Become a Crystal Reports 2008 Star!

8/14/2019 Become a Crystal Reports 2008 Star!

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Introduction and Agenda

• What makes you a star?

• Enhanced user experience

• Designer enhancements

• Additional features



What Makes You a Star?

• Know the product• Take advantage of opportunities for learning Crystal Reports 2008

• Improve the consumer experience

• Simplify your design process

• Deploy fantastic reports!



Enhanced User Experience

• Interactive Sorting

• Interactive Parameters

• Support for long list of values (LOV)

• Optional parameters

• Xcelsius Integration



Interactive Sorting

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – one report/sort order required

• Through on demand subreports as the header for each column

• Through parameters and formulas

•

Detriments to these approaches?• Multiple copies of reports to maintain

• Extra database and network traffic

• Complicated report design



Interactive Sorting

• How is it done in Crystal Reports 2008?



Interactive Sorting

• Advantages• Uses the existing recordset

• One object to maintain

• No subreports!



Interactive Parameters

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – one report/parameter requirement

• In an external application

• In the designer by an end user!

• Detriments to these approaches?

• Multiple copies of reports to maintain

• Extra database and network traffic

• Dependency on external applications

• Possible data corruption








• Advantages• Uses the existing recordset

• One object to maintain

• No subreports!



Support for Long List of Values (LOV)

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – one giant list of values with no filters

• LOV was broken up into manual batches

• Multiple parameters

• Complicated selection criteria

• Detriments to these approaches?• Customer frustration

• Poor performance

• Complex formulas








• Advantages• Happier users!

• More efficient prompting

• Single parameter



Optional Parameters

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – separate reports for each set of requirements

• Custom record selection criteria

• Through subreports

• Detriments to these approaches?

• Multiple copies of reports to maintain

• Complicated selection criteria

• Inconsistent syntax between versions



Optional Parameters




Optional Parameters

• Advantages• Higher degree of interactivity and on demand analysis

• Reduced database and network traffic

• Consistent Syntax



Xcelsius Integration

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – this is a new feature

• Create Xcelsius Report from data in Excel through Crystal Reportsvia Live Office

• Detriments

• No direct integration

• Convoluted method of obtaining Crystal Reports data to use inXcelsius








• Advantages• Happier users!

• Visually stimulating reports

• Higher degree of interactivity



Designer Enhancements

• Multi-Value Parameters in SQL Commands• Web Pagination

• Enhanced Crosstabs

• Built-in Barcode Support

• New database support



Multi-Value Parameters in SQLCommands

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – multi-value parameters were created as Crystal Reports

parameters, not Command parameters

• Create a single long delimited string parameter and parse out thevalues in SQL

• Detriments• Detracts from the power of a SQL Command

• Reduced efficiency

• Complex kluge to work around SQL limitation

• High degree of user input error








• Advantages• Increased efficiency

• Reduced database processing

• Reduced network traffic

• Simplified SQL



Web Pagination

• How was it done before?• Custom Page sizes

• Install printer drivers and create a custom printer

• Custom Page Orientation

• Create separate reports and run independently or schedule as a Report

Package in Enterprise• Custom Page Breaks

• Convoluted formulas

• Remove white space at end of report

• Couldn’t do it

• Detriments• High degree of complexity – workarounds



Web Pagination – Custom Page Size




Web Pagination – Custom PageOrientation




Web Pagination – Custom Page Breaks




Web Pagination – Remove White Space




Web Pagination

• Advantages• Greater control over the look-and-feel of your reports

• Simplified design

• Better “webification”



Enhanced Crosstabs

• How was it done before?• It wasn’t – “other” tools were used

• Manual crosstabs were created

• Detriments

• Unhappy customers

• Labor intensive manual crosstabs

• Maintenance concerns



Enhanced Crosstabs




Enhanced Crosstabs

• Advantages• Improved Analytic Functionality

• Reduced dependency on external tools

• Easier design and deployment



Built-in Barcode Support

• How was it done before?• Purchase and install bar code fonts from external vendor

• Detriments

• Additional cost

• Manual font conversion



Built-in Barcode Support




Built-in Bar Code Support

• Advantages• Simplified implementation

• Additional purchased fonts can be automatically converted, too





Key Learning Points

• What makes you a Crystal Reports 2008 Star?• Know the product

• Enhance the user experience

• Simplify your design and deployment

• Training Resources

• Sample Reports and Databases from SAP

• User Groups

• Classes

• Technical Forums



Contact information

• http://crystaladvantage.com

• [email protected]

http://crystaladvantage.com/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://crystaladvantage.com/



Thank you for participatingPlease remember to complete and return your evaluation form following this session.

Documents

Become a Crystal Reports 2008 Star!