(2) crystal reports

8/13/2019 (2) Crystal Reports

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Agenda

Crystal Reports

Brief Overview.

Reporting Fundamentals

Customizing Reports

Various Advanced Features

Deploying Reports

Samples

More Information


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What is Crystal Reports ?

Crystal Reports is the standard reporting tool which has the ability to create

presentation quality content

It can be used for windows based applications as well as web based applications


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Why Incorporate Reports into

Applications?

To present data to users, you could write code to loop through recordsets and print

them inside your Windows or Web application.


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What all you can do with Crystal Reports ?

Choose from report layout options ranging from standard reports toform letters, or build your own report from scratch.

Display charts that users can drill down on to view detailed report data.

Calculate summaries, subtotals, and percentages on grouped data.

Show TopN or BottomN results of data.

Conditionally format text and rotate text objects.


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There are five phases of the Report Design

Define the Concept

Sourcing the Data

Creating the Design

Developing & Testing the Design

Deploying & Operating the Report


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Sourcing the Data

Determine where the data for your report actually resides (a database,

mainframe, file, etc.)

A common problem here is that the data you to include does not exist

Keep an eye out for fields that you need to calculate


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Creating the Design

The best report is one that is completed on paper and is then recreated using Crystal

Reports

Revisit your prototype and from here decide which of the fields in your report are

going to come from a database, need to be calculated and any formulas required


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Developing & Testing the design

With the previous steps done you are ready to open Crystal Reports

Input your data and then test the report on different platforms.

Note any performance issues and then revisit your report design


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Deploying & Operating the

Report

The last step in this process it to consider how you report is going to be

used

Will it be exported?

For ex., How does the report design translate when exported from Excelto Word?


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Reporting Fundamentals

When you create a report, you specify the data source of the report, design the

report layout, and decide how you want users to access the report data.

Report Data Access

Report Design

Report Distribution

Adding Reports to Applications


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Report Data Access

Pull Model

Driver will connect to the database and pull in data on demand. Both the

connection to the database, and the SQL command that is performed to get the

data, are handled by Crystal Reports itself and do not require any coding from the

developer.


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Report Data Access (Contd.)

Push Model

Involves the developer writing code to connect to the database,

performing a SQL command to create a recordset or dataset that

matches the fields in the report, and passing that object to the report.

This method enables you to build connection-sharing into your

application and to filter the data before Crystal Reports receives it


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Some Database Drivers

Database Driver Accessible Database Data Access Method

OLEDB Any database that has

an OLEDB Provider.

Supports both pulling

data from the

database and pushing

data into the report

from an recordset.

ODBC Any database that has

an ODBC driver.

Supports both pulling

data from the

database and pushing

data into the report

from an recordset.


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Report Design

Database Connection In the Crystal Report Designer, you first select the data source that your

report will reference. You can use more than one data source in a report.

Report Objects

Database fields

Formula fields

Parameter fields

Group Name fields

Running Total fields

Summary fields

Charts

Subreports


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Report Design (Contd.)

Report Sections

The Crystal Report Designer is divided into report sections, such assection headers, footers, and details. You drag objects onto a reportsection.

The data that appears in the finished report is contingent upon yourdesign choices. In particular, report data varies depending on the

sections into which you choose to insert particular report objects.

For example, if you insert a chart object in the Report Header section, thechart will appear only once at the beginning of the report and willsummarize the data contained in the report. Alternatively, if a chart objectis added to the Group Header section, a separate chart will appear at thebeginning of each group of data and will summarize the data relating onlyto that group.


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Report Distribution

View the Report

The most common way to distribute Crystal Reports is to host themwithin an application so the report can be accessed by users.

For Ex., Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET provides you with thefollowing viewers to host a Crystal report:

Web Forms Viewers host reports in HTML (3.2 and 4.0) in Webapplications.

Windows Forms Viewers host reports in Windows applications.

You can program interaction between the viewer and other controls in theapplication. In addition, each report viewer comes with a pre-packagedtoolbar. You can customize the toolbar based on your application needs.


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Report Distribution (Contd.)

Export the Report

Crystal reports can be exported to the following export formats.

Export Formats

Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)

Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET (.rpt) HTML 3.2 and 4.0 (.html)

Microsoft Excel (.xls)

Microsoft Rich Text (.rtf)

Microsoft Word (.doc)

Export Destinations

Disk file

Microsoft Exchange public folders


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Export Scenarios

Server Applications

Your application can be programmed to export a Crystal report

automatically to any of the supported file formats. For example, using

the Crystal Report Engine object model, you can create a server

application that converts a Crystal report to a Word document and

sends this converted file to a Microsoft Exchange folder every

morning

Windows Applications

The Windows Form Viewer supports exporting (via the Export button

on the toolbar) to all supported export formats

Use code to customize the Windows Forms Viewer toolbar or add

additional controls to set up the export options you want to make

available to users.


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Export Scenarios Web Applications

The Web Forms Viewer displays reports in HTML one page at a

time.

For example, using the Crystal Report Engine object model, you canadd a button that prompts the user for an email address and then

sends the request to the server on which the Crystal Report Engine

processes the request. The user receives an email of the report in

Word format.

Print the Report

you can create an application that automatically prints a Crystal report to

a specific printer.


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Report Deployment Scenarios

Single Tier Applications

Report components, report file (.rpt file) ,report engine are installed with

the executable file on the user's machine.


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Report Deployment Contd..

Three Tier Applications

A Report Web Service is a Crystal report that has been published, or exposed, forconsumption by an application.

Over the Internet, a Windows or Web application can connect to a Report Web Service,consume the exposed Crystal report, and display the report for users by hosting it in a reportviewer.


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Report Deployment Contd..

Enterprise Applications

If you are distributing an application that needs to support report viewing and deliveryacross a large company, you may require more than one report engine to handle allusers' report queries.

Crystal Enterprise allows organizations to scale up (add more processors) or scale out(add more physical machines) to meet growing user demands. This system deliversweb speed performance for both on-demand and scheduled reports.


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Report Web Services

A Report Web Service is a Crystal report published as a Web Service thatis, the report's interfaces (for example: its classes, objects, methods,properties, and return values) are available in XML and can be transmittedacross the Internet.

Other applications can access and use the report and its data without

needing anything other than the ability to read XML.

For example, you can create a Crystal report that shows your company'scurrent orders broken down by region. If you expose this report as a WebService, the company that manufactures the goods can add this Report WebService to its application and see new orders immediately.


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Before Getting Started..

Few points about, Crystal Report OCX

RDC

DataReport


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Getting Started..


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Start Working with Crystal Reports


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Topics

Create a Sample Report Connect to a Database

Report header/page header/report footer/page footer

Page Setup Options

Creating Groups

Creating Sections & Formatting Sections

Subtotal/GrandTotal/Running Totals

Special Fields

Parameter Fields

About Formulae


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More Topics

SubReports Passing parameters from main report to a subreport

Accessing subreport value in main report

Cross tab reports

Runtime requirements for Crystal Reports, additional files are needed

incase any export options are used.

Integrating with Java/Client Server (VB) based applications.

Crystal Report 9+ supports Java.


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Custom Functions in Crystal Reports

Designing User Function Libraries (UFLs)

What are UFLs?

Getting UFLs from Crystal Decisions

Custom UFLs

Creating UFLs in Visual Basic

Using UFLs in Crystal Reports

Seagate Info and Crystal Enterprise


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What are UFLs?

UFL = User Function Library

Dynamic Link Library (DLL)

Exposes custom functions to the Crystal Reports Formula Editor

Provides more powerful data manipulation within reports


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Where are UFLs?

Located in \WINDOWS\Crystalor \WINNT\Crystaldirectory

File name starts with U2Lor U5L(version 9 only supports U5L)

U2LCOM.DLLsupports ActiveX DLLs ActiveX DLLs must have a CRUFLprefix

Functions appear underAdditional Functionslist in Formula Editor


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Where are UFLs? (U2L files)


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Where are UFLs? (Formula Editor)


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UFL Sources

Installed with Crystal Reports

Download from the Crystal Reports Support site

Create a Windows DLL in C/C++

Create an ActiveX DLL in Visual Basic, Delphi, or any COM compliant

language


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UFLs Installed with Crystal Reports

Appear in the Additional Functions section of the Formula Editor

Available functions include:

Y2K conversions

Date/Time and Date/Time string conversions

String extraction and manipulation

Functions for working with MS Exchange data

Functions for working with the NT Event Log Functions for working with financial data


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Getting UFLs from Crystal Decisions

Available from the Crystal Decisions support site:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com

A list of available UFLs is found in:

cr_ufls.pdf

UFLs can be downloaded from:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/updates/


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Custom UFLs

Specialized functions for your business needs Appear inside the Crystal Reports Formula Editor

Supported by Seagate Info and Crystal Enterprise

Windows DLL written in C/C++

ActiveX DLL written in Visual Basic, Delphi, etc.


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Creating UFLs in Visual Basic

Create a new ActiveX DLL project

Name the project CRUFLXXX

The Class module can contain one or more functions

Name the class module according to the collection of functions

you define

Functions declared Public will appear in the Formula Editor

Compile the DLL

Functions appear in Crystal Reports as:

XXXClassFunction


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Using UFLs in Crystal Reports

Compile the UFL

Copy to the \WINDOWS\Crystal or \WINNT\Crystal

directory

Register ActiveX DLLs

Access from the Formula Editor


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Seagate Info and Crystal Enterprise

UFLs are accessed at runtime: when report formulas areprocessed

The UFL is required by the machine that processes the

report

The UFL goes in the \WINDOWS\Crystal or \WINNT\Crystal

directory


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The Future of UFLs

UFLs continue to be supported in Crystal Reports 9

NEW: Crystal Reports 9 introduces custom functions

NEW: Crystal Repository provides easy reuse of custom functions

UFL functions written in Visual Basic can be migrated to customfunctions written in Crystal Basic


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More Information

Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .Net: Getting Started,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-

us/crystlmn/html/crcongettingstarted.asp

Crystal Decisions KBase

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/kbase


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Questions ?


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Thank You.

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