Business intelligence and real--time reporting mechanisms play a major role in any of today's forward--looking business plans. With many of these solutions being moved to the Web, the popular Rails framework and its underlying Ruby language are playing a major role alongside web services in building the reporting solutions of tomorrow. Practical Reporting with Ruby and Rails is the first book to comprehensively introduce this popular framework, guiding readers through a wide--ranging array of features. Note this isn't a staid guide to generating traditional reports, but rather it shows you how the Ruby language and Rails framework can create truly compelling reporting services by plugging into popular third-party applications and services such as Google AdWords, UPS.com, iTunes, and SalesForce.com. What you'll learn * Create reporting solutions for both the Web and the desktop. * Integrate with powerful third--party retail solutions such as eBay, and Amazon.com in order to monitor your sales campaigns in real--time. * Build an invoice reporting system using Rails and PayPal. * Monitor your sales performance by taking advantage of SugarCRM's web service offerings. Who this book is for Ruby and Rails developers seeking to create compelling business intelligence and reporting solutions using a wide variety of applications and services. Table of Contents * Data Access Fundamentals * Calculating Statistics with Active Record * Creating Graphs with Ruby * Creating Reports on the Desktop * Connecting Your Reports to the World * Tracking Auctions with eBay * Tracking Expenditures with PayPal * Creating Sales Performance Reports with SugarCRM * Investment Tracking with Fidelity * Calculating Costs by Analyzing Apache Web Logs. * Tracking the News with Google News * Creating Reports with Ruby and Microsoft Office * Tracking Your Ads with Google AdWords