Comparative analysis on Oracle report builder and Oracle Discoverer

Both the tools are very successful and powerful reporting tools delivering the reports over the years. There are following points in which we can differentiate. 1) Decision Making: 2) Pre-requisite from novice point of view 3) Layout designing 4) Complexity in report development process

1) Decision making: Report builder tool is a traditional reporting tool, which has flexibility to develop different styles of report like tabular, group above, matrix report which helps to represent the data in the required format. But this report cannot be used for taking decision of an organization. Whereas Discoverer is business intelligence tool. A discover report is called as workbooks which is integrated with charts and graphs. Management can use the workbook as an input for decision making of an organization. Currently clients need report which can also help in taking decisions which helps in improving the business of an organization.

2) Pre-requisite from novice point of view: To develop reports using the report builder tool, the resource should be skilled in designing the queries using joins and writing conditions. He should also design the layout of the report using frames and repeating frames to get the report as per the client requirement.

Whereas discoverer tool can be used by any resource who does not have any idea on writing SQL queries. We can omit the query designing process as the tool will generate the query by itself as per the inputs given by the resource. A layman can also come up with required reports as this tool does not require any pre-requisite skill set or development experience.

3) Layout designing: Report builder is superior in layout designing with respect to Oracle discoverer. Report builder is flexible in developing different styles of report like Tabular, Group above, mailing label, matrix report, and matrix with group and form like report. Client can choose any of the required styles or can use custom templates to personalize the report. A discoverer report represents the required data in the form of rows and columns like matrix reports. These reports are called as worksheets. This tool does not have different styles of reports. It attractive representation of report is the objective, then this report does not fulfill the requirement. 4) Complexity in report development process: Level of complexity involved in report builder tool is directly proportional to complexity of the database. If the database is complex, report development process also becomes complex as the developer needs to design the complex queries. In contrast, the discoverer tool creates a logical layer over the database. This logical is called as End user layer (EUL). Discoverer tool does not communicates to complex database, instead it communicates to EUL. EUL insulates the complexity of the database. Developer need not concern as query generation is done by the discoverer tool.

Conclusion:

Every reporting tool has its own advantages and pitfalls. reporting tool completely dependents on technical

Selection of and

capabilities

commercial aspects of the client. Trend of representation of data has drastically changes over the years. Reporting tools are specialized in a specific aspect. Report builder tool is specialized in organized representation of data. Discoverer tool is specialized in decision support system.