eBook
Related collections and offers
Overview
CRYSTAL REPORTS® 2008
OFFICIAL GUIDE
Whether you’re a DBA, data warehousing or business intelligence professional,
reporting specialist, or developer, this book has the answers you need. Through
hands-on examples, you’ll systematically master Crystal Reports and Xcelsius
2008’s most powerful features for creating, distributing, and delivering content.
One step at a time, long-time Crystal Reports insiders take you from the basics
through advanced content creation and delivery using Xcelsius, Crystal Reports
Server, crystalreports.com, and the offline Crystal Reports Viewer.
Every significant enhancement introduced in Crystal Reports 2008 is covered, including its new visualization options and more robust Web services capabilities. The book concludes by showing how to use Crystal Reports’ powerful .NET and Java SDKs to customize and extend enterprise reporting in virtually unlimited ways.
• Learn hands-on, through step-by-step examples and exercises—and discover tips and tricks proven in real-world enterprise environments
• Master new Crystal Reports 2008 features, including interactive report viewing, Xcelsius dashboarding, Flex, and Flash integration, Report Designer improvements, report bursting, and more
• Publish professional-quality reports against virtually any data source, including relational and OLAP databases, Universes, SAP, PeopleSoft, JavaBeans, .NET/COM objects, XML, and more
• Discover advanced visualization techniques using Xcelsius, charts, and maps
• Learn methods for distributing reports and integrating content into other applications
• Learn about the latest reporting addition to the Business Objects family—Xcelsius and begin creating dynamic and interactive dashboards
NEIL FITZGERALD has spent several years working at Business Objects and with one of Business Objects’ largest providers of custom BI and enterprise reporting solutions.
BOB COATES currently works as a Sales Consultant for Business Objects, an SAP company, where he has been employed for more than eleven years.
RYAN GOODMAN is the founder of Centigon Solutions, Inc., and remains one of the top Xcelsius experts and evangelists in the world.
MICHAEL VOLOSHKO is a senior presales consultant for the financial services team at Business Objects.
ON THE WEB
Find all this and more at informit.com/sams:
• Java and .NET sample reports and code samples for all examples in the book
• Bonus chapters, tips, tricks, and links to great reporting resources
CATEGORY: Database
COVERS: Crystal Reports 2008, Crystal Reports Server 2008,
Crystal Reports Viewer, crystalreports.com, Xcelsius 2008
USER LEVEL: Beginning—Intermediate
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780768685701 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pearson Education |
| Publication date: | 10/02/2008 |
| Series: | Business Objects Press |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 576 |
| File size: | 26 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Neil FitzGerald is an entrepreneur who has successfully started or contributed to multiple consulting companies in the IT consulting domain. Neil combined his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada and his MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario with his more than 8 years of experience at Business Objects in a variety of senior roles to help provide information solutions to Fortune 500 companies across North America. He has spent more than 13 years in the information delivery domain and is available for onsite or remote consulting to companies large and small. Neil can be contacted at neil_fitzgerald@hotmail.com.
About the Contributing Authors
Bob Coates has worked for Business Objects, an SAP company (through the Crystal Decisions and Business Objects acquisitions), for more than 11 years. While there he worked in technical support, global services, and sales consulting. Presently Bob is a principal sales consultant working on the SAP Synergy Team—a branch of the Strategic Technology Group focused on the top 100 SAP customers. Bob would like to thank his wife Amanda for her infinite patience and support.
Ryan Goodman is the founder of Centigon Solutions Inc. As a previous technical evangelist and sales consultant at Infommersion and then Business Objects, Ryan has implemented hundreds of Xcelsius projects spanning more than 4 years. His interactive data visualization and design background coupled with his business insight and technical aptitude have made him one of the top Xcelsius experts in the world. Ryan continues to push the envelope and evangelize Xcelsius on his blog: www.ryangoodman.net/blog.
Michael Voloshko is a principal solutions architect for the financial services vertical at Business Objects, an SAP company.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction to Information Delivery
Spectrum of Business Objects Product Usage
Custom Information Delivery Applications
Enterprise BI Initiatives
Spectrum of BI Tool Users
Content Creators (Information Designers)
Information Analysts
Information Consumers
The Product Family from Business Objects
What Is in This Book
Part I: Crystal Reports Design
Part II: Formatting Crystal Reports
Part III: Advanced Crystal Reports Design
Part IV: Report Distribution and Advanced Report Design with Crystal Xcelsius
Equipment Used for This Book
Web Resources
Intended Audience
Requirements for This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
I Crystal Report Design
1 Creating and Designing Basic Reports
Introducing the Crystal Reports Designer
Crystal Report Sections
Using Toolbars and Menus
Report Design Explorers
Locating and Using the Report Design Explorers
The Workbench and Dependency Checker
Understanding Data and Data Sources
Understanding Direct Access Drivers
Understanding Indirect Access Drivers
Introducing the Database Expert
Creating a New Connection
Using My Connections
Adding Database Objects to Your Report
Reporting on Tables
Reporting on Views
Reporting on Stored Procedures
Reporting on SQL Commands
Joining Database Objects
Understanding the Different Join Types
Using the Report Creation Wizards
Getting Started with the Report Wizards
Using the Standard Report Creation Wizard
Creating a Report Without Wizards
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—HTML Preview
Crystal Reports in the Real World—SQL Commands
2 Selecting and Grouping Data
Introduction
Understanding Field Objects
Accessing Database Fields
Accessing Formula Fields
Accessing SQL Expression Fields
Accessing Parameter Fields
Implementing Running Total Fields
Using Group Name Fields
Special Fields
Working with Groups
Inserting Groups
Reordering Groups
Using the Group Expert
Grouping on Date/Time Fields
Hierarchical Grouping
Understanding Drill-Down Reports
Creating a Drill-Down Report
Hiding Details on a Drill-Down Report
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Group on a Formula
3 Filtering, Sorting, and Summarizing Data
Introduction
Filtering the Data in Your Report
Working with the Select Expert
The Record Selection Formula
Working with the Formula Editor
Learning to Sort Records
Working with the Sort Expert
Creating Effective Summaries
Creating Grand Totals
Creating Group Summaries
Using Group Selection and Sorting
Creating Running Totals
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Nesting Formulas
4 Understanding and Implementing Formulas
Introduction
Using the Formula Workshop
Navigating the Formula Workshop with the Workshop Tree
Using the Workshop Formula Editor
Arithmetic Formulas
Date and Time Formulas
String Formulas
Using Type Conversion in Formulas
Control Structures—Conditional and Looping Structures
Variables
Creating Formulas with the Formula Expert
Using the Formula Extractor to Create Custom Functions
The Multipass Reporting Process of the Crystal Reports Engine
Crystal Reports Processing Engine—Pre-Pass #1
Crystal Reports Processing Engine—Pass #1
Crystal Reports Processing Engine—Pre-Pass #2
Crystal Reports Processing Engine—Pass #2
Crystal Reports Processing Engine—Pass #3
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Custom Functions
5 Implementing Parameters for Dynamic Reporting
Introduction
Understanding the Value of Parameters
Creating and Implementing Parameters Fields
Reviewing Parameter Field Properties
Creating Parameter Fields
Setting Default Values for Parameter Fields
Implementing Parameter Fields
Using Parameters with Record Selections
Using Parameters with Top/Bottom N Group Selections
Creating and Implementing Dynamic and Cascading Parameters
Using the Parameter Panel in the Preview Tab
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Custom Filtering
II Formatting Crystal Reports
6 Fundamentals of Report Formatting
Introduction
Positioning and Sizing Report Objects
Modifying Object Properties for Formatting Purposes
Exploring the Format Editor Dialog Common Options
The Common Tab of the Format Editor
The Border Tab of the Format Editor
The Font Tab of the Format Editor
The Hyperlink Tab of the Format Editor
Other Format Editor Tabs
Combining and Layering Report Objects
Configuring Report Page and Margin Properties
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Exporting Options
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Referencing External Resources
7 Working with Report Sections
Introduction
Formatting Report Sections
Modifying Report Section Properties
The Section Expert Settings and Functionality
Using Multiple Report Sections
Resizing Report Sections
Inserting New Report Sections
Deleting Report Sections
Merging Report Sections
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Advanced Formatting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Advanced Formatting on Drill-Down Reports
8 Visualizing Your Data with Charts and Maps
Introduction
Using the Chart Expert
Using the Chart Expert Type Tab
Using the Chart Expert Data Tab
Using the Chart Expert Axes Tab
Using the Chart Expert Options Tab
Using the Chart Expert Color Highlight Tab
Using the Chart Expert Text Tab
Using the Map Expert
Using the Map Expert Data Tab
Using the Map Expert Type Tab
Using the Map Expert Text Tab
Modifying Chart and Map Properties
Modifying Chart Properties
Format Chart Options
Using and Creating Chart Templates
Specifying Chart Size and Position
Modifying Chart Options
Specifying Series Options
Specifying X-Axis and Y-Axis Options
Specifying Selected Item Formatting Options
Specifying 3D Viewing Angle Options
Modifying Map Properties
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Complex Charts
9 Custom Formatting Techniques
Introduction
Making Presentation-Quality Reports
Common Formatting Features
Working with ToolTips
Lines and Boxes
Creating a Vertical Text Watermark
Conditional Formatting—Using Data to Drive the Look of a Report
Applying Formatting from Another Field
Report-to-Report Linking and the Hyperlink Wizard
Report-to-Report Linking
Hyperlink Wizard
Find in Field Explorer
Barcode Support
Convert to Barcode
Convert from Barcode
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Advanced Charting
III Advanced Crystal Report Design
10 Using Cross-Tabs for Summarized Reporting
Introduction to Cross-Tabs
Benefits of Cross-Tabs
Leveraging Experience with the Spreadsheet Format
Horizontal Expansion
Custom Formatting
Using the Cross-Tab Wizard
Using Top N with Cross-Tabs Reports
Using Advanced Cross-Tab Features
Setting Relative Position
Inserting a “Percentage of” Summary
Horizontal and Vertical Placement
Inserting Summary Labels
Adding a Display String
What’s New in Cross-Tabs
New Cross-Tab Functions Defined
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Advanced Cross-Tabs
11 Using Record Selections, Sort Controls, and Alerts for Interactive Reporting
Introduction
Creating Advanced Record Selection Formulas
Record Selection Review
Displaying Record Selections
Dealing with Dates
Working with Strings
Pushing Record Selections to the Database
An Introduction to SQL Expressions
Adding Alerting to Your Reports
Creating, Editing, and Using Alerts
Using Alerts in BusinessObjects Enterprise
Performance Monitoring and Tuning
Group By On Server
SQL Expressions in Record Selections
Use Indexes on Server for Speed
On-Demand or Reduced Number of Subreports
Performance Monitor
Dynamic Cascading Prompts
Sort Controls
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Web Report Alert Viewing
Troubleshooting
12 Using Subreports for Advanced Reports
Introduction to Subreports
Common Subreport Usage
Adding Subreports to Your Reports
Understanding Linked Versus Unlinked Subreports
Considering Subreport Execution Time and Performance
Using Variables to Pass Data Between Reports
Emulating Nested Subreports
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Multiple Subreports
13 Using Formulas and Custom Functions
Introduction
Choosing a Formula Language: Crystal Versus Basic Syntax
Understanding Syntax Differences
Why Basic Syntax Was Added
Selecting the Best Syntax for You
Using Brackets in Formulas
Using Characters in Formulas
Recent Improvements to Formulas
Manipulating Memo Fields in Formulas
Working with the Additional Financial Functions
Creating Custom Functions in Your Reports
Sharing Custom Functions with Others
Understanding Runtime Errors
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Custom Functions
14 Designing Effective Report Templates
Understanding the Importance of Reuse in Reporting
Understanding Report Templates
Using Report Templates
Using Existing Crystal Reports as Templates
Understanding How Templates Work
Creating Useful Report Templates
Using Custom Functions as Replacements for Data-Dependent Business Logic
Using the CurrentFieldValue Function
Using Template Field Objects
Using Report Templates to Reduce Report Creation Effort
Applying Multiple Templates
Exporting Capabilities in Crystal Reports
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Standardized Templates
Troubleshooting
15 Additional Data Sources in Crystal Reports
Understanding the Additional Crystal Reports Data Sources
Connecting to COM or .NET Data Sources
Leveraging Legacy Mainframe Data
Handling Complex Queries
Runtime Manipulation of Data
Review an .ADO.NET Data Provider
Connecting to an ADO.NET XML Recordset
Connecting to Java-Based Data Sources
JavaDir
JavaBeansClassPath
Connecting to XML Data Sources
Connect to a Local XML Data Source
Connect to an HTTP(S) Data Source
Connect to a Web Service Data Source
Introduction to the Integration Kits
Honor the Security
Access to All the Data
Sample Reports
Leverage the Metadata of the ERP Application
Provide Real-Time Access to Data
SAP Integration Kit
Reporting Off R3 Data
Reporting Off BW Data
Viewing the Reports
PeopleSoft Integration Kit
Reporting Off PeopleSoft Data
Viewing the Reports
Siebel Integration Kit
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—Leveraging XML as a Data Source
16 Formatting Multidimensional Reporting Against OLAP Data
Introduction to OLAP
OLAP Concepts and OLAP Reporting
Recently Added or Changed OLAP Features in Crystal Reports
Using the OLAP Report Creation Wizard and OLAP Expert
Specifying an OLAP Data Source
Specifying OLAP Rows and Columns
Specifying OLAP Dimension Slices (Filters) and Pages
Adding Report Styles in the OLAP Report Creation Wizard
Adding Charts via the OLAP Report Creation Wizard
Customizing Styles in the OLAP Expert
Customizing Labels in the OLAP Expert
Advanced OLAP Reporting
Interacting with the OLAP Grid
Pivoting the OLAP Grid
Using the Cube View Functionality
Using Charts and Maps Based on OLAP Grids
Troubleshooting
Crystal Reports in the Real World—OLAP Summary Report with Drill-Down
IV Report Distribution and Advanced Report Design with Crystal Xcelcius
17 Introduction to Crystal Reports Server, Crystalreports.com, and the Crystal Reports Viewer
What Is Crystal Reports Server?
Crystal Reports Server Architecture
Client Tier
Application Tier
Intelligence Tier
Processing Tier
Data Tier
Crystal Reports Server Applications
Central Configuration Manager
Use the Central Management Console (CMC)
Launch InfoView
What Is Crystalreports.com?
Getting Started with Crystalreports.com
Adding Reports to Crystalreports.com
Sharing Reports on Crystalreports.com
Offline Viewing with the Crystal Reports Viewer
Troubleshooting
18 Crystal Reports Java Components
Overview of the Crystal Reports Java Reporting Component
Components Run on the Web Application Server
Components Are Generally Less Scalable
Components Are 100% Pure Java
Understanding the Java Reporting Components Architecture
Differences with the Java Reporting Engine
Supported File Formats
Support for User Function Libraries in Version XI of the Java Reporting Components
The Java Reporting Engine Uses JDBC
Configuring the Application Server
Delivering Reports in Web Applications
The setReportSource Method
The processHttpRequest Method
Customizing the Toolbar
Customizing the Group Tree
Using the Crystal Tag Libraries
Exporting Reports to Other File Formats
Exporting via the Toolbar Button
Exporting via Code
Printing Reports from the Browser
Common Programming Tasks
Passing Parameters
Setting Data Source Information
Developing with a Visual Development Environment
19 Crystal Reports Microsoft .NET Components
Understanding Microsoft’s .NET Platform
Understanding the Different Crystal .NET Components
An Overview of the Crystal Reports 2008 .NET Components
The Report Designer
Understanding the Report Designer’s User Interface Conventions
The Property Browser
The Report Engine Object Model
Opening Reports
Exporting Reports
Printing Reports
Delivering Reports with the Windows Forms Viewer
The ReportSource Property
Customizing the Windows Forms Viewer
Delivering Reports with the Web Forms Viewer
Customizing the Web Forms Viewer
Database Credentials
Setting Parameters
Understanding the Report Application Server Bridge
Creating a Crystal Reports Web Service
Troubleshooting
20 Basic Xcelsius Development
Introduction to Dashboards with Xcelsius
Xcelsius Development Paradigm
Xcelsius Integrated Development Environment
Components
Properties
Object Browser
Data Manager
Basic Component Categories
Single Value Components
Charts
Selectors
Containers
Alerts
Dashboard Design Enhancements
Color Schemes
Themes
Backgrounds
Label Text
Image Component
Publishing and Deployment
Adobe SWF
Adobe PDF Document
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Business Objects Enterprise
HTML
Crystal Reports
Troubleshooting
21 Advanced Xcelsius Visualization and Connectivity
Advanced Global Features and Techniques
Dynamic Visibility
Chart Drill Down
Insert Filtered Rows
Map Components
Multilayer Dashboards
Advanced Functionality with Excel Logic
Conditional Formulas
Lookup Functions
Concatenating Values
Working with Dates
Advanced Connectivity and Integration
Data Manager Usage Tab
BusinessObjects Enterprise Integration
Live Office Connectivity
Universe Query with Query as a Web Service
Web Service Connection
Excel XML Maps
Using Flash Variables
Index
Preface
Introduction
In this chapter
Introduction to Information Delivery
Spectrum of Business Objects Product Usage
Spectrum of BI Tool Users
The Product Family from Business Objects
What Is in This Book
Equipment Used for This Book
Organizations of all sizes today find themselves increasingly awash in data, yet hungering for information to help them meet their business objectives. These corporations, from Main Street and Wall Street alike, have spent large amounts of time and money over the past 10 or so years implementing systems to help collect data on and streamline their operations. From monolithic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems (SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials, and so on) through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems (Siebel, Rightnow.com, Salesforce.com, and so on) to Custom Data Warehousing projects, these firms are now looking for ways to extract value from the collective body of data to help them run their businesses more productively and competitively. These firms are looking for a strategic information delivery or business intelligence solution to help them become more productive and ultimately compete more effectively. The products covered in this book are geared toward meeting that challenge.
The information delivery products and solutions presented in this book are often categorized under the Business Intelligence (BI) banner. BI is the industry of value-added information delivery based on structured data sources—essentially providing meaningful, business-driven value andinformation to business end users by connecting them to data with appropriate tools and products. Figure I.1 highlights the conceptual divide of information delivery solutions into the structured and unstructured world. Although evidence suggests an eventual blurring of the boundaries between these discrete industries over time, the Business Objects products covered in this book most aptly fit under the BI banner.
Figure I.1
The information delivery industry divides broadly into structured and unstructured information management.
Industry analysts in the information delivery area regularly highlight the impressive adoption rates of BI products in the past few years as testimony to their value. The dynamic double-digit percentage growth rates for industry leaders such as Business Objects are especially impressive when the difficult macroeconomic operating environment of recent years is taken into account. Ironically, many suggest, this same poor economic environment has largely driven the increased worldwide demand for BI functionality as firms work to increase their productivity and competitiveness by leveraging existing investments—and doing more with less. The next section covers the BI industry driver along with a few others.
Spectrum of Business Objects Product UsageBI products such as those distributed by Business Objects (Crystal Reports, Crystal Reports Server, BusinessObjects Enterprise, Crystal Xcelsius, and Web Intelligence) are deployed and used in about as many different ways as there are product implementations—and there are millions. However, as you examine a broad swath of BI clients and their implementations, you can find definite themes to their deployments. Taking a step back, distinctive drivers to worldwide BI product adoption become evident. The following sections discuss a few of the most common.
Custom Information Delivery ApplicationsDespite the increasing functionality of turnkey software and web applications available today, corporations of all sizes still regularly look to custom-developed applications to provide them with unique competitive advantage and to meet their proprietary business requirements. These applications run the gamut in size from small business applications through large departmental applications to enterprise intranet and extranet applications. The key component of these custom projects is the integration of BI functionality, such as formatted reporting, ad hoc query, dashboarding, self-service web reporting, and/or analytic capabilities, within an internally developed application. Table I.1 highlights some typical examples of custom applications using the Business Objects suite of products to help deliver custom applications.
Table I.1 Sample Custom Information Delivery ApplicationsApplication | Application Audience | Product Usage |
Small retail chain's internal Java-based sales metrics application | Approximately 20 sales employees and managers | Using Crystal Reports Java Engine, the developer provides the sales team with Web access to on-demand metrics reports built into the intranet application. |
Large portfolio | 10,000+ high value customers of firm | Using Crystal Xcelsius and Crystal Reports Server, the management firm's developer provides access to the scalable client extranet application reporting infrastructure and facilitates those customers getting online web access to their portfolio reports. |
Asset management firm's report batch of institution scheduling application | 50,000+ clients | Using the Business Objects reporting server and scheduling engine, the developer's application dynamically creates tens of thousands of customized reports daily and automatically emails them to the appropriate clients in PDF and XLS formats. |
A key strength of the Business Objects suite of products is that it lends itself readily to integration into custom applications. From the inclusion of basic formatted reports within Java/J2EE or.NET applications through the inclusion of rich ad hoc query and self-service reporting functionality in proprietary information product applications to provision of large-scale enterprise BI analytics, scheduling, and security functionality in a globally deployed application, the Business Objects suite of products can meet your requirements. Table I.2 provides a jump-point for those looking for each type of application integration covered in this book.
Table I.2 Custom Application Chapters OverviewDevelopment Environment | Required Functionality | Part or Chapters |
Java/J2EE | Prebuilt reports included in custom Java application | Part IV, Chapter 18 |
.NET | Prebuilt reports included in custom.NET application | Part IV, Chapter 19 |
With the proliferation of BI tools and the acceleration of product adoption around the globe, there has been concurrent pressure for the involved companies to standardize on a single set of products and tools—effectively a BI infrastructure or platform. The main arguments for such standardization include the following:
Reduced total cost of product ownership
Creation of enterprise centers of excellence
Reduced vendor relationships
Movement toward a BI infrastructure/platform
As BI products have matured from different areas of historical strength and their marketplace acceptance has grown, end user organizations have found themselves with disparate and incompatible BI tools and products across or even within the same departments in their organization. To eliminate the costliness of managing such a broad set of tools, many firms are now moving to adopt a single BI platform such as BusinessObjects Enterprise (or Crystal Reports Server for smaller businesses).
The infrastructure of BusinessObjects Enterprise provides a single architecture to manage all the content and tools required to serve an organization's structured information delivery requirements. Figure I.2 shows an end user map of a typical organization. To be productive, each type of end user in a company requires different types of tools. There are clear organizational benefits to a common infrastructure or centrally managed center of excellence, such as BusinessObjects Enterprise, which can meet the various end user and IT requirements.
Figure I.2
Organizational end user requirements map from Business Objects.
Details of the breakdown of this book are included later in this Introduction, but to jumpstart your learning on this type of BI application, Table I.3 can point you to the sections and chapters of particular relevance.
Table I.3 Enterprise Business Intelligence Chapter OverviewEnterprise Business Intelligence Focus | Chapter |
Out-of-the-box product using Crystal Reports Server for small- and medium-sized businesses | Part IV, Chapter 17 |
Using crystalreports.com to distribute reporting content | Part IV, Chapter 17 |
Across the usage profiles of the thousands of BI scenarios/implementations, there generally exists a consistency in the types of people who become involved. Figure I.3 provides a relatively high level yet accurate graphic that shows a typical distribution of the people involved in BI implementations.
Figure I.3
Average BI implementation user distribution.
Each of the three communities outlined in the pyramid plays a key role in the ongoing success and operation of any BI implementation. The content creators and system administrators play perhaps the most important role in ensuring the short- and long-term success of any deployment because their work sets up the system content and tools from which the other users derive benefit. The information analysts generally come from across an organization's typical functions and are highly demanding users who require rich and highly functional interactive tools to facilitate their jobs as analysts. The last group is by far the largest group and includes employees, partners, customers, and suppliers who rely on the BI implementation to provide timely, secure, and reliable information or corporate truths. This group tends to span the entire corporate ladder from foot soldiers right up to the executive suite—all of whom have the same requirement of simple information provision to enable them to complete their regular day-to-day assignments successfully.
Figure I.4 provides a schematic highlighting the distinction between the different content creation tools and the content delivery tools—BusinessObjects Enterprise, Crystal Reports Server, or Java/.NET reporting engines. This book breaks down into two sections covering these two themes: content creation (Chapters 1–16) and content delivery in all of its possible forms (Chapters 17–21) using some of the Business Objects suite of products.
Figure I.4
Content creation and content delivery schematic.
Content creators provide the foundation to any BI implementation. This group uses content creation tools such as Crystal Reports, Crystal Xcelsius, Web Intelligence, Desktop Intelligence (formerly BusinessObjects), Excel, and so on. These users—primarily composed of IT folks but sometimes complemented with technically savvy business users—create the report content, dashboards, OLAP cubes, and reporting metadata that facilitates system usage and benefits derived from the other system users. Because these tasks are of paramount importance in an enterprise suite deployment, the entire first half of the book is dedicated to providing these folks with a comprehensive tutorial and reference on content creation using Crystal Reports and Crystal Xcelsius.
After content exists, it is ready for distribution through an infrastructure such as BusinessObjects Enterprise, the new Crystal Reports Server product, or a custom application. Finally, the content requires management. Another small but critical group of BI system users—the BI administrators—need to ensure that the system is deployed and tuned correctly to ensure optimal performance for the business end users.
Information AnalystsAlthough not the primary group in number, the information analysts in a BI deployment are those who are primarily responsible for the extraction of new business insights and actionable recommendations derived from the BI implementation. Using such analytic tools as Web Intelligence, Crystal Xcelsius, and Excel, these users spend their time interrogating, massaging, and slicing and dicing the data provided in the various back-end systems until they glean nuggets of business relevance. These users tend to come from a wide variety of functional areas in a company, including operations, finance, sales, HR, and marketing and all work with the provided BI tools to extract new information out of the existing corporate data set. Chapters 20 and 21 provide detailed information on using Crystal Xcelsius, and http://www.usingcrystal.com provides information on Web Intelligence and Microsoft Live Office plug-ins.
Information ConsumersThis group of users composes the clear majority of those involved with a BI implementation. They are also the most diverse group and come from every rung on the corporate ladder. Executives who view corporate performance dashboards fit into this category, as would truck drivers who receive their daily mileage and shipping reports online through a wireless device. The common characteristic of members of this group is that their interactions with the BI system are not indicative of their primary jobs. Unlike the content creators and information analysts, information consumers have jobs outside of the BI implementation, and the key measure of success for them is that the BI system helps facilitate their variety of assignments. Chapter 17 provides an introduction to the out-of-the-box Crystal Reports Server interfaces.
The Product Family from Business ObjectsAs Figure I.4 showed, the product family distributed by Business Objects is broken into two major segments: content creation and content delivery. This book is roughly split in two, with each section covering one of the topics in great detail. The primary products in the family covered in these sections are Crystal Reports (first section) and Crystal Reports Server, the Crystal Reports SDKs, and Crystal Xcelsius (second section). The content creation section of the book introduces Crystal Reports version 2008—the world standard for professional formatted reporting across the largest spectrum of data sources. The Crystal Reports Application Designer benefits from more than 15 years of development and provides an unparalleled combination of powerful functionality and report-design flexibility.
The content delivery half of the book covers the following Crystal Products and SDKs:
Crystal Reports Server—New since version XI, Crystal Reports Server provides all the functionality of BusinessObjects Enterprise but is limited to a single multi-CPU server and is aggressively priced for small- and medium-sized businesses. This solution is a very attractive option for deploying BI and reporting solutions.
Crystal Xcelsius—Xcelsius 2008 is a dynamic and customizable data visualization tool that enables users of different skill levels to create insightful and engaging dashboards from any data source with point-and-click ease. Xcelsius 2008 offers a comprehensive set of new features and integrations with Crystal Reports 2008, making it easy to put the power of dashboards into the hands of business users.
Crystal Vision—New to version XI release 2, Crystal Vision provides a combination of the functionality of Crystal Reports Server with the newly acquired Crystal Xcelsius dashboarding functionality.
Crystal Reports Engine for.NET Applications—The only third-party tool distributed with Visual Studio.NET, this reporting component enables.NET developers to quickly embed limited but powerful reporting functionality into their.NET applications.
Crystal Reports Engine for Java Applications—Embedded in Borland's JBuilder and other Java IDEs, this reporting component enables Java developers to quickly embed limited but powerful reporting functionality into their Java applications.
This book is broken down into several sections to address the varied and evolving requirements of the different users in a BI deployment.
The entire first half of the book (Parts I through III) focuses exclusively on content creation with Crystal Reports. Through hands-on step-by-step examples and detailed descriptions of key product functionality, you learn to leverage the powerful report creation capabilities of Crystal Reports v2008. Some profiles of people who find these sections of particular relevance:
New and mature Crystal Reports designers
Professional Crystal Reports designers upgrading to 2008
Existing and new OLAP Intelligence, Web Intelligence, and Desktop Intelligence (formerly Business Objects) designers and analysts
Existing and new BusinessObjects Enterprise (formerly Crystal Enterprise) administrators
New Crystal Reports Server administrators
The second section of the book (Part IV) focuses on the distribution or delivery of the valuable content created in the first half and additional insights into advanced content creation with Crystal Xcelsius. An introduction to Crystal Reports Server, crystalreports.com, and the offline Crystal Reports Viewer complements a comprehensive introduction to Crystal Xcelsius. This extends with an introduction to the.NET and Java SDKs around Crystal Reports. Some profiles of people who find these sections of high value:
New Crystal Reports Server administrators
New or existing Crystal Reports Server users
.NET-based application developers
Java/J2EE-based application developers
Application developers looking to integrate report design or modification into their applications
Part I should familiarize you with the foundations of Crystal Reports and get you up and running as quickly as possible. It is critical for someone who is new to Crystal Reports and includes the fundamental report design concepts that even experienced users can use for the rest of their Crystal Reports–writing career. This section also provides powerful exercises and real-world usage tips and tricks with which even seasoned reporting experts can become more productive.
Part II: Formatting Crystal ReportsPart II focuses on some of the more subtle nuances of Crystal Report design: effective report formatting and data visualization through charting and mapping. Improper formatting and incorrect use of visualization techniques can make reports confusing and not user friendly. This section also provides powerful exercises and real-world usage tips and tricks, enabling mature reporting experts to become more productive.
Part III: Advanced Crystal Reports DesignPart III presents a host of advanced Crystal Reports design concepts that involve features such as subreports, cross-tabs, report templates, and alerts. This part also touches on advanced data access methods such as JavaBeans, XML objects, SAP, and PeopleSoft systems. The section also provides powerful exercises and real-world usage tips and tricks, enabling mature reporting experts to become more effective in their report design work.
Part IV: Report Distribution and Advanced Report Design with Crystal XcelsiusPart IV focuses on the different methods of distribution of the Crystal Reports content created in the first three sections. These methods include Crystal Reports Server, crystalreports.com, the.NET and Java SDKs, and the offline Crystal Reports Viewer. This section provides a comprehensive introduction to advanced visualizations and dashboard creation with Crystal Xcelsius.
Equipment Used for This BookYou can find various supporting material that will assist you in the completion of the exercises in this book, as well as supplemental documentation on related topics. You should have access to a computer that has at least a 450MHz Pentium II or equivalent processor, 128MB of RAM, and Windows 2000, Windows 2003, or Windows XP Professional.
Web ResourcesYou can find all the source code and report samples for the examples in the book, as well as links to great external content, at http://www.usingcrystal.com. You'll find report samples to download and code for you to leverage in your report design and sharing efforts. Also, a great deal of additional product-related information on the Business Objects suite of products including Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, OLAP Intelligence, Desktop Intelligence, Crystal Reports Server, and BusinessObjects Enterprise can be found at http://www.businessobjects.com.
Intended AudienceThis book was written to appeal to the full range of Crystal Reports, Crystal Reports Server, and Crystal Xcelsius users. You'll find this book useful if you've never used the Business Objects suite of products before, if you are a mature Crystal Reports user looking for some new productivity tips, or if you want to explore some of the new features found in version 2008 and their related SDKs.
You don't have to be an expert, but you should have a basic understanding of the following concepts:
Database systems such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, and Informix
Operating system functions in Windows 2003/XP/Vista
General Internet/intranet-based concepts such as HTML, DHTML, ActiveX, and Java
Parts I through III build on each other, so skipping around those parts isn't the best approach unless you have some familiarity with Crystal Reports 2008. Even if you are familiar with Crystal Reports, many new features have been introduced in recent versions, so you are encouraged to read the entire first three sections of the book so that you don't miss anything. Part IV focuses on the different methods of content delivery, so you can approach each part independently without loss of context.
Requirements for This BookAll reports are based on sample data available from the businessobjects.com website, so you have access to the same data used in this book. You'll need to install Crystal Reports to get the most out of the examples included in each chapter in the first half of the book.
Conventions Used in This BookSeveral conventions are used within this book to help you get more out of the text. Look for special fonts or text styles and icons that emphasize special information.
Objects such as fields or formulas normally appear on separate lines from the rest of the text. However, there are special situations in which some formulas or fields appear directly in the paragraph for explanation purposes. These types of objects appear in a special font like this: Some Special Code. Formula examples appear on the Sams Publishing website as well.
In some cases, I might refer to your computer as a machine or server. This is always in reference to the physical computer on which you have installed Crystal Reports.
You'll always be able to recognize menu selections and command sequences because they're implemented like this:
Use the File, Open command.New terms appear in italic when they are defined.
Text that you are asked to type appears in boldface.
URLs for websites are presented like this: http://www.businessobjects.com.
Note - Notes help you understand principles or provide amplifying information. In many cases, a Note emphasizes some piece of critical information that you need. All of us like to know special bits of information that make our job easier, more fun, or faster to perform.
Tip - Tips help you get the job done faster and more safely. In many cases, the information found in a Tip comes from experience rather than through experimentation or documentation.
Sidebar - Sidebars spend more time on a particular subject that could be considered a tangent but will help you be a better Business Objects product user as a result.
Real World sections provide some practical and productivity-enhancing usage insights derived from the author's real-world experience designing and deploying hundreds of Crystal Reports.
Troubleshooting sections provide some quick chapter summary notes and examples that are useful reminders on the product operations.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.