Understanding the Report Designer Component

Crystal Decisions has long viewed the Component Object Model (COM) development platform as one of the key areas it needed to embrace to become successful. Although there were other popular developer platforms in the market, the trend for development projects concerning information delivery was to use Visual Basic. This was because of its good mix of power and simplicity. Now part of the Business Objects product line, Crystal Reports 10 mirrors these attributes and delivers a powerful yet productive reporting solution. This chapter covers Crystal Decisions reporting solutions for the COM platform, specifically, the Crystal Report Designer Component.

Although the chapters covering the Java and .NET components focused primarily on Web-based applications, this chapter concentrates on desktop applications because that is the focus of the Crystal Decisions COM Components. Desktop applications, although still popular today, were what started it all. These are standalone applications that run on a single tier and are installed locally on a users machine. These applications are most commonly built using Visual Basic, but are also sometimes built using Visual C++ or Delphi.

For more information on Java, p. 654


NOTE

All sample code in this chapter uses Visual Basic 6 syntax, but can easily be adapted to other languages that support COM. For sample code in other languages, visit the Business Objects support site at http://support.businessobjects.com.


Many development environments support Microsofts COM technology. COM (Component Object Model) is a standard technology used for exposing Software Development Kits (SDKs) in the Windows world. It implies a set of objects with properties and methods. Much of Microsofts own SDKs are based on COM. It follows that the recommended Crystal Reports SDK for desktop applications would also be based on COM. Its name is the Report Designer Component, and it consists of the following pieces:

  • A report designer integrated into the Visual Basic environment
  • An object model built around the report engine used for manipulation of the report
  • A report viewer control used for displaying reports inside an application

The following sections describe each of these components in more detail.


Part I. Crystal Reports Design

Creating and Designing Basic Reports

Selecting and Grouping Data

Filtering, Sorting, and Summarizing Data

Understanding and Implementing Formulas

Implementing Parameters for Dynamic Reporting

Part II. Formatting Crystal Reports

Fundamentals of Report Formatting

Working with Report Sections

Visualizing Your Data with Charts and Maps

Custom Formatting Techniques

Part III. Advanced Crystal Reports Design

Using Cross-Tabs for Summarized Reporting

Using Record Selections and Alerts for Interactive Reporting

Using Subreports and Multi-Pass Reporting

Using Formulas and Custom Functions

Designing Effective Report Templates

Additional Data Sources for Crystal Reports

Multidimensional Reporting Against OLAP Data with Crystal Reports

Part IV. Enterprise Report Design Analytic, Web-based, and Excel Report Design

Introduction to Crystal Repository

Crystal Reports Semantic Layer Business Views

Creating Crystal Analysis Reports

Advanced Crystal Analysis Report Design

Ad-Hoc Application and Excel Plug-in for Ad-Hoc and Analytic Reporting

Part V. Web Report Distribution Using Crystal Enterprise

Introduction to Crystal Enterprise

Using Crystal Enterprise with Web Desktop

Crystal Enterprise Architecture

Planning Considerations When Deploying Crystal Enterprise

Deploying Crystal Enterprise in a Complex Network Environment

Administering and Configuring Crystal Enterprise

Part VI. Customized Report Distribution Using Crystal Reports Components

Java Reporting Components

Crystal Reports .NET Components

COM Reporting Components

Part VII. Customized Report Distribution Using Crystal Enterprise Embedded Edition

Introduction to Crystal Enterprise Embedded Edition

Crystal Enterprise Viewing Reports

Crystal Enterprise Embedded Report Modification and Creation

Part VIII. Customized Report Distribution Using Crystal Enterprise Professional

Introduction to the Crystal Enterprise Professional Object Model

Creating Enterprise Reports Applications with Crystal Enterprise Part I

Creating Enterprise Reporting Applications with Crystal Enterprise Part II

Appendix A. Using Sql Queries In Crystal Reports

Creating Enterprise Reporting Applications with Crystal Enterprise Part II



Special Edition Using Crystal Reports 10
Special Edition Using Crystal Reports 10
ISBN: 0789731134
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 341

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