My question is about reporting tools and the concept of Data dictionary. Is it necessary to use a Data dictionary in order to do good reports? and which tools use it? by tools i mean jasper reports, open reports, SQL Server Reporting services... Thank you for helping
That is a very odd question as the data dictionary must be required for the obvious reason that it tells the reporting api what format the data will be in and how joins etc. may be done. Hence in order to display data from the database or to act on any tables within the database you have to have a data dictionary. Interestingly XML cheats as it uses the concept of a #PCDATA base type which is used in lieu of typing information where it does not exist.
I hope that answers your question, I'm sure that I can expand if you require.