The Crystal Reports Underground News

Crystal Reports Training by Ken Hamady, MS, Reporting and Training Nationwide

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The Crystal Reports Underground News - November 2001

an independent source for Crystal Reports Information
by Ken Hamady, MS

This month's contents:
** Understanding Crystal Authorization vs. Certification
** Crystal response time on Email tech support
** Save $50 on the CrystalDesk Scheduler Program
** Hot tips for the month of November
Viewing the Active DLLs
Forcing Table inflation to get duplicate records
The Stealth Subreport

** Getting expert on-site training or consulting
** Winter Crystal Reports class schedule
** Getting trained or getting help by phone.
** My Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in Visual Basic
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html

Crystal Certifications:

Many customers call me wanting to know if I am a "Certified" Crystal Reports instructor. They are usually surprised to find that Crystal does not allow independent instructors to be certified. Crystal has a 2-tiered certification program. The first tier of Certification is not available for independent consultants, only for Crystal "Partner" organizations. If you are employed by a Crystal "Partner" organization, Crystal will allow you to be certified either as an Instructor or as a Consultant. To become a "Partner" organization you must apply to Crystal Decisions and be approved. You can see the full requirements for becoming a "Partner" at the following link:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/partners/

The second tier of Certification is the ACE program, which allows you to become an "Authorized Crystal Engineer". This is brand new for 2001. The ACE is a web-based course open to anybody. The exam is administered on-line, and it costs about $1,000 per student to take. When you complete this you are allowed to use the ACE designation. The Crystal web site refers to this as a "certification" but it is clearly not designed to compete with "Partner" certification. The ACE is only for consultants. There is no equivalent program for instructors. To learn more about ACE use the following link:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/services/elearning/overview.asp

The bottom line is that you shouldn't consider Crystal "Certification" in the same way as a Microsoft or Novel certification. True certifications are open to any individual who can pass the exams, making them a true measure of your skills. Crystal puts artificial barriers around their certification program which clouds the value.

Years ago, when Crystal was still emerging as the market leader, I was invited to be an "Authorized" Instructor. I decided to stay independent because I wanted the flexibility to use my own courseware and to set my own fees. I have since found other ways of demonstrating my skills, like referrals from my customers or the 1200 happy students that have completed eval forms in my class. Recently I have begun using my ranking as the highest rated Crystal expert at Tek-Tips.com:

http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/100/pid/149

Email responses from Crystal Decisions:

Last month I submitted 3 questions via Email to Crystal Tech Support. This was partly to measure the response time. I received the actual responses to one of the questions on day 2, one on day 3 and one on day 4. Not great for emergencies, but reasonable. You must be a registered user to use this service. The web site says you get 60 days of "combined Email/Phone support". However, it is not clear to me if Email support is available beyond the original 60 days. The PDF that describes phone and Email support only mentions the 60 day limit in reference to phone support. I will find out for sure in 30 days when I send in a message beyond the time limit. Read page 16 of this PDF and tell me what you think:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/crystalcare/downloads/ts_guide.pdf

The CrystalDesk Report Scheduler program:

Remember, I don't sell ads or get commissions. I CAN sometimes negotiate a deal for my readers. Last month I got a 25% discount for my readers on CrystalDesk, and this has been extended for another month. CrystalDesk is a third party scheduler that will allow you to schedule the report WITH its parameters. You can download the full application for free with a limited time license and try it yourself. You buy a key to remove the time limit. The regular price for Crystal Desk is $199, but my readers get 25% off this price through November. Download the demo at:
http://www.crystaldesk.com

Hot tips for November:

1) How to see the active DLLS used by CR.
If Crystal exhibits strange behavior with no obvious cause, then the problem could be DLL conflicts. There is a way to see exactly which DLLs you are using in the Crystal Reports design environment. Use the menu options:

Help - About - More Info

This will show all DLLs in memory, and allow you to sort them by path or version. However, this is only for reports run within the designer itself. If you are trying to trouble shoot an application, you will need one of the DLL search utilities that come with Crystal. For all Windows 95/98 PCs, you use DSX32. This is installed automatically for versions 5 - 7, but starting with version 8 this utility is left behind on the Crystal CD. You have to copy it to your PC. If you are using NT or 2000 you must use the Modules utility instead of DSX32. This is also on the V8 CD. If you can't find either utility see this article to help you download it from Seagate's web site:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/library/kbase/articles/c2006613.asp

2) Forcing Table Inflation to cause records to repeat.
Lets say that you need to print your detail records more than once, and the quantity for each record is determined by a numeric field stored in the record. The hard way is to create a separate section for each possible repetition, and then to conditionally suppress that section based on the quantity value. This technique has 2 strikes against it.

*** If the quantity can be potentially very large, you may have to create MANY different sections.
*** The repeating information has to print in the same place as the original.

In SQL environments there is an alternative technique that solves both of these problems. It requires that you have the ability to create a simple table in your database, a table that contains one numeric field with the numbers from 1 to 999 (or a higher number if you think you might need it). You add this table to the report, link from the Quantity field to the new numeric field, and change the join type to be "Less Than or Equal to". If a record has the quantity of 6 it will link to 6 records in the new table, records 1 through 6, causing the source record to repeat 6 times.
Usually, we work hard to ELIMINATE this type of duplication, but this is an example that allows you to use it to your advantage.

3) The Stealth SubReport.
Often subreports are needed to retrieve one unrelated total for the main report. However, you may not want to SEE the subreport at all, just retrieve the total. Many of you have realized that if you suppress the subreport, or the section that contains the subreport, the subreport will simply not run.

To make a subreport run but be completely invisible you must first suppress all of the subreport sections, except for the report footer. If there are many objects on the report footer split it into RFA and RFB, placing only your Shared Variable formula in RFB. You can suppress RFA. Now RFB is still showing, but you are going to suppress the formula field in RFB. This makes the the subreport completely invisible, but still running.
You could stop here, but then the section that contains the subreport is still taking up some space, even though it is empty space. The last step is to set this section in the MAIN report to use "Underlay following sections". Now it is invisible and it doesn't take up any space.

More Tips and Tricks:
If you enjoy Crystal Tips and Tricks you should check out my "Expert's Techniques" books. Each volume is only $19
Or check out the Expert's Guide to Crystal Reports Formulasfor only $36.

Getting Expert On-Site Training or Consulting:

I have personally taught over 1500 satisfied students in more than 30 states. On-site training is my specialty, and I charge about half of the "List Price" for Crystal Training.

Do I know my stuff? Go to Tek-Tips (see above) and you will find me listed as all-time the top rated Crystal Reports expert out of 30,000 members in the General Crystal Forum.

Do I teach a good class? Ask to speak to a recent customer as a reference. Call for more information at (540) 338-0194.

Public Crystal Reports:

Click the "Public Classes" button above for dates.
Call for more information at (540) 338-0194.

Telephone training available:

If you don't want to sit in class, you can get the same training one-on-one over the phone. You can often cover the same material, for about the same cost as coming to class. Or you can buy a small block of time to use in emergencies, to solve a particular problem, or have me simply write your reports for you. All levels of instruction are available when you need it. Call for more information at (540) 338-0194.

VB Quick Reference Guide:

If you plan on incorporating Crystal Reports into a VB application, you should get my Quick Reference Guide. It gives an overview of the different integration methods, and gives syntax examples for the most common commands in the 3 most common methods. It is only $16 and can be downloaded immediately.