Crystal Reports General Info

Question 1

What is Crystal Reports?

Answer 1

Crystal Reports is the best-selling report writer package in the world.

Question 2

What is the current version of Crystal Reports?

Answer 2

2013 (14.1.x)

Question 3

Who owns Crystal Reports?

Answer 3

Originally developed and sold by Crystal Services.
Purchased by Seagate Software which became Crystal Decisions before the release of version 4.
Crystal Decisions was acquired by BusinessObjects in December 2003 before the release of Version 10.
BusinessObjects was acquired by SAP AG in 2007/2008.
Version “2011” - SAP SE

Question 4

How do you enter code into Crystal Reports?

Answer 4

Simply put you enter either formulas or SQL statements.

Question 5

Why do we need Crystal (and reporting in general)?

Answer 5

We now accumulate a lot of data but we need it organized, distilled and focused on answering specific questions. These documents are traditionally called reports and they generally consist of multiple pages that can include
- text
- numbers
- charts
- maps
- illustrations
The best reports convey the facts needed to make decisions, unobscured by a clutter of data irrelevant to the task at hand.

Question 6

What are the two types of formatting available in Crystal Reports?

Answer 6

Absolute formatting

Conditional formatting

Question 7

What is absolute formatting?

Answer 7

Absolute formatting enables you to put text, titles, charts, maps, columns of figures, cross-tabs, and graphics pretty much anywhere you want on the screen. You can handle preprinted forms. You can optimize for screen display or for printing on paper.

Question 8

What is conditional formatting?

Answer 8

Conditional formatting allows you to change the format of the data you’re displaying in response to the content of the data itself. With conditional formatting, every time the data in a report changes, a formula you include in the report can make the appearance of the report change accordingly.

Question 9

What is a report alert?

Answer 9

A feature starting in version 9. If a value being displayed crosses a critical threshold that requires immediate action on the part of the report’s target audience an alert dialog box pops up that cannot be ignored.

Question 10

What is a custom function?

Answer 10

If you create a useful formula (using all the common flow-control structures eg If-Then-Else, Select Case, etc. and using variables, etc), you can save it as a custom function available with the standard functions to be used later.

Question 11

What is “Business Views?”

Answer 11

Business Views is a new distribution mechanism starting in Crystal 10 (a component of Crystal Enterprise) which offers a new data-abstraction layer that simplifies the process of connecting to enterprise data sources. At that layer you can combine data from multiple data sources of different kinds into a single data source.

Question 12

What can Crystal accept as an input?

Answer 12

Any data from an ODBC-compliant database or any data source that complies with MS’s OLE DB standard.

Question 13

What were the 4 editions of Crystal Reports 10?

Answer 13

Standard, Professional, Developer, Advanced.

Question 14

What is CR X Standard Edition?

I’m abbreviating Crystal Reports from now on

Answer 14

Standard Edition is the least capable edition, designed to be used by business professionals rather than IT professionals.

• It won’t create reports designed to be displayed on the Web.
• Will not integrate reports into application programs.
• Won’t support XML or OLAP.
• Doesn’t include the Repositiory.
• Doesn’t include native drivers for client server databases. You need to use ODBC or move up to the Professional edition.

Question 15

What is CR X Professional Edition?

Answer 15

The Professional Edition is aimed at IT and MIS professionals, such as database administrators, report designers and system analysts.

• It’s the product you need to publish reports on the Web.
• It gives more flexibility in using SQL than Standard.
• Native drivers for client/server databases.
• Includes the Repository.

Question 16

What is CR X Developer Edition?

Answer 16

The Developer Edition is for “guru-class, heavy-duty application developers,” designed to be used by programmers who want to incorporate reports in the applications they develop. It has all the capability of the Standard and Professional Editions plus the tools needed to take full control of the underlying functions of Crystal Reports and create enterprise-wide applications that incorporate reports.

Question 17

What is the Advanced Edition?

Answer 17

The Advanced Edition is targeted at people who want to develop Enterprise Web applications using Java, COM or .NET. It has essentially the same functionality as the Developer Edition but has a license structure that accommodates more simultaneous users. If you receive Crystal Reports .NET as part of Visual Studio you may need to upgrade to Advanced edition when you are ready to deploy the application on the web.

Question 18

What is the difference between viewing printed report and an online report?

Answer 18

Reading a report on paper is the simplest way to get the information you want. However for some kinds of information printed reports are not as valuable as online reports where the data is updated when the database from which they were derived is updated. There are other features available in online versions (see next card).

Question 19

What features are available in viewing a report online?

Answer 19

• Report is connected to the source database and can be refreshed with new data.
• You can use the drill-down capability of Crystal Reports to selectively view the detail underlying summary reports.
• You can use hyperlinks to go from one part of a report to another or between reports.
• Full, rich color, graphics, text fonts, etc. that may not be available in a printout.

Question 20

What is the extension for a report exported in the Crystal Reports native format?

Answer 20

.rpt

Question 21

What do you want to know before you create a report?

Answer 21

• Which tables in the database contain the data you want
• Which data items you want in those tables
• What manipulations of the data must be performed to give you the information you want
• How you want your report to be formatted
• Whether users of your report retrieve it from a black-and-white printer, a color printer, a local computer screen, or a Web site

Question 22

What are the steps to create a report with the Blank Report option?

Answer 22

1. Start Crystal
2. Select “As a Blank Report”, OK.
   The Database Expert dialog box appears.
3. In the “Available Data Sources” pane, click the + sign to the left of the “Create New Connection” folder to expand it. (This is the folder you choose whenever you are creating a report from scratch. When you have connected to a database, Crystal Reports remembers where it is).
4. Double-click the database type that matches your data source.
5. Click the ellipsis (…) button to the right of the Database Name box. Browse to the file on your system.
6. Click the Finish button.
7. Expand the Tables node, then double-click on the table on which you want to base your report. (e.g. Tables>Product).
8. Click OK to close the Database Expert.
   A blank report fills the window.

Question 23

What are the five sections of the report which appear on the Design Tab?

Answer 23

• Report Header: Appears only at the top of the report and is the first thing that a viewer sees.
• Page Header: Appears below the report header and at the top of all the other pages in the report.
• Details: The actual content of the report.
• Report Footer section: Appears after the last detailed information in the report.
• Page Footer: Appears at the bottom of every page of the report.

Question 24

What 2 methods can you use to give more space to the layout?

Answer 24

• Shrink the Field explorer by dragging its left edge further to the right.
• Use Short Section Names
  1. File > Options
  Layout Tab
  2. In the Design View section, click to select the Short Section Names option.
  3. Click OK.