Printing Orders Using a Microsoft Access Report

[alexanderfab]

Hello,

I've been secretly using this forum for a while now in order to create my site and thanks to some excellent posts its gone very well. I'd thought I would just ask though, has anybody considered using the Access Database and the report function in that to be able to print their orders instead of using the more restrictive reports system supplied by Actinic? I would have just thought that if you weren't inclined to go out and buy Crystal reports, then this would surely allow you a higher level of customiseability (great made up word there I think)

Alex

[fergusw]

I've been secretly using this forum for a while now

Your secret is safe with us.

Actinic's Order Tab GUI (Graphical User Interface) primarily does what you mention - it shows and represents the order data from the Access database, so what you are suggesting is certainly achievable.
Whether anyone would want to go to the trouble of recoding and rebuilding a new GUI for the Access database in Access itself simply for another report type is another question entirely.
Actinic's Access data structure for order processing and handling uses multiple Access database tables with many, many fields to cover the huge variety of options, settings, selections and configurations for the financial aspects of the order processing e.g. shipping, tax, discounts etc

It would certainly be simpler to build a reporting mechanism for one individual's requirements than for every variant and eventuality of Actinic's order data. Because of this a ubiquitous solution in Access has not been made, that I am aware of, and you are left with the DIY option or paying a developer to amend a Crystal reports file to get what you want. The latter is certainly the more cost effective solution available.

[Jan]

Actually Fergus, I would disagree with you there, if you have the skills you can easily write reports for Actinic in Access. The benefit of crystal over access is that you are provided with a really good starting point to work on from. To write reports in access you will need to understand how the data from the various different order tables work together and you would need to make sure that you kept deleted or cancelled order out of the reports.

The only table relating to orders that is complicated is the order lines table - it contains rows for all different sorts of data, from product info to discount info so you would need to be careful with that one.

If you are a novice though, I wouldn't suggest trying to do this because it's easy to make mistakes.

Regards,

[los_design]

I have to agree with Jan on this one.

If you have the skill base regarding Access and have a very good awareness of the Actinic processes within, the functions you can perform can be limitless as the backward compatiblity is fantastico.

Crystal Reports is an excellent starting point and would help the intermediate user grasp a firm understanding.

But, if your knowledge is currently limited, stick with the inbuilt features IMHO. As with any work on an .mdb, errors can be fatal and extremely hard to recover.

[alexanderfab]

Ohh some replies...I feel honoured. Thanks.

I can see the advantages in both the Crystal Reports and the Access reports solutions. I just find the fact that you can't change the reports in Actinic it self an odd exclusion from an other wise great package. I would have just thought many buisnesses would like the utility of being able to edit the look of their reports quickly and easily wihtout having to pay for someone to change it everytime the need to.

Alex

p.s Great use of the word 'ubiquitous' fergusw. A word not used nearly enough

[fergusw]

p.s Great use of the word 'ubiquitous' fergusw. A word not used nearly enough

Hi Alex, thanks!

There is not any single reporting plugin for Actinic that would deliver the kind of easy customisation for Actinic users (at least not that I am aware of!).

This was what I was meaning in my earlier post and my explanation was why a "ubiquitous" solution has not been developed.
Alex, Jan at MoleEnd has some wonderful plug-ins for the Actinic database and she probably knows the database architecture as well as anyone so, as she says, if you have some knowledge of Access and Actinic's own data architecture you could put together your own reports without too much problem, but a one-size fits all plugin for Actinic reporting in Access for all the non-DB savvy users out there is not available AFIK......

Perhaps there is a market for such a tool........ *trundels off to investigate ReportViewer in .NET*