Focal Point
Dev. Studio vs Report Assistant

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https://forums.informationbuilders.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7971057331/m/4901067331

May 09, 2003, 02:34 PM
<Dave>
Dev. Studio vs Report Assistant
I have a client with some very reasonable requests as far as reporting requirements, web access, etc. The one unreasonable request is that this client insists that Report Assistant be the development and maintenance tool used. Developer Studio is "not an option". I have successfully met all reporting requirements with Studio, and deployed same. Now client wants the code re-done in RA so it can be maintained there. I have a few issues: 1.) Limited functionality (won't support multi-column joins, seems to treat all columns as Detail or Sum but can't mix the two, etc.)
2.) Bugs. Frequently when I develop and test a report with RA, then attempt to re-open it for mods, the window opens up with only the original master file. All report information, joins, etc. are gone. I know better than to text-edit these fex files, so that's not it.

I am ready to tell the client that Report Assistant is not a suitable tool for building and maintaining a production application. Fine for quick reports and throw-aways, but not for enterprise applications. Am I all wet? Anybody care to defend Report Assistant as an enterprise-wide development tool?
May 13, 2003, 02:05 PM
Jeffrey Friedman
Dave,

I checked with the Product Manager for the HTML Report Assistant before replying to you and got the answer that I was going to send on my own. And that is:

The HTML RA should not be used as the enterprise report development tool and should not be marketed that way.
Dev studio is the tool to use. And yes, the RA does not have all the functionality of the painter, it wasn't meant to.

I know that this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is reality. We cannot give unrealistic expectations to our customers. By selling them an analytical reporting tool as a developers tool, we would be doing just that.
May 13, 2003, 02:06 PM
<Laura Drezek>
Dave,
The HTML RA is not as powerful as the Dev Studio Painter. That is true, and it is not meant to be. Dev Studio is the positioned app dev tool. There are limitations with the HTML RA and yes you may stumble across some bugs. If you do find bugs please open up a hottrack.

So yes, the HTML RA is not meant to be the main app dev tool. Developers Studio is much more powerful.
-Laura Drezek