Capabilities and Limitations of the Report Application Server
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Capabilities and Limitations of the Report Application Server
When you compare the functionality of the Report Application Server with that of the other two editions of Crystal Enterprise (Standard and Professional), you will quickly realize that the Report Application Server is very limited in what it can do for you. Much of the
| Note |
For more details about the features of Crystal Enterprise, see Chapter 23. |
In addition to the limited functionality that is available in the Report Application Server, its licensing limits the number of users that can access it at any one time to five, and it cannot ever be deployed on more than one web server unless extra licenses are purchased from Crystal Decisions. You are also
| Tip |
Trying to understand the ins and outs of Crystal Decisions licensing scheme for the Report Application Server can be a bit daunting. You can try it for yourself by viewing the license agreement in the license.rtf file that is in the root directory of the Report Application Server installation CD. |
Since the Report Application Server is so seemingly limited, you may be wondering exactly what it can be used for. The answer is that it can be used for creating a custom, web-based reporting system that will give users the ability to view their reports using a web browser. It also serves as a development platform in that custom applications developed on it can easily be
| Note |
We dont mean to sound negative about the Report Application Server: It is a fine platform for small departmental use and for use as a development tool. But you will need to upgrade to Crystal Enterprise Standard or Professional as your reporting environment and enterprise-wide reporting requirements grow. |
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Using ePortfolio Lite
When you install the Report Application Server, a sample web reporting application called ePortfolio Lite is also installed. This sample application is used to
You can
Figure 24.5.
ePortfolio Lite
| Tip |
You can also open ePortfolio Lite directly from your web browser by entering
http://localhost/rassamples/en/asp/rPortfolio/reportListing.asp
as the address, using the
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This first thing you may notice about ePortfolio Lite is the number of features that are disabled—items like Search, Alerts, Favorites, Organize, Logon, Folders, and Report Schedule And History. This is where the Lite portion of the name comes from. A more
Setting ePortfolio Lite Preferences
One of the features of ePortfolio Lite that is enabled is the setting of preferences. Clicking the Preferences button in the upper-right portion of the ePortfolio Lite interface opens the User Preferences window, as shown in Figure 24.6.
Figure 24.6.
ePortfolio Lite Preferences
If you select the Main Display option of Hide Advanced Crystal Enterprise Features and then click OK, the ePortfolio Lite user interface is updated with all of the disabled features removed, as shown in Figure 24.7.
Viewing Reports in ePortfolio Lite
You can view a report by selecting the View link that is next to one of the sample reports included with ePortfolio Lite. Clicking the View link
Figure 24.7.
ePortfolio Lite without the disabled features
Figure 24.8.
Product Catalog report
The default web-reporting viewer used for ePortfolio Lite is the Interactive Viewer, and it is this viewer that is displayed in Figure 24.8. However, you can change the default viewer used to display a report by setting the View My Reports Using The… option in the User Preferences window, as shown previously in Figure 24.6.
If you change the report viewer preference to HTML Page Viewer, you will get a much simpler view of the report. The Product Catalog sample report as seen using the HTML Page Viewer is shown in Figure 24.9.
Figure 24.9.
Product Catalog Report using the HTML Page Viewer
If you change the report viewer preference to Report
Figure 24.10.
Product Catalog Report using the Report Parts Viewer
Notice that viewing the Product Catalog report through the Report Parts Viewer displays only the grouping levels of Accessories and Bicycles. If you click the link for the Accessories group level, the Product Catalog detail data for that group is displayed, as shown in Figure 24.11.
Figure 24.11.
Product Catalog Report using the Report Parts Viewer Detail view
Using the Web-Reporting Viewers
Depending on which web-reporting viewer is selected for viewing reports, certain report-viewing features may or may not be available. Report-viewing features include drill down, page navigation, exporting, printing, searching, zooming, and advanced searching.
Interactive Viewer
The Interactive Viewer is by far the most robust of the web-reporting viewers as it has the most end-user features available. You can access the features of the Interactive Viewer from the toolbar in the top portion of the report viewing interface, as shown in Figure 24.12.
Figure 24.12.
Interactive Report Viewer toolbar
One feature that is very useful is the ability to export reports to the following formats:
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Crystal Reports (RPT)
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Acrobat Format (PDF)
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Microsoft Word (DOC)
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Microsoft Excel 97-2000 (XSL)
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Microsoft Excel 97-2000 (Data Only)
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Rich Text Format (RTF)
To export a report, click the Export This Report button from the Interactive Viewer toolbar. This will display a window that allows you to specify the export format and the range of pages to be exported. The Export The Report window is shown in Figure 24.13.
Figure 24.13.
Export The Report window
Another useful feature of the Interactive Viewer is printing, and the print feature can be used by clicking the Print This Report button from the Interactive Viewer toolbar. This will display a window that allows you to specify the range of pages to print. An interesting twist to the way that the Interactive Viewer implements print functionality is that it does not use the print features of the web browser but instead uses the print features of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. It does this by first converting the report into the PDF format that the Acrobat Reader uses. The Print The Report window is shown in Figure 24.14.
One other feature of the Interactive Viewer that is worth noting is the Advanced Search Wizard. This wizard can be used to search the fields contained in a report using Boolean and comparison (also known as logical ) operators. You can use the Advanced Search Wizard by selecting the Show/Hide Advanced Search Wizard button from the Interactive Viewer toolbar. This will lower the toolbar and place the interface for the wizard above it, as shown in Figure 24.15.
Figure 24.14.
Print The Report window
Figure 24.15.
Advanced Search Wizard
| Note |
In this section we have only highlighted the major features of the Interactive Report Viewer. For a thorough overview of all of its report-viewing features and a comparison of the features of each report viewer, see the COM Viewer SDK help file that was discussed in the previous section, Getting Help with the Report Application Server. |
Report Page Viewer
The Report Page Viewer is an HTML-based viewer that implements nearly all of the same features as the Interactive Report Viewer, with the exception of the Advanced Search Wizard. You can access the features of the
Report Page Viewer from the toolbar in the top portion of the report-viewing interface, as shown in Figure 24.16.
Figure 24.16.
Report Page Viewer toolbar
Report Parts Viewer
The Report Parts Viewer is used to view individual report parts or objects, such as
| Note |
The ePortfolio Lite sample web-reporting application makes use of only the three COM-based web-reporting viewers, so those are the only viewers that will be covered in this section. The ActiveX and Java web-reporting viewers will not be covered, although you can read the Report Application Server documentation to learn how to implement and use them. |
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| Use of content on this site is expressly subject to the restrictions set forth in the Membership Agreement | |
| C o n e ll o 2000-2003 - Feedback | |
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