Usable view for dumb users?

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3

I'm working on a small project that requires some of our users to be able to view/sort/filter and generally play around with a large amount of data. It's based on a sql server 2000 view and is something on the order of 125k rows worth of historical event data (think sports).

Normally I would turn to excel for this kind of simple manipulation, but the version of excel we use doesn't support more than 65k rows (2003). I've thought of access, but on the surface the interface seems a bit complicated.

Does anyone know of a good tool to allow these users to quickly perform these kinds of operations?

2009-06-16 20:07
by Barry
I really wouldn't call your users dumb. Remember they are the ones paying your salary - RichardOD 2009-06-16 20:11
That goes to show how dumb they are! ; - Andomar 2009-06-16 20:12
To give a little more information, my users are subject matter experts in our field (motorsports) and their role is to interact with the media and answer the various questions such as when is the last time something happened, or how often has it happened. Also, I'm currently supporting them, so they email or call me and I query the database for them. Our goal in this is to start to wean them off of the live support and into getting the data for themselves - Barry 2009-06-17 12:09


10

Honestly, if you're confident you could implement a solution quickly (lets say 1 hour) with excel 2007. Consider that Office 2007 costs ~ $500, and whatever your hourly rate is (lets just say $50 for kicks), then you would need to build something within 10 hours and anything over that you'd be better off going and buying Office 2007.

10 hours, that's less than 2 days of dev time. And the $500 price tag is for a new copy of office, not the upgrade version.

Sounds like it's time to upgrade.

BTW, here are some numbers of Excel 2007 limitations.

2009-06-16 20:15
by Joseph
Shudder to think that writing code might not be the solution so +1 for even considering other option - Rob Allen 2009-06-16 20:28
Yeah, but that is $500 * NumberOfDumbUsers ; - Byron Whitlock 2009-06-16 20:39
@Rob It pains me to think outside of the IDE box =P, but some times the ROI for buying instead of building is too high to ignore - Joseph 2009-06-16 23:32
@Byron - so figure out how to sell them Excel licenses. Can't be hard - dkretz 2009-06-17 00:59
Depends on their licensing--they might well be licensed for 2007 even if they haven't upgraded yet. Now, getting the IT department to bless an upgrade for some app, nevermind their costs in the equation - Wyatt Barnett 2009-06-17 01:00


4

Report Builder 2.0 is an easy to use tool for creating reports.

If you install Sql Server Express 2008, you get Reporting Services for free.

This will work till you hit the size limit for Sql Express, I believe 4GB of data.

2009-06-16 20:11
by Andomar


2

what about an intranet site?

2009-06-16 20:09
by SQLMenace


2

Take a look at ASP.NET Dynamic Data websites. You should be able to create a basic site in an hour or less. They even look good out of the box.

And your users may be "dumb" but you're working for them!

2009-06-16 20:13
by Jamie Ide


1

A Crystal Report is not bad if you set it up with the right filters, which the users can control.

Then you can either embed in an intranet site (very easy w/visual studio), or let them view it locally with the free viewer.

2009-06-16 20:17
by JosephStyons


1

If you're already using SQL server, try installing SQL server reporting services (SSRS). it allows you to quickly generate reports for your users and publish them on a web interface, or it even has a plugin for the browser called a Report Builder, which allows users to create their own reports. If the users are proficient in excel, then Report Builder would be an easy jump for them to make.

2009-06-17 00:48
by Roy Rico


0

Create a small windows app, having just 1 gridview on it, with sorting / paging etc. enabled?

2009-06-16 20:09
by Colin


0

If you end up doing some sort of website, check out the Google visualization API for some really spiffy graphs and charts.

2009-06-16 20:15
by Erika
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