An Overview of the Crystal Reports XI .NET Components

Crystal Reports XI provides developers working within Visual Studio .NET with a fast, productive way to create and integrate presentation-quality, interactive reports to meet the demands of their application's end users. Crystal Reports XI enhances the .NET platform by allowing you to

• Create reports from virtually any data source.

• Deliver interactive, graphical report content in rich-client (Windows Forms), zeroclient environments (Web Forms), or any device through an XML web services model

• Save time and write less code by leveraging existing Crystal Reports and report creation knowledge within .NET projects

To accomplish this, Crystal Reports XI provides a broad offering of .NET technologies for delivering reports inside .NET applications. The following sections cover each component at a high level. They are

• The Report Designer

• The Report Engine Object Model

• The Windows Forms Viewer

• The Web Forms Viewers