    select clause, the from clause (what tables are queried) and when either
    the from clause or select clause are effected the group by clause is
    effected. This is a complex database (not large by data wharehouse
    standards) with indexes and structure that are not friendly to
    reporting. Speed of the reports is a critical issue. It's something
    we've fought pretty sucessfully in the old system.
    >
    We've also got to have a batch component. That is a number of reports
    need to run overnight and be available first thing in the morning. This
    can't be just a single job that runs a bunch of reports. We need each
    report to run separately. Oh and it needs to not start before certain
    jobs are finished on the Oracle database.
    >
    Oh we've got a schedule of six months - nine months max and the clock is
    ticking.
    >
    For the first issue. Has anyone done something similar. If so any key
    problems with this (forget buy crystal, cognos etc. It's not cost they
    are rounding error in our bottom line, but that decision is pretty set
    also forget a data wharehouse - no time)
    >
    Second issue - does anyone know a good scheduler that will integrate
    well with a .NET solution.
    >
    Thanks in advance.

    Sounds like someone picked a technology for its "coolness" (eg someone
    wanted to learn the technology for their resume)

    If you know what the reports look like then the datawarehouse isn't that
    difficult and would vastly simplify queries and improve performance. If
    this is so business critical and worth a ton of money then doing it right
    with known techniques and best industry practices (learn from others who
    have gone before) is going to take less time and give you a better result
    than chasing a BSO. (bright shiny object) Building it from scratch is 2
    orders of magnitude of effort greater than using a packaged application.
    (datawarehouses are designed for reporting, OLTP database schemas are not as
    easy to do cojmplex reporting out of. Also reporting out of your OLTP
    system may cause a performance hit there with the OLTP system. DW's usually
    have a lot of indexes especially bitmapped indexes - something you won't
    have in an OLTP system.(bitmapp ed indexes)


    I would seriosly reconsider your approuch. Yes, you can have stored
    procedures return refcursors. I am hoping you have someone familiar with
    how to do that.
    Jim


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