Understanding Deletions in the Repository

When an object is deleted from the repository within Crystal Reports, it is not truly deleted from the database itself. It is marked as deleted so that it will not show up in the Repository Explorer, but the object still exists within the physical database. This marking of a deleted object is often called flagging as dirty, or logical deletion. This allows the report designer to roll back the object to make it visible again if it was accidentally deleted.

Because objects are never truly deleted from the underlying database, the objects still take up space. To save that space, the objects must be physically deleted. To accomplish this, the report designer will have to use a database utility to physically delete the objects. For more information on physical deletion for your database, see your database documentation.

Sharing Report Objects with Others

Reports that have been connected to the repository are still portable. They do not need to be physically connected to a given repository to be viewable by others. Crystal Reports files were designed to save all objects within them so that if the repository is not available to check for updated versions of the objects, the report will load with the last version of the objects that were stored within the RPT file. The is advantageous because it allows report designers to share RPT files while not necessarily sharing the same repository. When the original RPT file is returned (with changes made by the second report designer) and opened, the repository will update the report as necessary.

Summary

In this hour , you've learned the concept of object reuse and how the Report Component Repository can help you to design reports more quickly and easily ( especially for maintenance purposes).

Workshop

The quiz questions and activity are provided for your further understanding of the repository topics learned in this hour .

Quiz

1:	What types of objects can be stored in the repository?
A1:	Text objects, images, SQL Commands, and Custom Functions
2:	What database type is the sample Crystal Repository?
A2:	Microsoft Access MDB
3:	Can repositories be shared among multiple report designers? If so, how?
A3:	Yes, by using a multiuser database via ODBC

Activity

Consider which objects in your existing reports could be more useful in the repository and add them in. Then replace all other objects of the same type in other reports with the repository objects. This will help with future report maintenance tasks .

Hour 19. Designing Effective Report Templates

To further enhance your reports and to make many reports look as similar as possible, we will use this hour to discuss how to create templates from existing reports as well as new reports. We will look at applying templates to reports that were dealing with getting the required information so that they look presentable as well. This hour's topics are as follows :

Reuse in reporting
What is a template?
Using already existing templates
How to create an effective template
Using Template Field Objects
Maximizing the net effect of templates

Reuse in Reporting

Up to now, you've been creating feature rich reports that are very functional. Most likely, no two of the resulting reports from the previous hours have a consistent look and feel.

One of the most demanding and time-consuming parts of Report Design is giving all of your reports a consistent look and feel. In many situations, report designers are asked to conform to a corporate standard like letterheads (all page numbers in the bottom right corner, and so on) or perhaps even something as demanding as GAAP or SEC.

In a perfect "Report Designer-centric" world, less work would be required if the report designer were allowed to focus her efforts on one report and use it as a guide for all other reports that require visual, presentation-focused (yet time-consuming) features. After one report is completed with the appropriate formatting, why not apply its contents and format to other reports? Applying an existing report's layout to other reports is very straightforward with Crystal Reports 9. This is made possible through enhancements to the report templates functionality.

Buy on amazon.com >>

Estes J., FitzGerald N., Hunt K.

<< Previous page

Table of contents

Next page >>