Hi,
can you guys tell me the differences between those solutions?
In which case do I have to use WebI (or Xcelsius / or Crystal Reports)?
I know we have a topic in which we have compared BOBJ to other competitors, but we dont have one for the BOBJ solutions.
Thanks.
rontel (BOB member since 2008-07-07)
In the past, the main distinction between a thin client development tool like WebI and a fat client development tool like Crystal is that WebI is for quick adhoc reports and Crystal is for pixel-perfect complex reports. This distinction is starting to blur as WebI is becoming more feature-rich. We have some very complex reports that are built in WebI.
With that being said, Crystal is still the king, in my humble opinion, of all report development clients. There is very few things that you cannot do with Crystal. You can even build a better dashboard with Crystal than using a dashboard tool.
Xcelsius is a great dashboard development tool. It is easy to use and easy to learn. It is going to replace Dashboard Manager for sure. However, Xcelsius has the same problem as any other 3rd party tool that BOBJ has acquired in recent years… integration with Enterprise. Not until earlier this year that BOBJ finally addressed this problem. Also, Xcelsius requires XIr2 SP2 and above. So it won’t work for those who are in older versions.
If you ask me, I still think the whole dashboard thing is a little over-hyped. As I have stated above, I can build a better dashboard using Crystal. So why do I need to get another tool and have to deal with any integration/environment headache?
In my humble opinion, all these are just tools, and they should be interchangeable. There is always more than one way to skin a cat. You can use different tool to accomplish the same task. So it is really boil down to your personal like/dislike, your own comfort level, and of course the licensing (e.g. Crystal is on named user licensing and it can add up).
substring 
(BOB member since 2004-01-16)