PDF files from SQL queries?

Hi,
Can anyone shed any light on how easy it is to generate PDF reports on the fly from SQL queries. I'd prefer not to use an intermediary report writer, like Crystal.

Presumably I'd need the full product of Adobe Acrobat writer?
How quickly can they be generated?

Any pointers regarding this greatly appreciated...

GregI've been using PHP to pass SQL queries and the FPDF class to generate the pdf files for output. I suppose this would count as using an intermediary report writer, but at least all the bits are free.

Ursus

Originally posted by gregclark
Hi,
Can anyone shed any light on how easy it is to generate PDF reports on the fly from SQL queries. I'd prefer not to use an intermediary report writer, like Crystal.

Presumably I'd need the full product of Adobe Acrobat writer?
How quickly can they be generated?

Any pointers regarding this greatly appreciated...

Greg|||Check out this article.

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/mivica/creatingapdffromastoredprocedure.asp|||Hi, thanks for the replies. I think i'm going to have to use an intermediate tool such as crystal to get what i want into PDF.

I see that Microsoft have just released Reporting Services for SQL server (http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/default.asp), and there also appears to be a good summary of tools around at this posting (http://www.dbforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=706954),

I'm going to look into these - does anyone know of any other good tools to look at also?

Cheers
g.