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years He founded his own consulting and training firm, The Ablaze Group, in 1994 (www.AblazeGroup.com) He has trained, consulted, and developed custom software for large and small organizations throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico.

George works as both a trainer and consultant exclusively with Crystal Reports and the BusinessObjects Enterprise family This is his

seventh title in the Crystal Reports: The Complete Reference series,

best-sellers published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne He is also the author of

Crystal Reports Professional Results, also published by McGraw-Hill/

Osborne

In addition to his software career, George is a broadcaster and voice actor His voice may be heard on national radio, TV, and web

commercials, promotions, and documentaries

About the Technical Editor

Ian Treleaven is a software engineer working on the Crystal Reports product development team He has helped create Crystal Reports features as a Senior Developer, Development Lead, and most recently as

a Program Manager Prior to working on Crystal Reports at Seagate Software/Crystal Decisions/Business Objects/SAP, Ian worked for a number of years in the industry at various companies including

Microsoft and IBM

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Click here for terms of use

Part I Designing Reports

1 Getting a Feel for Crystal Reports 2008 3

2 Sorting and Grouping 37

3 Analyzing with Advanced Selection Criteria 71

4 Using Formulas 85

5 Creating Custom Functions 155

6 Making Your Reports Visually Appealing 171

7 Using Sections and Areas 215

8 Analyzing with Cross Tabs 245

9 Creating Charts 291

10 Creating Geographic Maps 325

11 Integration with Crystal Xcelsius and Flash 341

12 Using Subreports 359

13 Interactive Reporting with Parameter Fields 379

14 Exporting Reports to Different Formats 419

15 Reporting from SQL Databases 437

16 Reporting from Proprietary Data Types 491

17 Reporting from OLAP Cubes 519

18 Accommodating Database Changes and Field Mapping 543

19 Creating Crystal Reports Applications with Visual Studio NET 565

Part II Crystal Reports Enterprise Reporting 20 Crystal Reports Web Alternatives 607

21 Using InfoView 637

22 Administering Enterprise Reporting Sytems 697

Appendix Formula Language Reference 787

Index 941

ix

Acknowledgments xxxiii

Introduction xxxv

Part I Designing Reports 1 Getting a Feel for Crystal Reports 2008 3

Introducing Crystal Reports 2008 3

Crystal Reports Screen Elements 4

Starting Out: Opening or Creating a Report 8

Using the Report Wizards 9

Using the Blank Report Option 13

The Database Expert 13

The Design Tab and Field Explorer 15

Report Sections 17

Previewing the Report 18

Moving and Sizing Objects 19

Formatting Objects 21

Customizing Crystal Reports Behavior 23

The Report Explorer 28

The Workbench 29

Creating Projects and Adding Existing Reports 30

Adding Report Packages 31

The Dependency Checker 32

Checking Dependencies in the Current Report 32

Checking Dependencies for Workbench Projects 34

2 Sorting and Grouping 37

Sorting Your Report 37

New Interactive Sorting 38

Grouping Records 40

Manipulating Existing Groups 45

The Group Expert 46

Adding Summaries 46

xi

Multiple Groups 52

Specifi ed Order Grouping 54

Drilling Down on Data 56

Grouping on Date Fields 59

Customizing Group Name Fields 60

Grouping on Formula Fields 61

Top N Reporting 62

Hierarchical Groups 66

3 Analyzing with Advanced Selection Criteria 71

Three Different Ways to Select Data 71

The Select Expert 73

Refreshing the Report Versus Using Saved Data 78

Selection with Date Fields 79

Manipulating the Selection Formula Directly 81

Performance Considerations with Record Selection 83

4 Using Formulas 85

The Formula Workshop 85

The Formula Expert 89

The Formula Editor 91

Data Types 101

Creating a New Formula 103

Editing, Renaming, or Deleting an Existing Formula 107

Copying Formulas 108

Number Formulas 109

Order of Precedence 111

String Formulas 112

The ToText Function 116

Picking Apart Strings 118

Date/Time Formulas 120

Number of Days Between Dates 120

Number of Hours and Minutes Between Times 121

Month, Day, Year, Hour, Minute, and Seconds Functions 122

DateValue Function 122

If-Then-Else Formulas 123

Data Types in If-Then-Else Formulas 124

Multiple Actions with One If-Then-Else Statement 126

Helpful Built-in Functions for If-Then-Else Formulas 129

Other Crystal Reports Logic Constructs 130

Select Case Statement 130

For Loop 131

While Do Loop 133

Boolean Formulas 134

Variables in Formulas and Evaluation Times 136

Declaring a Variable 136

Variable Scope 138

Assigning a Value to a Variable 138

Displaying a Variable’s Contents 140

Evaluation Times and Report Passes 141

When Not to Use Variables 146

User Function Libraries 148

Running Total Fields 149

5 Creating Custom Functions 155

Custom Functions Defi ned 155

Creating Your Own Custom Functions 157

Extracting Custom Functions from Existing Formulas 157

Creating Custom Functions from Scratch 162

Modifying Existing Custom Functions 166

Sharing Custom Functions with Other Users 168

Using Custom Functions in Your Formulas 168

6 Making Your Reports Visually Appealing 171

Setting Page Size, Orientation, and Margins 171

General Formatting 174

The Formatting Toolbar 174

The Format Editor 174

The Highlighting Expert 177

Conditional Formatting Formulas 179

Absolute Versus Conditional Formatting 179

Creative Use of the Suppress Property 183

Special Fonts, Graphics, Line Drawing, and Barcodes 184

Using Special Fonts 184

Using Bitmap Graphics 186

Line and Box Drawing 190

Printing Barcodes 190

Text and Paragraph Formatting 192

Format Editor Paragraph Formatting Tab 193

The Format Painter 195

Report Alerts 196

Basing Report Formulas or Conditional Formatting on Report

Alerts 200

Crystal Reports Templates 200

The Template Expert 202

Creating Your Own Templates 203

Adding Custom Text 206

The Field Heading Text Object 207

Combining Database Fields 208

Combining Special Fields 210

Formatting Individual Parts of Text Objects 212

Importing Text from a File 213

7 Using Sections and Areas 215

Formatting Sections with the Section Expert 215

The Section Expert 217

Creating Summary and Drill-Down Reports 227

Drill-Down Reports 229

Multiple-Column Reports for Labels and Listings 233

Using Multiple Sections 235

Conditionally Suppressing Sections 239

Printing a Bonus Message for Certain Records 239

Printing a Different Page Header on Page 2 and Later 239

Printing Odd and Even Page Headers or Footers 240

Underlaying Sections 241

8 Analyzing with Cross-Tabs 245

Creating a Cross-Tab Object 245

Editing an Existing Cross-Tab 250

Creative Use of Grouping and Formulas 252

Multiple Rows, Columns, and Summarized Fields 255

Reordering Fields in the Rows, Columns, or Summarized Field Boxes 259

New Derived Rows, Columns, and Cells 259

Creating Calculated Members 260

Using Embedded Summaries 274

Customizing Cross-Tab Appearance 277

The Style Tab 279

The Customize Style Tab 280

Labels or Legends with Cross-Tabs 284

Conditionally Formatting Cross-Tabs 285

Cross-Tab Virtual Page Formatting Options 288

9 Creating Charts 291

Types and Layouts of Charts 291

Chart Type 292

Chart Layout 293

Creating Charts 294

The Type Tab 295

The Data Tab 295

The Axes Tab 306

The Options Tab 308

The Color Highlight Tab 310

The Text Tab 310

Placing and Sizing Charts 311

Modifying Existing Charts 314

Zooming In and Out on Charts 315

Drilling Down on Charts 315

Finer Points of Chart Formatting 316

Customizing Charts with Chart Options 316

10 Creating Geographic Maps 325

Different Map Types 325

Adding a Map 327

The Data Tab 327

The Type Tab 333

The Text Tab 333

Drilling Down on Maps 333

Changing the Map View 334

The Map Navigator 334

Resolving Data Mismatches 335

Map Layers 337

11 Integration with Crystal Xcelsius and Flash 341

Adding a Flash SWF File to a Report 341

Flash Formatting Options 342

Integrating Crystal Reports 2008 with Xcelsius 344

Using Flash Variables with Crystal Xcelsius 4.5 344

Integration with Xcelsius 2008 351

12 Using Subreports 359

Unlinked Subreports 360

Drilling Down on Subreports 364

Linked Subreports 366

Linking Based on Formula Fields 369

Linking to Existing Parameter Fields in Subreports 370

Subreport Formatting with the Format Editor 371

On-Demand Versus In-Place Subreports 372

Passing Data Between Main Reports and Subreports 374

Handling Empty Subreports 376

Performance Considerations 378

13 Interactive Reporting with Parameter Fields 379

Creating a Parameter Field 380

Responding to Parameter Field Prompts 382

Data Type Considerations 383

Using Parameter Fields in Record, Group, or Saved Data Selection 385

The New Parameter Panel 389

Displaying Parameter Field Values on the Report 391

Creating Pick Lists 392

Static Pick Lists 393

Dynamic and Cascading Pick Lists 395

Special Parameter Field Features 402

Optional Parameter Fields 402

Multiple Values 404

Range Values 405

Controlling Parameter Field Data Entry 409

Conditional Formatting with Parameter Fields 411

Highlighting Data Based on Parameter Fields 411

Conditional Suppression Based on Parameter Fields 412

Using Parameter Fields with Formulas 413

Using a Parameter Field for Partial Text Matches 413

Using a Parameter Field to Change Sorting or Grouping 415

Using a Parameter Field to Control Top N Reporting 416

14 Exporting Reports to Different Formats 419

Exporting Reports to Offi ce Applications 420

Exporting to Different File Formats 420

Exporting and Launching an Application 428

Exporting to an ODBC Data Source 428

Sending Reports via E-Mail and Messaging Systems 428

New Crystal Reports 2008 XML Exporting 430

Initial Export via Crystal Reports XML Schema 431

Using an XSLT Transform 433

15 Reporting from SQL Databases 437

Logging On to SQL Databases 438

Direct Database Drivers 438

ODBC 439

OLE DB 439

Choosing the Database 440

Changing SQL Options 445

Changing to a Different Database 447

Adding Additional Tables to the Report 448

Removing Unused Tables from the Report 449

Linking Tables 449

Database Expert Links Tab 451

Using Multiple Database Types in the Same Report 454

Join Types, Link Types, and Join Enforcement 456

Viewing the SQL Query 462

Crystal Reports SQL Commands 464

Creating the SQL Command 464

Using a SQL Command in a Report 467

Using SQL Stored Procedures 468

Choosing Stored Procedures 468

Working with Stored Procedure Parameters 469

Using SQL Expression Fields 471

Creating SQL Expressions 471

Grouping on the Database Server 475

Enabling Server-Based Grouping 477

What’s Required to Use Server-Based Grouping 478

Effects of Drill-Down 478

Accommodating Database Changes and Field Mapping 480

Recognizing Database Changes 481

Mapping Old Fields to New Names 487

Performance Considerations 489

Let the Server Do the Work 489

Use Indexed Fields 490

16 Reporting from Proprietary Data Types 491

Reporting from Microsoft Outlook 494

Reporting from the File System Data 495

Reporting from the Windows Event Log 498

Reporting from Web Server Logs 500

Crystal Reporting with XML Data Sources 503

Using Local XML Data Sources 503

Using Web-Based XML Data Sources 507

BusinessObjects Enterprise Universes 512

Reporting with Salesforce.com Web Data 515

17 Reporting from OLAP Cubes 519

What Is OLAP? 519

Crystal Reports OLAP Capabilities 521

Supported OLAP Systems 521

OLAP Report Creation Methods 522

Using the OLAP Report Creation Wizard 522

Adding an OLAP Grid to an Existing Report 531

Adding an OLAP Grid Object 531

Changing the OLAP Database Location 534

Controlling OLAP Grid Appearance 534

Virtual Page Formatting Options 535

Interacting with the OLAP Grid 536

The OLAP Worksheet 540

18 Sharing Report Items with the Repository 543

The Repository Defi ned 543

The Repository Explorer Enterprise Items Folder 545

The Repository Explorer Categories Folders 545

The Repository Explorer Repository Items Folder 546

Adding To/Updating the Repository 548

Creating Folders and Categories 548

Adding and Deleting Repository Item Objects 550

Adding Repository Items to Reports 554

Text Objects or Bitmap Graphics 554

Custom Functions 555

SQL Commands and Business Views 556

Changing Repository Items on Your Report 557

Updating Repository Versions of Objects 558

Controlling Repository Rights 559

Controlling Rights at the Central Management Server Level 561

Controlling Rights at the Folder and Object Level 563

19 Creating Crystal Reports Applications with Visual Studio NET 565

Crystal/VS.NET Bundle Options 566

Crystal Reports Windows and Web Forms Viewer Control Objects 568

Your First Application: Viewing a Report 568

Crystal Report Object Types 572

Integrated Report Designer 576

Choosing a Data Source 578

Selecting Records and Adding Field Objects 580

Formatting Objects and Sections 582

Sorting and Grouping 583

VS.NET Report Customization Object Models 587

Run-Time Customization with the CrystalReportViewer Object 588

Report Viewer Events 591

Run-Time Customization with the Crystal Reports Engine (ReportDocument) 592

Distributing Crystal Reports Visual Studio NET Applications 601

General Concepts 602

Part II Crystal Reports Enterprise Reporting 20 Crystal Reports Web Alternatives 607

Exporting to Static HTML 608

Hyperlink Capabilities 613

Cascading Style Sheet Support 617

Navigating and Viewing Report Parts 618

Using Navigation 618

Displaying Report Parts 621

Introduction to BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 625

BusinessObjects Enterprise Defi ned 625

BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 New Features 629

BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 Architecture 629

21 Using InfoView 637

Connecting to InfoView 637

BOE Security Model 640

InfoView Organization 640

My Favorites and My Inbox 641

The Document List 641

Objects and Instances 644

Viewing Reports: On Demand or Instance 646

Viewing Third-Party Objects 649

Setting InfoView Preferences 650General Preferences 651Change Password 652Crystal Reports Preferences 652Searching InfoView Objects and Instances 654Object-Level Search 654Content Search 656Viewing, Printing, and Exporting Reports 657Supplying Database Credentials and Parameters 657Using the Report Viewer 660Scheduling Objects 665Scheduling Options 666Scheduling Reports Containing Alerts 674Rescheduling Existing Instances 676Using Discussions 678Modifying or Deleting Existing Messages 680Organizing InfoView 680Working with Folders and Categories 681Organizing Objects and Instances 685The My InfoView Custom Layout 691

22 Administering Enterprise Reporting Systems 697

Introducing the Central Management Console 698Managing Users and Groups 700Adding, Modifying, and Deleting User Accounts 700Password Settings 703Adding Groups 704Placing Users in Groups 710Integrating BusinessObjects Enterprise with Existing Security

Environments 712Windows NT 713Windows Active Directory 715LDAP 717Managing Folders, Crystal Reports, and Third-Party Objects 718Managing Public Folders and Subfolders 718Managing Personal Subfolders 721Adding Reports 722Adding Program Objects 732Adding Third-Party Objects and Hyperlinks 735Working with Categories 737Manipulating Categories 738

Assigning Categories to Reports and Other Objects 739Controlling Access Using Rights 741Setting Folder and Object Rights 743Setting Access Rights for CMC Functions 747Defi ning Custom Access Levels 747BusinessObjects Enterprise Architecture 749Central Management Server (CMS) 751File Repository Servers 751Crystal Reports Processing Server 752Crystal Reports Job Server 753Program Job Server 753Destination Job Server 753Crystal Reports Cache Server 754Event Server 754List of Values Job Server 755Defi ning Output Destinations 755Creating Calendars 759Using Events 761Confi guring Success/Failure/Alert Notifi cation 764Success/Failure Notifi cation 764Alert Notifi cation 766Other General Administrative Tasks 768Adding Additional Licenses 768Setting Instance Limits 769Specifying Default InfoView Settings 771Using Instance Manager 772Managing Servers 774Viewing Server Properties and Metrics 774The Server Intelligence Agent and the CCM 778

Appendix Formula Language Reference 787

Functions: Additional Functions 787ByteToText 788DateTimeTo2000 788DateTimeToDate 788DateTimeToSeconds 788DateTimeToTime 789DateTo2000 789DTSTo2000 789DTSToDate 789DTSToDateTime 790

DTSToSeconds 790DTSToTimeField 790DTSToTimeString 790EventNumber 790ExchGetId 791ExchGetOrganization 791ExchGetPath 791ExchGetSite 792ExtractString 792FRAccRecTurnover 792FRCashFlowVsTotalDebt 792FRCurrentRatio 793FRDebtEquityRatio 793FRDividendYield 793FREarningsPerCommonShare 794FREquityVsTotalAssets 794FRGrossProfi tMargin 794FRInterestCoverage 794FRInventoryTurnover 795FRNetProfi tMargin 795FROperatingProfi tMargin 795FRPriceEarningsRatio 796FRQuickRatio 796FRReturnOnCommonEquity 796FRReturnOnEquity 796FRReturnOnInvestedCapital 797FRReturnOnNetFixedAssets 797FRReturnOnTotalAssets 797LooksLike 798Now 798Picture 798Soundex 798Functions: Alerts 799AlertMessage 799AlertNames 799IsAlertEnabled 799IsAlertTriggered 800Functions: Arrays 800Average 800Count 800

TimeValue 816WeekdayName 816Year 817Functions: Date Ranges 818Aged0To30Days 818Aged31To60Days 818Aged61To90Days 819AllDatesFromToday 819AllDatesFromTomorrow 819AllDatesToToday 819AllDatesToYesterday 820Calendar1stHalf 820Calendar2ndHalf 820Calendar1stQtr 820Calendar2ndQtr 821Calendar3rdQtr 821Calendar4thQtr 821Last4WeeksToSun 821Last7Days 822LastFullMonth 822LastFullWeek 822LastYearMTD 822LastYearYTD 823MonthToDate 823Next30Days 823Next31To60Days 823Next61To90Days 823Next91To365Days 824Over90Days 824WeekToDateFromSun 824YearToDate 824Functions: Document Properties 825ContentLocale 825CurrentCEUserID 825CurrentCEUserName 825CurrentCEUserTimeZone 826DataDate 826DataTime 826DataTimeZone 827FileAuthor 827

FileCreationDate 827FileName 827GroupingLevel 828Modifi cationDate 828Modifi cationTime 828PrintDate 828PrintTime 829PrintTimeZone 829ReportComments 829ReportTitle 829SelectionLocale 830Functions: Evaluation Time 830BeforeReadingRecords 830EvaluateAfter 831WhilePrintingRecords 831WhileReadingRecords 831Functions: Financial 832ACCRINT 832ACCRINTM 832AmorDEGRC 833AmorLINC 833CoupDayBS 834CoupDays 834CoupDaysNC 835CoupNCD 835CoupNum 835CoupPCD 836CumIPMT 836CumPrinc 836Days360 837

DB 837DDB 838DISC 838DollarDE 838DollarFR 839Duration 839Effect 840

FV 840FVSchedule 840IntRate 841

IPmt 841IRR 842ISPMT 842MDuration 842MIRR 843Nominal 843NPer 843NPV 844OddFPrice 844OddFYield 845OddLPrice 845OddLYield 846Pmt 847PPmt 847Price 848PriceDisc 848PriceMat 849

PV 849Rate 850Received 851SLN 851SYD 851TBillEq 852TBillPrice 852TBillYield 852VDB 852XIRR 853XNPV 854YearFrac 854Yield 855YieldDisc 855YieldMat 856Functions: Grid Value 856CurrentColumnIndex 856CurrentRowIndex 856CurrentSummaryIndex 857GetColumnGroupIndexOf 857GetColumnPathIndexOf 857GetIndexOf 858GetNumColumnGroups 859

Next (Crystal Syntax only) 872NextIsNull 872NextValue (Basic Syntax only) 872OnFirstRecord 873OnLastRecord 873PageNofM 873PageNumber 873Previous (Crystal Syntax only) 874PreviousIsNull 874PreviousValue (Basic Syntax only) 874RecordNumber 874RecordSelection 875TotalPageCount 875Functions: Programming Shortcuts 875Choose 875IIF 875Switch 876Functions: Ranges 876HasLowerBound 876HasUpperBound 877IncludesLowerBound 877IncludesUpperBound 877Functions: Strings 878AscW 878ChrW 878Filter 878InStr 879InStrRev 880Join 880Left 881Length 881LowerCase 881Mid 881NumericText 882ProperCase 882Replace 882ReplicateString 883Right 883Roman 883Space 884

Functions: Type Conversion 912CBool 912CCur 912CDate 912CDateTime 912CDbl 913CStr 913CTime 913Functions: Xcelsius 913ToXMLColumn 913ToXMLData 913ToXMLRow 914Operators: Arithmetic 914Add (+) 914Divide (/) 914Exponentiate (^) 914Integer Divide (\) 915Modulus 915Multiply (*) 915Negate (–) 916Percent (%) 916Subtract (–) 916Operators: Array 917

In 917Make Array 917Redim 917Redim Preserve 918Subscript ([]) 918Operators: Boolean 918And 918Eqv (Logical equivalence) 919Imp (Logical implication) 919Not 919

Or 920Xor (Logical exclusion) 920Operators: Comparisons 921Equal (=) 921Greater or Equal (>=) 921Greater Than (>) 921Less or Equal (<=) 922

Operators: Variable Declarations 936BooleanVar 936CurrencyVar 936DateTimeVar 937DateVar 938NumberVar 938StringVar 939TimeVar 939

Index 941

With each successive edition of Crystal Reports: The Complete Reference, there is a

small group of dedicated people who provide immeasurable help in its preparation Some have helped over and over for each edition, while others are helping me for the first time Regardless, I so much appreciate your assistance and patience

First and foremost, some very dedicated people at Business Objects deserve great appreciation Blair Wheadon and Julie Ingram went above and beyond the call of duty

to help make this book a success And, Ian Treleaven’s technical editing is beyond compare It’s good to be “friends” again!

And, as usual, the folks at McGraw-Hill/Osborne are patient and helpful in working towards a successful book My acquisitions editor, Lisa McClain, deserves the top nod Your continued support and understanding year after year is so appreciated Both Lisa and acquisitions coordinator Mandy Canales deserve thanks for putting up with my occasional tantrum “You may call me again.” And, it was terrific to work with Bob Campbell and Carolyn Welch yet again You both keep me on track and keep the words straight

Finally, and most importantly, a heartfelt acknowledgement goes to my partner in life and business, Denise Yet one more time, you’ve been supportive beyond words I’m truly grateful

George Peck, April 2008

author@CrystalBook.com

www.CrystalBook.com

xxxiiiCopyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Click here for terms of use

In the past, a new version of Crystal Reports could be expected every year to year

and a half With Crystal Reports 2008, Business Objects has elected to wait a while longer before releasing an updated version of its flagship reporting product And, not only is the software new, so is the organization that created it With SAP’s

acquisition of Business Objects in early 2008, Crystal Reports can now be considered in the true “big leagues” of Business Intelligence products And, the release schedule and vendor organization aren’t the only changes With a brief foray into Roman numeral version number, a new direction has been launched yet again Crystal Reports 2008 is the first version to make reference to a general release year (even though it was

released in late 2007), as opposed to a sequential version number Regardless, internal version numbering, as well as the Program Files directory structure, indicate that this

is a 12.x product release.

While an argument might be made that this is not a “one-dot-oh” upgrade, there are several major changes to Crystal Reports 2008 The look-and-feel change is fairly substantial, with all-new toolbars and various “Office 2007” updates Some major new features, such as Flash/Xcelsius integration and vastly enhanced cross-tab capabilities, can be found While all developers may not appreciate the expected deprecation of older Microsoft COM/Visual Studio 6 support, they should appreciate improved web and Windows NET viewers and integration capabilities And, with a single-edition, all-encompassing release (there are no longer three editions to keep straight), as well

as a substantially reduced “installation footprint,” the simplicity of keeping track of editions and installing the product are welcome additions to Crystal Reports 2008.The 2008 edition of this book largely maintains the layout of previous editions, with a few consolidations While Part I covers general report design techniques that will apply to virtually everybody who uses the tool, developers will now find a single chapter at the end of this part, devoted solely to Visual Studio NET integration

Part II covers various techniques and methods to place your Crystal Reports on the web While some discussion on simple HTML export helps you get your reports

to the web without additional tools, this part concentrates almost entirely on the

xxxvCopyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Click here for terms of use

companion BusinessObjects XI 3.0 product family, which provides an extensive feature set for automating and distributing Crystal Reports Use chapters in Part II to help you explore this powerful web-based reporting tool.

And, the appendix provides a complete formula language reference This covers all functions in the formula language (including new functions added to Crystal Reports 2008), along with helpful descriptions and examples that illustrate each function and operator

As with the previous editions, sample reports and developer applications can be found online Many of the sample reports illustrated in Part I, as well as sample Visual Studio NET applications, are available for download And, an extra online chapter is available to accompany the printed chapters here All these supplementary materials, as well as any late-breaking changes to the book, can be found on this

book’s companion web site at CrystalBook.com You may also e-mail the author with suggestions or questions about the book at Author@CrystalBook.com.

What’s New in Crystal Reports 2008

In addition to the vendor-related and version numbering changes discussed earlier, Crystal Reports 2008 presents significant functional changes A short description of most of these additions and updates follows, with chapter number references (although some minor new features may be mentioned only here and not covered extensively in the rest of the book) New Crystal Reports 2008-related features in the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 family are discussed in Chapters 20, 21, and 22

• New Look and Feel The first obvious change is the look and feel of Crystal Reports

2008 If you use Microsoft Office 2007, you’ll notice a similar organization (including the distinctive color and shading scheme) in Crystal Reports 2008 All toolbar buttons have also been redesigned Some of these changes are discussed in Chapter 1

• Single Edition and Smaller Installation Footprint Instead of the three or four

editions of previous Crystal Reports versions, all capabilities are combined in a single Crystal Reports 2008 edition that supports all datasources and provides developer enhancements for Visual Studio NET programmers And, the installation “footprint”

of Crystal Reports 2008 has been reduced to less than 500MB, providing for easier distribution of installation media and faster installation

• Interactive Sorting Report viewers can now re-sort their reports by way of any

visible detail section field As with other web-based systems, small arrow icons can now be placed on the report to facilitate an interactive sort change This feature is discussed in Chapter 2

• More Flexible Report Layout and Page Orientation Options Reports no longer

need to be tied to a particular printer As such, page sizes can be set to any desired width and height, independent of any forms defined on a printer Furthermore, the Section Expert now allows you to specify mixed page orientations within a single

report, whereas some pages appear in portrait orientation, while other appear in

landscape orientation These options are covered in Chapter 6

• Product and Viewing Locale Settings Crystal Reports 2008 provides much greater

control for language and formatting localization Depending on the language packs

you have purchased, the View pull-down menu’s Product Locale option allows you

to choose from multiple languages to use for the Crystal Reports User Interface

(menus, dialog boxes, and so forth) Regardless of the chosen Crystal Reports product

locale, the Preferred Viewing Locale option affects various regional-specific settings,

such as date formatting in parameter field prompts Making this choice from the

View menu will provide a more appropriate “regional viewing experience” for your

report audience, regardless of their local Windows Control Panel regional settings

• Saved Data Selection This new feature can greatly reduce the number of database

refreshes required for interactive report viewing, particularly when used with

parameter fields In previous versions, any time new parameter values were required,

a database refresh resulted Now, saved data selection can change the “viewed data”

on the screen based on new parameter values without requiring a database refresh

This feature is discussed in Chapters 3 and 13

• Formula/Field Find and Duplicate Enhancements The Field Explorer now includes

additional options on its pop-up menus to make it easier to find an occurrence of a

database field or formula in other formulas This allows you to assess the impact of

changes or deletions by determining where fields/formulas are used throughout

the report Also, you may duplicate an existing formula with a Field Explorer

right-click pop-up menu option, allowing you to create a copy of a complex formula

You may then rename and perform minimal edits to the copy for slightly different

formula functionality

• Optional Parameter Fields and the Parameter Panel One of the most powerful

enhancements in Crystal Reports 2008, parameter fields can now be defined as

optional This, in combination with the new HasValue formula language function,

will permit report viewers to ignore parameter fields they don’t wish to provide a

value for The parameter panel also provides the capability to interact with chosen

parameter fields right in the Preview tab (or an associated web or Windows viewer

in a custom application or BusinessObjects Enterprise) The parameter panel and

saved data selection provide for much higher report interactivity with much less

database access Parameter fields and the parameter panel are covered in Chapter 13

The parameter panel is also covered in Chapter 19 (related to custom applications)

and Chapter 21 (related to BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 InfoView)

• Flash/Xcelsius/Flex Integration This powerful new feature allows Flash animation

objects to be embedded directly in a Crystal Report While designed primarily to

support integration with Crystal Xcelsius 4.5 and Xcelsius 2008, any Flash SWF file

(whether designed with Xcelsius, Adobe Flash or Flex, or any other Flash development

tool), can be added to a report And, Crystal Reports 2008 even allows values to be

passed to the embedded Xcelsius or Flash SWF file by way of Flash variables, or

an enhanced Xcelsius 2008 integration interface Chapter 11 covers this new feature exclusively.

• Custom Cross-Tab Rows, Columns, and Summaries Those familiar with previous Crystal Reports cross-tab capabilities (and limitations) may find new Crystal Reports

2008 cross-tab enhancements to be the most compelling feature in this new release Now, custom cross-tab rows, columns, and summarized fields can be created with the enhanced formula language Many reports that couldn’t make use of cross-tabs

in the past can now make use of a custom cross-tab to provide highly flexible row/column layouts These new features are covered in Chapter 8

• Enhanced Barcode Support A third-party barcode font, additional formula language

functions (provided by a User Function Library), and Convert To Barcode menu options, provide enhanced barcode support in Crystal Reports 2008 This feature is discussed in Chapter 6

• New Formula Language Functions The formula language has been enhanced to

provide complete control for customized cross-tab rows, columns, and summarized fields These new GridValue functions appear when editing or formatting appropriate cross-tab objects Also, the formula language includes some new functions related to the chosen viewing locale Some cross-tab functions are covered in Chapter 8, with all new functions covered in the appendix, the Formula Language Reference

• Enhanced Support for Web-Based Datasources and CrystalReports.com Crystal

Reports 2008 adds an additional datasource in the Database Expert for Salesforce.com, allowing for direct connection to your Salesforce.com CRM data XML web services as data sources also receive some updated features (both Salesforce.com and XML web service data sources are covered in Chapter 16) And, you can now open reports and save reports directly to CrystalReports.com, instead of having to manually upload or download already-saved RPT files

• Improved XML Export Although “standard” XML export capabilities still exist in

Crystal Reports 2008, the steps for setting up custom XML exports have changed dramatically Instead of using the previous built-in dialog box to define the XML export format, Crystal Reports 2008 now provides complete support for XML transforms This allows virtually unlimited text export capability New XML exporting capabilities are discussed in Chapter 14

• Custom Add-In Developer Hooks Crystal Reports 2008 provides expanded

capabilities for developers to create their own custom add-ins This capability allows a Visual Studio NET developer to create a custom Crystal Reports add-in menu and external functionality Information on creating custom add-ins can be found

on the Crystal Reports developer sight, diamond.businessobjects.com

• Visual Studio NET Integration Improvements As with previous versions, Crystal

Reports 2008 will provide additional integration options if installed on a computer already containing a version of Visual Studio NET Not only are there additions to the standard Crystal Reports object model, but enhanced support for new Crystal