Sharing of Report Objects

The Crystal Repository takes into account all the typical sharing techniques that report designers have been leveraging in the past. The difference is that the new repository is independent of a given report. It handles logic, formatting, and objects. Fortunately, it also handles the major concern that was lacking in the RPT sharing scenario mentioned previously. By its very nature as a separate library (or database), it is referenced by the report when the report is opened, and, as a result, it can actually update the repository objects automatically for the report designer so that the added work of copying new logic and other objects is eliminated.

Benefits of Using the Repository

Updating a company's name can be used as a real-world example. Before Crystal Decisions, the company that created Crystal Reports was called Seagate Software. All the sample reports that shipped with older versions of Crystal Reports contained contact information in the bottom that mentioned Seagate Software in two text objects one for copyright information and one for feedback.

To use the repository, the original objects were removed from each of the reports and were replaced with the repository objects. The reports were then saved. Later, the company name changed, and all the sample reports needed updating. The report designer opened one of the sample reports, disconnected the two objects from the repository, updated them from Seagate Software to Crystal Decisions, and then updated the repository objects with the newly updated text. That report was then saved.

The report designer then opened all the other reports at once. Because all the reports were connected to the repository, all their text objects were updated with the same change that the report designer made in the initial report magically. It was handled by Crystal Reports itself. All the report designer had to do was close and save the reports. The entire task of updating took about five minutes by using the repository. The old method would have taken considerably more time to copy and paste all these changes in each report.