Re: Odd request to use reports can this be done.

Microsoft Access linked tables can combine data from multiple systems /
data sources into a combined query view. I do that occasionally.

Crystal Reports can be pointed at those Microsoft Access combined view
queries to report said merged data.

That said, I'd be surprised if a recent version of Crystal Reports was not
able to merge data from multiple data sources into a single report, without
involving Access as middleware.. I've not used Crystal Reports in a long
time, so I'm not up on its current capabilities.

From ~1998 to 2000, I did use Crystal Reports a lot using Access as

middleware to an IBM i, and it worked extremely well. Made reporting quite
simple. Delivering the report results to a browser was amazingly simple,
and performance was excellent.

I think your biggest challenge will be getting good performance from
whatever solution you choose.

Personally, I'd take a hard look at tools that combine data to create a
combined view of the data from multiple database servers onto one of the
database servers, and then simply feed off of the combined data views from
Crystal Reports, as if it were coming from a single system. I'm inclined
to think that architecture would yield better performance. Whichever
database server contains the larger volume of data being combined for
reporting, should probably be the server which performs the logical merge.
Performing the merge of data from two systems on a third system, will most
certainly be a lot slower, unless your database servers are already
overburdened and neither can handle the extra work load or performing a
merge. JDBC can be used on the IBM i to reach out and grab SQL server data.

Mike

HI I have a project that is unfolding where they want to take data from
various sources both on Ibm and other apps in SQL server and meld into one
report in Crystal reports.

The Query/400 are fine but they also want to use reports generated on the
ERP on the 400.

I recall there used to be a way to convert a report to a file, this
strikes
me as a good choice but was also wondering if there are other ways. I seem
to recall this convert to file was sometimes hit or miss. Perhaps someone
still uses this method or has a better idea.