Comparative analysis of reporting mechanisms based on XML technology

Abstract

Comparative analysis of reporting mechanisms based on XML technology is presented in the paper. The analysis was carried out as the part of the process of selecting and implementing of reporting mechanisms for a cadastre information system. The reports were designed for two versions of the system, i.e. for the internet system based on PHP technology and the fat client system in two-layer client-server architecture. The reports for the internet system were prepared using XSLT for HTML output and using XML-FO for PDF output and compared with reports implemented using Free PDF library. Each solution was tested by means of the Web Application Stress Tool in order to determine what limits in scalability and efficiency could be observed. As far as the desktop system is concerned three versions of reporting mechanisms based on Crystal Reports, Microsoft Reporting Services and XML technology were accomplished and compared with the mean execution time as the main criterion.