Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies

Allen G. Taylor teaches database development as well as electrical engineering, and also operates a Web development company. He is a national database management speaker and consultant.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Conventions Used in This Book 1What You’re Not to Read 2Foolish Assumptions 2How This Book Is Organized 3Part I: Reporting Basics 3Part II: Moving Up to Professional-Quality Reports 3Part III: Advanced Report Types and Features 3Part IV: Crystal Reports in the Enterprise 3Part V: Publishing Your Reports 4Part VI: The Part of Tens 4Icons Used in This Book 4Where to Go from Here 5Part I: Reporting Basics 7Chapter 1: Transforming Raw Data into Meaningful Information 9Major Features of Crystal Reports 2008 9Formatting a report 10Generating barcodes 11Enhancing a report with formulas and custom functions 11Getting visual with charts and maps 11Xcelsius integration 12Adobe Flash integration 12Displaying a report 12Distributing a report 12Supplying Crystal Reports with data 13The Lone Edition of Crystal Reports 2008 13Viewing a Report 13Reading a printed report 13Viewing a report with Crystal Reports 14Viewing a report on a LAN or on the Web 16Chapter 2: Create a Simple Report Right Now! 17First Things First: Finding the Sample Database 18Starting Crystal Reports 2008 18Creating a Report with the Blank Report Option 20Allocating more space to the layout 24Introducing your report 25Choosing the fields that appear in your report 27Improving the readability of page headers 29Previewing the report 30Page footers carry useful information 32Wrapping things up with a report footer 34Recording helpful information about your report 34Printing a Report 36Where to Go from Here 36Chapter 3: Report Design Guidelines 37Defining an Effective Report Design 37Defining Your Audience 37Defining the Report’s Purpose 38Choosing Content for Your Report 39Choosing the Report Appearance 39Making a good first impression 40Deciding how best to present the information 40Choosing graphic elements for your report 41Style communicates meaning, too 41Making sure your report conveys your message 42Chapter 4: Starting Your Report 43Using the Report Creation Wizard 43Creating a report with the Standard Report Creation Wizard 44Using other report-creation wizards 49Starting with a Blank Report 49Connecting Your Report to Its Data Source 50Accessing database files directly 51Connecting to ODBC data sources 51Retrieving data with SQL 52Reporting on data in OLE DB data sources 53Which interface should you use? 53Part II: Moving Up to Professional-Quality Reports 55Chapter 5: Pulling Specific Data from a Database 57Get Data Quickly with Select Expert 57Using Formulas to Retrieve Data 64Using Parameter Fields to Retrieve Data at Runtime 66Step 1: Creating a report that shows everything 67Step 2: Giving the user the power to decide what to show 70Speed retrievals with indexes 72Changing parameter values to change the report 72Troubleshooting Tips When Retrieving Data 73Chapter 6: Sorting, Grouping, and Totaling Report Data 75Sorting Report Data 75Sorting based on multiple fields 77Sorting and performance 81Adding Sort Controls to a Report 82Grouping Related Items 85Calculating Percentages 89Drilling Down for Detail 90Keeping Track of Things with Running Totals 94Troubleshooting Sorting, Grouping, and Totaling Problems 97Sorting problems and how to solve them 98Unusual grouping options 98Getting the right totals 99Chapter 7: Mastering Report Sections 101Changing the Size of a Section 101Formatting with the Section Formatting Menu 103Using Section Expert for Easy Section Formatting 104Common tab, Section Expert 105Paging tab, Section Expert 106Color tab, Section Expert 107Placing Groups Where You Want Them 110Starting each group at the top of its own page 110Printing totals at the bottom of a page 112Restarting page numbering at the beginning of each group 113Hiding Details with Summary and Drill-Down Reports 113Generating Barcodes 114Creating Mailing Labels 117Saving Money on Postage with a ZIP Sort 120Chapter 8: Enhancing Your Report’s Appearance 123Absolute Formatting 124Setting the fonts and their formatting for emphasis 124Adding graphical elements for emphasis 128Conditional Formatting Using the Format Editor 130Creating Emphasis with Highlighting Expert 132Adding Pictures to Your Report 134Aligning Preprinted Forms 136Adding Text from a File 136Formatting Options 137Special Fields Contain Report Metadata 139Raising a Red Flag with Report Alerts 139Using Report Templates to Save Time and Effort 142Applying a template to a report 143Applying a template to an existing report 143Applying a template to a report you’re creating 145Part III: Advanced Report Types and Features 147Chapter 9: Displaying Your Top Ten (Or Top N) with Group Sort 149Sorting Groups Based on Performance 149Starting a Top N Report 150Displaying a group total 154Hiding the details 155Removing page breaks 157Going with the Percentages 160What if you want the top 17 instead of the top 5? 161A Choice of Group Sorts 164Troubleshooting Group Sort Problems 165Chapter 10: Adding Formulas to Reports 167Formula Overview and Syntax 167Lessening the Workload with Functions 168Creating a Custom Function in Formula Workshop 169Formula Editor 173Formula Expert 175SQL Expression Editor 177Selection formulas 177Formatting formulas 181Changing and Deleting Formulas 182Data Types 182Simple data types 182Range data types 184Array data types 184Variables in Formulas 185Declaring a variable 185Assigning a value to a variable 186Control Structures 186If-Then-Else 186Select Case 187For loop 187While Do loop 188Do While loop 189Chapter 11: Creating Reports within a Report 191Combining Unrelated Reports 191Underlay formatting for side-by-side location of subreport 195Drilling down in a subreport 196Linking a Subreport to a Primary Report 197On-Demand Subreports Boost Efficiency 203Passing Data between Reports 204Troubleshooting Subreport Problems 205Chapter 12: Combining Report Elements with OLE 207Overview of OLE 207Static OLE Objects 208Inserting a static OLE object into a report 208Making a static OLE object editable 210Embedded OLE Objects 212Embedding an OLE object into a report 212Linked OLE Objects 214Embedding or Linking an Object Taken from a File 217Integrating Shockwave Flash Objects into Your Reports 217Chapter 13: Creating and Updating OLAP Reports 219What’s OLAP, and Why Might You Need It? 219Who uses OLAP? 220Creating multidimensional views 220Connecting to an OLAP data source 221OLAP Reporting with Crystal Reports 221Operating on OLAP grid objects 222Creating a three-dimensional report 222Updating an OLAP Report 232Formatting Data in an OLAP Report 233Changing a dimension’s background color 234Creating an alias for a dimension 235Formatting grid lines 236Labeling dimensions 237Changing Data Appearance in an OLAP Report 238Showing and hiding dimensions 239Adding totals to an OLAP grid 240Pivoting an OLAP grid 240Reordering fields 241Sorting data 242Filtering data 243Making calculations 243Chapter 14: Using Cross-Tab Reports to Mine Your Data 245Creating a Cross-Tab Object to Summarize All Report Data 245Summarizing the Contents of a Group with a Cross-Tab 249Making Calculations within a Cross-Tab Row or Column 255Enhancing the Appearance and Readability of a Cross-Tab Object 256Changing the width and height of cross-tab cells 256Formatting entire rows and columns 257Formatting individual fields 257Suppressing selected cross-tab data 258Printing cross-tabs that span multiple pages 258Chapter 15: Enhancing Reports with Charts 259Using Chart Expert 259Type tab 260Data tab 260Axes tab 261Options tab 262Color Highlight tab 263Text tab 263Creating a Chart 263Drilling down from a chart 266Changing a chart 267Choosing the Best Chart Type for Your Data 267Side-by-side bar chart 267Percent bar chart 268Line chart 268Area chart 269Pie chart 270Doughnut chart 2703-D riser chart 2713-D surface chart 272XY scatter chart 272Radar chart 273Bubble chart 273Stock chart 274Numeric axis chart 275Gauge chart 276Gantt chart 276Funnel chart 277Histogram 278Different Chart Layouts for Different Data Types 278Seeing How Chart Placement Affects the Data It Represents 280Troubleshooting Chart Problems 281Selecting data to make a chart readable and meaningful 281The placement of chart elements matters 282Chapter 16: Adding Geographic Detail with Maps 283Choosing the Right Crystal Reports Map 283Map layouts 284Map types 284Map placement 286Creating a Map Step by Step 286Creating an advanced layout map 286Creating a Group layout map 288Creating a Cross-Tab layout map 289Creating an OLAP layout map 290Including maps in subreports 291Changing maps 291Troubleshooting Map Problems 291Chapter 17: Interactivity Features 293Crystal Xcelsius Overview 293Adding Xcelsius Capability to a Report 294Creating an SWF file with Crystal Xcelsius 295Embedding your Crystal Xcelsius model in a Crystal report 298Enhancing a Report with the Tasteful Use of Flash 300Viewing Flash visualizations 300Dynamic interaction with a report using a Parameter panel 300Part IV: Crystal Reports in the Enterprise 303Chapter 18: Crystal Reports Server 305Connecting to Data Sources 306Connecting directly or indirectly 306Using Business Views to simplify connectivity 306Formatting Reports with Crystal Reports Developer 307Providing Platform Services 307Publishing and distributing reports 307Providing security 308Managing the system 308Useful Management Tools 309Application Services 309Web Services 309Viewing and Interacting with Reports 310Chapter 19: BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository 311Adding Folders to Your Repository 312Storing Your Valuables in BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository 312Adding text and bitmapped objects to the Repository 313Adding custom functions to the Repository 313Adding SQL commands to the Repository 314Using Repository Objects in a Report 314Adding text objects and images 314Adding custom functions 315Adding SQL commands 315Modifying a Repository Object 315Deciding Whether to Update Reports Automatically 317Deleting Objects from the Repository 318Chapter 20: Navigating with Report Parts 319Understanding Report Parts Navigation 319Using Report Parts to Navigate a Report 320Using the Report Parts Drill-down method 321Using the Another Report Object method 325Part V: Publishing Your Reports 327Chapter 21: Sending Your Reports Out into the World 329Printing Your Report 329Faxing a Report 330Exporting a Report 331Export format types 331Export destinations 334Troubleshooting Output Problems 342Chapter 22: Displaying Reports Online 343Exporting to a Static HTML Page 344Adding a Hyperlink to a Report 346Distributing Reports via crystalreports.com 349Integrating with salesforce.com 350Publishing to crystalreports.com with Crystal Reports Desktop Publisher 351Interactive Report Viewing with Crystal Reports Viewer 354Opening a report in Crystal Reports Viewer 355Navigating a report 355Printing a report 359E-mailing reports to your friends and co-workers 360Sharing reports in a variety of formats 360Searching a haystack for that elusive needle 361Accessing reports on crystalreports.com 361Chapter 23: SQL Expression Fields 363Creating an SQL Statement 363Modifying an SQL Statement 366Part VI: The Part of Tens 369Chapter 24: Ten Things to Do Before You Create a Report 371Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Give Your Reports More Pizzazz 375Index 379