Michael W. Ryan on Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:29:46 -0400 (EDT)


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Re: [Plug] how would you do a report off of an SQL database ?


On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Darxus wrote:

> As you know, I work in a microsoft environment.  But there are Linux
> possibilities around here.  One of the things I do is real pretty reports
> off of an SQL database, using ms access.  How would you do the equivalent
> under Linux ?  I'm not talking about plaintext stuff I could do w/
> straight perl, I'm talking about graphical stuff, nicely laid out, with
> charts & stuff (which is admitedly rather easy in ms access, when it
> works).  

First, I'd pick the programming language of our choice (I'll leave
guessing the one I'd suggest as an exercise for the reader).  You could
probably write a script/program to access the database of your choice (no,
I don't have any strong feelings on this one), and then pull data from the
system and put together a document using that data.

The only other choice is the type of document to construct.  A PostScript
document would be the most direct, but this would require a knowledge of
PS programming.  Another option would be to make it a LaTeX document (I'd
stay away from LyX, as it's only a graphical front-end to LaTeX and tends
to be rather limited).

A third choice is to make an HTML document and for graphics, use any
number tools for creating graphic images.  Python, for example (oop...
gave myself away), has a package that allows you to construct a GIF (maybe
other formats, also) programatically.

Not quite as easy and graphically oriented as Access, but some
possibilities.

Michael W. Ryan, MCP, MCT     | OTAKON 1999
mryan@netaxs.com              | Convention of Otaku Generation
http://www.netaxs.com/~mryan/ | http://www.otakon.com/

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PGP public key available by fingering mryan@unix.netaxs.com (use -l opt)


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