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Introduction to Crystal Reports

Allows you to produce the report you want from virtually any data source. Designed to help analyze and interpret important information. Used to produce simple, complex or specialized reports

Competency of Crystal Reports

Create any report you can imagine Can be used for windows as well as web based applications Runtime Customization (Reports generated dynamically based on parameters/formulas)

Benefits of Crystal Reports XI R2

Improved usability Expanded Application Development Capabilities Integration with Business Objects Enterprise XI R2

Phases of Report Design

There are five phases of report design. Define the concept Sourcing the data Creating the design Developing and testing the design Deploying and operating the report

Defining the concept

Beginning with the end in mind Have some idea to the final report to look like(i.e a Prototype) Prototype can be a simple Crystal Report or Excel sheet or Word Document

Sourcing the data

Determine where the data for your report resides (a database, file etc) Determine relations between data A common problem here is that the data you want to include does not exist or relation do not exist

Creating the Design

The best report is one that is completed on paper and is then recreated using Crystal Reports Revisit your prototype and decide which of the fields in the report are
Directly from database Calculated from database fields Formula fields

Developing and Testing the Design

Input your data and test the report on different platforms Any performance issues, revisit your report design
Check relations/constraints (for any cartesian) Check query for performance improvement Put option of Grouping on Server Eliminate Unused Formulas

Deploying and operating the report

The last step in this process is to consider how your report is going to be used Will it be exported ? If yes, where ?
Excel (.xls) Word (.doc) Acrobat (.pdf) Rich Text Format (.RTF) XML Text Separated Values (.CSV)

Will the generated report be mailed/stored in centralized location/web-based ?

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Creating a Report
Connect to a data source Connect to database Adding tables & Linking Tables Defining the design environment Inserting objects on a report Positioning and sizing objects Formatting objects Previewing and saving the report
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Opening Crystal Reports

In windows click start, go to programs then select Crystal Reports Click Standard Report Wizard or Blank Report

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Selecting Data
Standard Report creation wizard opens.

Click

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Selecting Data (Continued)

Standard Report creation wizard has five sections. Current connections List of currently connected data sources Favorites List of commonly used data sources, maintained in favorites History List of the five recently used data sources

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Selecting Data (Continued)

Create New connection Shows sub folders for various data sources you can connect to. Repository Contents of your repository through the Crystal Enterprise explorer

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Selecting Data (Continued)

Select Tables Click

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Selecting Data (Continued)

Selected Table

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Design Area

Click Field Explorer

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Design Area (Continued)

Click Field Explorer on the Standard toolbar. The Field Explorer dialog box appears

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Field Explorer

Table Name

Column

Names

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Design Tab
Design Tab is the place where you do most of the initial work when creating the report It designates and labels the various part of the report It has the structure and instruction for creating the final report

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Design Tab Areas

Crystal Reports automatically creates five sections in the design tab when you begin creating the report
Report Header
Used for Report title and other information which you want to appear at the beginning of the report

Page Header
Information what you want to appear at the top of each page

Details
Body of the Report

Report Footer
Information appear only once at the end of the report

Page Footer
Page number and other information you want to appear on the bottom of each page.
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Design Tab Areas (Continued)

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Design Tab Areas (Continued)

Two additional sections Group Header
Holds the Group name field Printed once at the beginning of the group

Group Footer
Holds the summary value Printed once at the end of the group

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Inserting Field
Expand the Database field node Expand a table Click the field which you want to display in the report Drag into Details section of the report

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Inserting Field (Continued)

Object Frame appears when

you drag a field

into the Report

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Inserting Field (Continued)

View of Design Area

Inserted field

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Resizing Field
Click the field which you want to resize Move the cursor over the resizing handle until the cursor turns into a resizing cursor Resize the field

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Resizing Field

Resizing Handle

Resizing Cursor

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Review the work

Click print preview on the toolbar to activate preview tab

Click

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Review the work(Continued)

Preview of the Design should look similar to this

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Adding Summary Info

Used to find information related to the report quickly

Enter the Information

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Adding a title
Click the design tab Go to field explorer Expand Special fields Choose Report Title Drag the cursor over the report Place the Title in the Report Header

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Adding a title (Continued)

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Adding a title (Continued)

Title

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Formatting Object
Select the object which you want to format Right click and select format field from the drop down menu Format Editor will open You can change the format for the object - You can add borders, colors and shading to a field
- You can add hyperlinks to the objects

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Formatting Object (Continued)

Selected Object

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Formatting Object (Continued)

Formatted
Object

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Formatting Object (Continued)

Use the Format Painter to copy absolute or conditional formatting properties from one report object to one or more target objects. Select a source object or field in your report and click Format Painter. Click the target object or field you want to apply the formatting to.

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Record Selection
Used to restrict the records in the report It is like a filter applied in report Click Select Expert on the Expert Tools toolbar Select the field to which you wish to restrict the data (Eg.Cutomer.Country)

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Record Selection (Continued)

Select the condition

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Record Selection (Continued)

Select the name of the country

This selection will return only those records for which the
country is equal to England
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Deleting a Field

Select the Field

Press Delete Key

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Sorting Records
Click Sort Record Expert

Select the field on which you want to apply sort Select

the field

Select sort direction

Click Select the sort order

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Sorting Records (Continued)

Sorted Output

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Grouping the Report

It provides flexibility for customizing the report While on the Design tab,Click insert group
Select the field for

grouping

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Grouping the Report (Continued)

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Adding image file to the report

Click insert picture Browse and Select Image file

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Adding image file to the report (Continued)

Final Report looks like this:

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HANDS ON WORKSHOP

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Exercise 1
Create a report using Blank Report Select Employee Table Select Employee ID,First name,Position,Salary Add Summary info for the report Give Title to the report Group the report by Employee position Apply sort on Employee Name Insert image to the report View the report

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Report Creation Using Report wizard

There are four report creation wizards
Standard Cross-Tab Mail Label OLAP

Click any one on the start page as per your requirement Then it asks you to select the data

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Select Database

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Select Required Fields

Click

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Select the field on which you want to Group the Data

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Select the field to apply Summary Info in the Report

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Apply Group sorting If You need

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Apply Filter Condition, If required

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Report Creation Using Standard Report Wizard (Continued)

Select a Template

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Locking an Object size and position

Used to lock the position of the selected report object Select the object whose size and position you want to lock Click lock size/position button in the Formatting Toolbar

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Making a Report Read-only (Continued)

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Making a Object Read-only (Continued)

Right Click object you want to make read-only

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Adding Lines to Report

Click Insert Line on the insert Toolbar Use the pencil cursor to draw the line where required

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Editing Lines on a Report

Right click the Line you want to format

Make Desire

Changes

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Adding Boxes to Report

Click Insert Box Use the pencil cursor to draw the box where required

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Adding Shapes to Report

You can insert shapes such as circles,elipses and boxes with rounded corners To add shapes to your report, you need to add a box Right click the box, then click Format Box In Format Editor Click the Rounding Tab

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Adding Shapes to Report (Continued)

Select a number or move the slider to the right to increase the curvature of the box corners until you obtain appropriate shape.

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HANDS ON WORKSHOP

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Exercise 2

Create a Report using Report wizard Use the Employee table Add Shapes to Report Make this report as read only

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Charts
You can insert charts for the following:
Summary and Subtotal fields Detail, formula and Running Total fields Cross-Tab Summaries OLAP Data

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Chart Layouts
Advanced Group Cross-Tab OLAP

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Types of Charts in Crystal Reports

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Hiding Report Sections

Hide (Drill-Down OK) Hides the section when you run the report Suppress (No Drill Down) Condition is applied by formulas Suppress Blank section Hides a section whenever nothing is in it

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SubReports
A subreport is a report within a report Subreports are used to To combine unrelated reports into a single report To coordinate data that cannot otherwise be linked To present different views of the same data within a single report.

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Difference b/w Primary Report and SubReport

SubReport Is inserted as an object into a primary report Can be placed in any report section Cannot contain another subreport. Does not have Page Header or Page Footer sections.

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Inserting SubReports
On the insert menu Click Subreport

Insert Sub Report Name

Click Report Wizard to create Sub Report

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HANDS ON WORKSHOP

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Exercise 3
Create a report Create Subreport in the primary report Create on-demand Subreport in the primary report Identify the difference

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Summary Functions
The Summary functions are all used to summarize field data Examples:
Sum Average Minimum Maximum Count Distinct count etc.

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Summary Functions(Continued)
Click Insert Summary on the Insert Menu

Select the Summary function

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Linking Tables
When you add multiple database tables to your report, you need to link the tables on a common field so that records from one table match related records from another

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Linking Tables (Continued)

Primary Table

Lookup Table

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Linking Tables (Continued)

Auto Link Automatically chooses links for your tables based on common fields in tables or indexed fields (if your database supports indexed fields). Link Processing Order Specify the link processing order using Order Links option in the Database Expert.

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Linking Tables (Continued)

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Cross-tab Table
On File menu click New Select a Cross-tab Report from the drop down menu

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

Locate the data source and select the table you want to use

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

Check the Linking between the tables

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

Add fields to the Rows, Column and Summary field areas

Select the Summary operation

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

If you want chart in the Report, Select the type of chart

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

Select the fields on which you want to apply filter conditions

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

Select a Grid Style

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Cross-tab Table (Continued)

Typical Cross-tab Report

Product Name

Region

Sum of Product Amount in Abu Dhabi

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HANDS ON WORKSHOP

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Exercise 4

Create a Cross-Tab Report from the available data source

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Parameter Fields
Used to Prompt the user to enter the information Information entered by the user determines what appears in the report Parameter fields support the following data types
Boolean Currency Date Date Time Number String Time

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Creating Parameter Fields

Make sure your report is in Design Tab Click Field Explorer on the Standard Toolbar Select Parameters fields and click New

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Creating Parameter Fields (Continued)

Enter Parameter Name

Select a field Click Actions, Select Append All Database values

Enter Prompt
Text

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Using Parameter Fields

Select Selection Expert on the Expert Tools menu In the Choose Field box select the field Apply the condition on the field and select the parameter as the value

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Running Total
Running totals are totals that can be displayed on a record by record basis It totals all records up to and including the current record.

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Creating Running Total Field

Select Running Total Fields in Field Explorer and Click New

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HANDS ON WORKSHOP

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Exercise 5
Create a report using Customer and Order Tables Include the fields Customer Name, Order ID,Order Amount Create a Running total for Order Amount on the change of Order ID Add Running total field in to design Area. View the Report

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Creating Report Alerts

Select Alerts on the Report Menu then Click Create or Modify Alert

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Creating Report Alerts (Continued)

Name the alert. Create the message you want to appear when the alert is triggered (optional). Define the condition that triggers the alert.

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HANDS ON WORKSHOP

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Exercise 6
Create a Report using Customer Table Include Country, Last Years sales, City Create a Alerter to indicate the countries with last years sales greater than $15000

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Dynamic and Cascading Prompts

Prompt values can be populated from values in Database Prompts can be arranged in a cascade, where one value in the prompt constraints values in subsequent pick lists Report designers no longer maintain static prompt lists in individual reports. A single prompt definition can be stored in the repository and shared among multiple reports, improving both runtime scalability and design-time productivity

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Creating Dynamic and Cascading Prompts

Open the sample report called Group.rpt

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Creating Dynamic and Cascading Prompts (Continued)

Click Field

Explorer
Select parameter Fields and then Click New

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Creating Dynamic and Cascading Prompts (Continued)

es, select

elect country

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Creating Dynamic and Cascading Prompts (Continued)

Click the blank field under country and select region Click the blank field under region and select city In the parameter binding area, click country and Region to clear the binding (only the field associated with the City value should be bound).

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Creating Dynamic and Cascading Prompts (Continued)

pert

hoose expert box

and select the

om the values list

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Creating Dynamic and Cascading Prompts (Continued) Select the values for the Prompt and then Click OK

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RTF Export Format

This is optimized for ease of editing the files that it generates In the File Menu Select Export and click on Export Report

e (RTF) from the drop

n to store the report

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RTF Export Format (Continued)

Select the Options as you need

Select the location where you want to save

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Parameterized Sorting
Group sort order can now have their sort values driven by formula This feature allows you to use parameters to control sort order

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Creating Parameterized Sorting

Create a simple report with the country, Region and City field from the Customer Table in the Xtreme sample Database 11

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Creating Parameterized Sorting (Continued)

Create a parameter called Sort Order that has two values: Ascending and Descending

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Creating Parameterized Sorting (Continued)

On the insert Menu Click Group and select the field that you want to group on( Ex: Country) Select Use a formula as Group Sort Order
Click the Conditional formula button

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Creating Parameterized Sorting (Continued)

In the Formula Workshop enter your conditional formula text

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Creating Parameterized Sorting (Continued)

When you prompted to select a Sort Order, select the Option that you want , and click OK.

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Creating Parameterized Sorting (Continued)

Now the Report appears with groups for the field that you selected in the Insert Group Dialog box and sorted in the order that you selected in your parameter prompt.

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HTML Preview
Crystal reports can now be previewed in HTML format thus showing how reports will look when published to the web In Crystal Reports design environment an additional VIEW tab is added to support this functionality The advantage of this feature is time saved in iterative task of publishing reports to the web as they are designed

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Updated Repository Explorer

The new repository Explorer makes it easier to navigate within the Business Objects Enterprise system Better able to share reporting components with other users through the repository

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Updated Repository Explorer (Continued)

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Updated Repository Explorer (Continued)

Give User Name and Password Credentials

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Workbench
Lets you keep Projects organized and allows you to group reports in folders according to your preference

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Business Objects Universes

Crystal reports based on Business Objects Universes can now support Universe run-time security and union queries These enhancements allow for most overloads defined in the Universe to be supported in Crystal reports

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Creating Reports from Business Objects Universes

Go to Standard Report wizard Create New Connection Universes Make New Connection Double Click

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Creating Reports from Business Objects Universes (Continued)

Select

the objects whatever you want in to the Result Objects Pane

and Query Filters then say OK

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Creating Reports from Business Objects Universes (Continued)

Select the Query in to the Selected Tables

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Creating Reports from Business Objects Universes (Continued)

Your Report will looks like in the below Screenshot

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Advanced Reporting
Report Processing Strategy

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Multi-Pass Reporting Process of the Crystal Reports Engine The model determines the order in which data is accessed and manipulated during Report generation. Crystal reports uses Three Pass Reporting Methodology to
generate reports. Understanding Report Processing Model facilitates, effective report design and faster debugging.

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What is a Pass? A pass is a process that Crystal Reports uses each time the data is read or manipulated.

Depending on the complexity of the report, Crystal Reports may make 1, 2, or 3 passes over the data.

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Report Processing
Crystal Reports Processing Engine Pre-Pass # 1: Evaluation Time Before Reading Records Constant Formulas Crystal Reports Processing Engine Pass # 1:

Evaluation Time While Reading Records Database connection and Record retrieval Recurring formulas Local Record Selection Sorting, Grouping & Summarizing Saved data storage

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Report Processing
Process Flow : Pass # 1

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Report Processing
Crystal Reports Processing Engine Pre-Pass # 2: Group Sorting Top/Bottom N Hierarchical Grouping Crystal Reports Processing Engine Pass # 2: Evaluation Time While Printing Records Print-time formulas Running total Calculations Charts, maps, Cross-tabs & OLAP grids Subreports

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Report Processing
Process Flow : Pass # 2

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Report Processing
Crystal Reports Processing Engine Pass # 3:
Total Page Count

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Multi-Pass Report Engine Flow

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Thank You

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