[reportlab-users] Advice on switching from XSL-FO (FOP) to ReportLabs

[John Leach]

> We're in the middle of developing a large ERP system, a big component of
> which is a reporting module. 

I hope that's in Python - that would be lovely. Never had time to finish the 
one I started.

> We're currently evaluating other free and open-source tools. We've played
> around with the ReportLabs demos and are impressed, especially with the
> speed of execution, so we're asking if anyone familiar with the ReportLabs
> toolkit could give us some advice/pointers.

I use the wonderful ReportLab to produce invoice/purchase orders etc out of 
legacy systems like SAP etc. The thing that I notice is how very different 
these documents can be between companies - some want multiple copies, some 
want watermarks, etc, etc. So the approach I have adopted is that I have a 
GUI that allows the header/footer/detail lines/continuation headers/footers 
to be designed on screen - and this then generates a script which can be 
tweaked manually using a text editor according to the particular requirements 
of the user. Others no doubt have different approaches.
I've never thought it possible to have a GUI that does everything that people 
are going to need in a specialsied business document.
BTW I highly recommend ReportLab.

John Leach
http://osware.net