Week2 Crystal Report

8/3/2019 Week2 Crystal Report

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BIS Crystal Reports 1

References :

1) Crystal Reports XI R1/R2

2) Crystal Reports 9 on Oracle

Annette Harper

McGraw- Hill / Osborne

Application Development

With

Crystal Reports


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Reporting

Determine the layout and content of a report

Develop a prototype of a report

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to :


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What is a report?

A printed document that displays information from adatabase

Refer to samples of printed reports

Are database reports and queries different?

Both require access to the databaseQueries can be ad-hoc or pre-defined, while reports are

pre-defined

Queries are on-line, while reports can be generated on-lineor batch.

A query set is needed to generate a report.


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Planning & Developing a report prototype

Requirements gathering Consists of the report designer asking the report

requestor a series of targeted questions

Refer to Report Requirements Checklist

After determining the outline of the report request,develop the prototype by

Sketching the report on a blank piece of paper, usuallythe size of the report to be printed on

Filling in a form (refer to Report Prototype Form)


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Report Requirements Checklist

Define the overall purpose of the report (e.g. analysis, recordkeeping)

Define the readers of the report (top management, middlemanagement, sales staff, general public)

Define the data used in the report (what type of data sourceneeds to be connected?)

Determine the report title (start with a title, can be changed later) Define header and footer identifying information

(company logo, print date, title of report, page numbers)

Define specific data that should appear in the body ofthe report

Determine if the data is organized into groups (bycustomer?, date? Or other criteria?)


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Determine if the data is organized into groups (by category, gender,location)

Determine if the data is sorted based on record or group

values

Determine if the data exists or if it needs to be calculated

Determine if the report is to contain only specific records or

groups

Determine if the data needs to be summarized (total, average, count,max, min, grand total at bottom of selected columns?)

Define how to identify key information through formatting

options

Report Requirements Checklist


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Developing a report prototype

See Report Prototype Form handout in file

Report Prototype Form


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Planning a report

Reasons for planning a report

by taking a systems-oriented approach to reporting, you willproduce clearer & more readable reports

Its best practices to document processes, esp. if working with aclient

If a group is working on a project, then the group can see asnapshot or prototype of the report if its been documented

If someone in the team leaves, it will be easier for the others totake over from where he left off if there is documentation of thereport

The prototype can flag any problems that may occur(technical, data access, client misunderstanding, etc)

The prototype can constitute a signoff point


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Notable Commercial reporting software

MS reporting Service

Crystal Reportsthe leading reporting tool

Cognos BI

Hyperion

Oracle BI Publisher

repro

SQL Server Reporting Services

JReports

Microstrategy

iReports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_XML_Publisherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Server_Reporting_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=JReports&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstrategyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstrategyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=JReports&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Server_Reporting_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_XML_Publisherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_XML_Publisherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_XML_Publisherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_XML_Publisher


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Notable free or open source

Reporting software

Agata Report

BIRT of Eclipse

JasperReports LGX_Report by LogiXML

Pentaho
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agata_Reporthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BIRT_of_Eclipse&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=JasperReports&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGX_Reporthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentahohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentahohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGX_Reporthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=JasperReports&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BIRT_of_Eclipse&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agata_Report


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Creating a Report using Crystal Reports

Methods of creating a report Adding tables

The design environment

Inserting objects on a report The Field Explorer

The Report Explorer

The Repository Explorer

The Workbench

Previewing a report

Saving a report Positioning and sizing objects

Formatting objects


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Report Headerused for information that you wantto appear at the beginning of the report. It can be used

for charts & cross-tabs that include data for the entire

report, e.g. name of report, print date or company logo

Page Headerused for information that you want to

appear at the top of each page, e.g. chapter names,

name of document, column headings, print dates orpage numbers


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Detailsused for the body of the report & is printedonce per record. The bulk of the report appears in thissection.

Report footerused for information you want to

appear only once at the end of the report & for chartsand cross-tabs that include data for the entire report,e.g. grand totals, total number of pages & othersummary information

Page footer - used for information you want to appearat the bottom of each page, e.g. page number


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Steps in creating a report

1. Methods of creating

2. Choosing a data source

3. Adding & linking tables4. Inserting objects on a report

5. Determining data field types

6. Previewing a report

7. Saving a report


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1. Creating a report

Methods of creating a report

Use one of the Report Wizards provided

Construct the report manually

Create a report from another report


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2. Choosing a Data source

Options of choosing a data sourceCurrent connections (shows all data sources that you

are currently connected to)

Favorites (shows the data sources you use frequently)

History (shows data sources that have been recently

accessed from Crystal Reports)

Create New Connection

Repository (which holds different types of objectscommonly used in report design so that other reports

can use them without having to recreate them)


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2. Choosing a Data Source


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2. Choosing a Data Source

Click Next. Ignore user ID and password


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3. Adding tables(after connecting to your data source)

Select Customer & Orders tables. Click Next


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3. Linking Tables

Select Auto-Arrange. Click Next.


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The Design Environment

Field Explorer

Report Explorer

Repository Explorer

Workbench


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The Design Environment

Report Headerfor info that should appear at the beginning

of the report (print date, company logo, report title)

Page Headerfor info that should appear at the top of each

page (chapter names, name of document, column headings, page numbers, print dates)

Detailsfor body of the report, & is printed once per record Report Footerfor info that should appear only once at end

of report (grand totals, tot no of pages & other summary info)

Page Footerfor info that should appear at the bottom of

each page (page numbers, company logo)


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4. Inserting objects on a report

Tools to use for inserting objects on a reports

Field explorerused to insert, modify or delete fields on theDesign & Preview tabs

Report explorerdisplays a tree view of the sections in yourreport & lists the report objects contained in each section & workslike a navigator

Repository explorerthe central location to store & manage yourreport objects (text objects, bitmaps, custom functions, queries,business views, list of values) in BusinessObjects Enterprise(self-exploration).

Workbencha folder structure representing the types of projectsyou work on. (needs connection to BusinessObjects Enterprise(self-exploration)


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4. Inserting objects on a report


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6. Previewing a report

Click Preview tag or Print Preview to view your

report

S i


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7. Saving a report

It is possible to save summary information suchas the report author, report title and comments

There may be times when you want to includenon-printing comments with a report (a personal

note to explain more thoroughly the data onwhich the report is based, or a comment aboutsome particular data on the report

On File menu, clickSummary Info

O h fi ld


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Other fields

On the Standard Toolbar, click Field Explorer,

expand Special Fields such as date time, time

zone, page number, etc.

Drag and drop the required fields

I i P i D


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Inserting Print Date, etc

P iti i bj t


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Positioning objects

A Grid is an imaginary series of vertical and horizontal

lines across the working area.

Guidelines are vertical markers in the ruler for each

field which was placed field placed in the Details area.

To select grid / guidelines Click File -> Options -> Layout

Select Grid or Guidelines

For Grid, select Snap to Grid to have objects aligned

automatically

L ki bj t iti & i


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Locking an objects position & size

To lock an objects size and position so that it

cant be moved

Select the object (s) whose size and position you

want to lock

On the Formatting toolbar, click

Lock Size /Position

E h i th t ti f t


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Enhancing the presentation of a report

Charts

Pictures

Colours Highlights

S l ti R d i C t l R t


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Selecting Records in Crystal Reports

You can filter or select the records you want to see

included on your report in the Select Expert.

Often, we need to restrict the records printed for a

particular set. For example, in the Xtreme database that ships with

Crystal Reports, a number of distributors are listed.

We want to report only those in North America or only

those who sold more than $30,000 last year.32


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Selecting records


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Selecting records

The first step in record selection is to define yourcriteria for selection. For example, you can focus on

one city or state, or are you interested in specific

regions. May be a date range or all records below a

particular value will work best. Base on the above, you make your selection choice in

Select Expert (default is any value).

You can ensure that your record selection statement is

case insensitive to prevent unnecessary problems.


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Saved and Refreshed data


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Saved and Refreshed data

In Crystal Reports, you have the option to usedata that is saved to your local machine or use

data that is directly taken from the data source.

Saved data


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Saved data

Saved dataReports with saved data are useful for dealing with

data that isnt continually updated.

When users navigate through reports with saved

data, and drill down for details on columns orcharts, they dont access the database server

directly; instead, they access the saved data.

It not only minimize data transfer over the network,

but also lighten the database servers workload.

Saved data


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Saved data

You can scheduled these reports to be automaticallyrefresh from the database on a predetermined basis.

For example, if your sales db is only updated once a

day, or once a week, then you can run the report on a

similar schedule and save it with data so that salesrepresentatives always have access to current sales data

without hitting the db each time they open a report.

You can also refresh reports with saved data on an as-

needed basis.

Saved data


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Saved data

Saved data is discarded and refreshed when youperform any of these tasks in a report: Select the Refresh command

Change your database logon

Change the reports parameters

Add a new field that doesnt exist in the saved data Drill down in a report where Perform Grouping on Server isselected and the details section is suppressed.

Verify the dbwhen db structure changes

Change the linking parameter on a sub-report (the sub-reportis refreshed)

Change the order of groups (only for reports in theapplication server).

Refreshed data


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Refreshed data

When you refreshed a report that doesnt have saveddata, Crystal Reports retrieved data from the database;i.e., the program discards the reports saved data andretrieves new data.

Crystal reports only retrieves data when necessary. When you preview your report

Print the report

Export it to a file

The program runs your report and retrieves the

required data.

Refreshed data


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Refreshed data

Once you are working with the data in the Preview tab,

the program will run the report again and retrieve fresh

data if you:

Add fields to the report after the report was run

Add a formula that references a field that was not in the

report when you ran it the first time

Expand your record selection criteria to include more records

than were needed when you first ran the report.

You choose to retrieve new data for report when you may

have created the report few days earlier and you want to seeit run with the most current data.

How to saved and refreshed data


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How to saved and refreshed data

To save a report with dataOn the file menu, select Save Data with Report

Save the report

To refresh data

Click Refresh on the Navigation Tools toolbar

You can also use the Refresh Report Data command

from the Report menu, F5 on the keyboard, or the

Refresh button located to the far right of the ReportDesigner window at the top of the screen.

Apply time-based record selection


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Apply time based record selection

Setting a time-based record selection is useful whenyou want to determine results based on a certain dateor time range.

For example, you may want to find out whichcustomers bought over $10,000 in product from you in

Q1 of your fiscal year. Of you may want to see all accounts that have not been

accessed in the past year

Or to show all sales representatives that have placed

five or more orders in the past month.

Set record selection based on a date


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Set record selection based on a date

To do this, you would create a record selectionusing the appropriate date and, if needed,formula fields in the Select Expert.

Crystal Reports will then read the date from

your system and displays the appropriate dataeach time the report is refreshed.

For example, you need a report that shows eachstaff member whose birthday is within a certain

period.


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Summary


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y

What is a report?

What are the typical contents of a report?

What are the steps needed to create a report?

Ways to enhance the presentation of a report

Week2 Crystal Report

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