We installed and tested Arrow for SharePoint and the report design tool, AutoTag.

Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Arrow and AutoTag: A Natural Integration

SharePoint offers numerous reporting components, including centralized file management, collaboration tools, granular permissions for each element in the process and the Web-based ability to access company data, but we found it was missing a critical element: automation/scheduling. Running Arrow for SharePoint gave us a full-fledged reporting system, complete with a report scheduler that allowed us to automate the report distribution process.

Another benefit we found was that we were able to set up complex business rules that allowed us better control over the entire reporting process. For example, some users had editing, scheduling and generation abilities, while others were limited to simply viewing reports.

Plus, Arrow's template design tool, AutoTag, is an add-in for Microsoft Office. Because Office and SharePoint "talk" to each other, we could take advantage of all the inherent SharePoint features useful in template creation: versioning, checking files in and out, setting up business rules, and editing templates directly from within SharePoint.

These pieces all fit together nicely into one integrated system. Here's a breakdown of some of the components.

Installation

Getting Arrow for SharePoint up and running was a simple and straightforward process. In about a half hour we installed and configured the 35 MB single MSI file by following the free online documentation. We wouldn't have thought free documentation was a big deal until we discovered some companies charge for their documentation.

The instructions guided us step-by-step through copying the SetupArrow.msi file to our SharePoint front end web server and executing the MSI. We then added Arrow web parts just like any other web parts, and there were a total of eight under the category Windward Web Parts.

After this we installed AutoTag, which automatically detected which components were already installed on our system and downloaded only what was necessary.

AutoTag Design Tool Interface

Windward Reports' design tool, AutoTag, is an add-in to Microsoft Office, so report creation was a much simpler process than with the other tools we evaluated. We simply opened Word and began adding the desired elements to our template (headers, footers, text blocks, charts, graphs, images, tables of contents, etc.) using Word's built-in commands. Because we were already familiar with Word, this interface took us much less time to master than any of the other report design tools we found. Nearly all the features in Office were available to us with the exception of some minor formatting tools.

We also appreciated the fact that AutoTag is a non-banded design tool. This not only allowed us greater freedom in report design – we could lay out elements as we wished on the page, rather than stacked across the page – but it saved us significant time.

Windward uses Word, Excel and PowerPoint as its design interface, and we quickly created reports that looked exactly the way we wanted them to.

One of the features that stood out was charting. Reporting programs often stumble with charting, but this is another area where Windward stood strong. We didn't have to go through a lot of additional or complicated steps such as dummy image insertion or learning obscure beans. The charts were fairly easy to create, had a wide range of layout and theme options, and were accompanied by solid examples in the sample templates and written documentation.

We also designed reports in Excel, and the process ran as smoothly as it did in Word. Of particular note was the ability to use Excel's dynamic formulas, which expanded intuitively with our data. For example, in an invoice table we set one cell to sum the product subtotals (=SUM(E4)). When we generated the report, the cell summed all the data in the product subtotals column (cells E4 through E10) instead of a single cell.

The Power of Microsoft Office

We took advantage of all the advanced capabilities of Microsoft Office 2010, features that we didn't find in any other reporting system. With this new version of Office 2010, we easily collaborated on reports with colleagues, tracked revisions, and locked parts of our template. In Word, for example, we used the new editing tools to add, delete and organize sections of our report, and we set permissions and saved the file as a PDF with a button click. With Excel's built-in business intelligence tools, we quickly drilled down through our data and sliced and analyzed it however we wanted. And in PowerPoint, using photo- and video-editing tools within the software saved us even more time.

Also, because we were using Office from within SharePoint, we used SharePoint's tools throughout the editing process. Templates (and reports) were fully searchable, making them easier to find, create and distribute. Multiple users checked in and checked out templates, ensuring that no two users were editing templates simultaneously. And version control meant we could go back and easily recover a previous version if we needed to.

Tags

Windward Reports touts itself as a reporting solution for the business user, and this claim is true for the large majority of the data insertion process. The business professional can use the Data Bin's drag-and-drop functionality to place tags into templates. With user-defined tags (UDTs), we created a template without having to create a single tag because we used an existing template's tags and tables. Programming knowledge is necessary in some cases, but we found it wasn't required to write complex scripts by hand because Windward's wizards and intuitive windows walked us through creating a range of select statements. A validate tool let us check the syntax of the tags so we could find and fix errors before running the report.

Creating a Data Profile

Connecting to an SQL database was a simple and guided process. We launched the Create Windward Data Profile web part and were able to easily choose the appropriate database from a list of databases Windward handles: Access (ODBC), Excel (OleDB), IBM DB2, MS SQL Server Compact, MySQL, ODBC, OleDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SharePoint List, SQL Server Compact, SQL, or any other ADO.NET provider installed. Windward also handles XML data sources, and we could connect to them in any order. The system searched for matching databases and presented us with a list, and we tested the connection before exiting the web part to make sure everything was working.

Even better, once we had set up a data profile we could use it repeatedly for a wide range of templates. This meant our IT department only had to create a profile once, and our business group could then pick the ones they needed. This saved us a lot of time because we didn't have to do the typical back and forth between departments.

Assembling a Report Template

Before we could run a report we had to perform one final step: report assembly. The Assemble a Windward Report web part walked us through uploading a template to SharePoint and linking it to its data source. The onscreen instructions were short, clear and easy to follow. Some features of note: built-in version control ensured we were working with the correct template, the template repositories are searchable and enforced by business rules, and we were able to set parameters for template variables in this step.

And, as with the data profiles mentioned above, we only had to create a report assembly once. Users could then run the report as many times as they wanted.

Running a Report

Windward Reports offered us nine different output formats: HTML, PDF, DOCX, XML (Word), RTF, XLSX, XLS, PPTX, and direct to a printer. For the most part the final report rendered as we expected it to, although there were some minor formatting issues for which we needed to return to the template and make tweaks. (Namely, tables in Excel needed cells expanded to fit our data and some line drawings in PDF reports were not completely true to the original image in the template). One feature deserves special mention: generating a report URL and clicking on that URL causes the report to be run with current data.

Scheduling and Viewing Reports

Arrow for SharePoint allowed us to schedule reports to be run on our timetable: daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, with a variety of options for each category. We could to distribute to targets, email lists, shared SharePoint repositories or printers. We appreciated the ability to set permissions so authorized colleagues and others could view, share and edit reports. We also took advantage of a feature that let us automatically save multiple versions of reports. Plus, we could view a list of scheduled reports with details such as the report's description, when it was last run, and when it is next scheduled to be run.

Additional Tools

Arrow for SharePoint includes both dashboards and drill-down interfaces. We could design and preview dashboards and gauges with little programming expertise, and we set them to automatically refresh for up-to-the-minute data. The drill-down capabilities let us click on links within generated templates to see subtemplates with more detailed info, and we had the option to nest links within templates.

Support

In our experience, support is where Windward Reports really shines. The detailed documentation covers everything from installation to program use to sys admin maintenance, and short "getting started" guides helped us get up and running quickly. The website offers written tutorials, video demonstrations, and paid support.

Summary

Overall, Windward Reports outperformed the other reporting programs we evaluated. We found only a couple of features that could have been improved (the XPath and SQL wizards don’t allow for comparison of fields), and Windward Reports' robust feature set and ease of use make this a top-rated reporting solution.