Crystal Reports Training by Ken Hamady, MS, Reporting and Training Nationwide
The
Crystal Reports Underground News - Volume 2003.02 (February
2003)
an independent source
for Crystal Reports Information by Ken Hamady
Contents for February, 2003:
** Crystal Enterprise v9 is Released
** Free Download of VB.NET Book
** Expert Training and Consulting
** User Group Meetings in British Columbia
** National CDUGNA conference in British Columbia
** Report on User Group meeting in DC
** February Case Study - CE9 RAS Advanced Edition
** The Expert's Guide to Crystal Reports Formulas
** Free Download of Crystal Passage Scheduler
** Special Offer on Report Scheduler Pro v9
** Public Classes in Leesburg, Philadelphia and Baltimore
** The Complete Reference for Crystal Reports v9
** My Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in Visual Basic
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html
Crystal Enterprise v9 is Released:
Crystal
has recently released the Standard and Professional Editions of Crystal
Enterprise
9. It should be available in a few weeks. Up till now the
only
web option for CRv9 was the RAS Edition. This was a limited
product
designed as an interim solution and geared to smaller
deployments.
It came for free with the CRv9 Professional and CRv9 Developer
Editions.
To do any serious deployment with RAS you were advised to upgrade to
CRV9
Advanced Edition for $1,650. You can read more about the RAS
Edition
in my CE9 configuration article:
http://www.kenhamady.com/cev9.html
I was told today that everyone who has purchased the Advanced Edition
of
CRv9 is eligible to get CE Standard Edition for free. So, if you
already
bought the Advanced Edition, and you have registered your copy, Crystal
Decisions
will ship you a free copy of CE Standard. These are due to ship
out
mid to late February.
CEv9 Standard is virtually identical to CEv8.5 Standard, except that it
is
compatible with CRv9 reports. It allows scheduling, stored
instances
and some administrative functions. It also comes with the
original
ePortfolio (as opposed to the ePortfolio "lite" that came with
RAS).
Unless you buy additional seats, CE Standard allows a maximum of 5
concurrent
users. It does NOT have the RAS feature of queueing additional
requests,
but rejects them. You can add 5 more concurrent users for about
$12,500,
or you can add unlimited concurrent users on a single processor for
$35,000.
A dual processor license is roughly twice that.
CEv9 Standard does not have any user security. It also doesn't
allow
you to split report processing across different machines for
scalability.
Security features can now be added to Crystal Enterprise Standard using
3rd
party products, like those listed on the LINKS page of my web site.
Or
you can get both of these features by upgrading to CEv9 Professional
Edition.
With the Professional Edition you get a fully developed security model
that
supports object, user and group level permissions. You also get
the
ability to separate the processing across several machines for better
performance.
So, how much does it cost to get started with
CEv9
Advanced Edition? If you ask a member of the Crystal Decisions
sales
team, be prepared to explain your business needs in detail, write a
short
biography, and include your medical history with a small DNA
sample.
At least that is how it seems to me. You see, Crystal Enterprise
isn't
a product at all ... it is a *solution*. What is a
solution?
A solution is a product that is sold as part of a *relationship*.
And
in my opinion, a relationship is a nice way of saying an annual
maintenance
contract. Figure on spending an additional 20% of the original
purchase
price each year for this relationship.
The bottom line is that if you want to use the Crystal Enterprise
Professional
plan on spending at least $20,000 just to get started. A named
user
is $695, a concurrent is $3,495, and an unlimited processor license is
$55,000.
The minimum purchase
is
25 named users or 5 concurrent users. Add 20% for annual
maintenance
which is required in the first year. Educational and Government prices
should
be about 10% to 25% below these prices.
Free download of VB.NET book:
Brian
Bischoff has written a book on using Crystal Reports within Visual
Studio
.NET. If you register on his web site, you can download the book
for
free. Visit the link below for more information.
http://www.bischofsystems.com
Expert On-Site Training or Consulting:
I
have
personally taught 1500 satisfied students in more than 30 states.
Training
with your data is my specialty, and I charge about half of the "List
Price"
for Crystal Training.
Do I know my stuff? Check out the Crystal Reports Forum at
Tek-Tips.com
and you will find me listed as the top Crystal Reports expert out of
over
23,000 members:
http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/100/pid/149
Can I teach? Many students have said that my classes are among
the
best technical classes they have taken. Ask to speak to a recent
customer
as a reference. Call for more information at (540) 338-0194.
User Group Meeting in British Columbia:
The
Crystal
Decisions User Group of British Columbia is having a meeting on Friday,
2/28/03
from 8am - 12pm. It is being held at the Executive Hotel in
Burnaby.
Highlights include Crystal Enterprise 9 Integration and some useful
third
party tools. There is no charge to attend, but you must register
in
advance. To register, please visit:
http://www.cdugbc.org/
National CDUGNA conference in British Columbia
This
year's CDUGNA national conference will also be held in British
Columbia.
It is scheduled for May 21st through May 23rd and will be held at The
Westin
Bayshore Resort. For more info see the CDUGNA web site at:
http://www.cdugna.org/conferences/2003/2003conference.asp
Report on the User Group Meeting in DC:
It
was
nice to see some of you at the DC Area User Group meeting a few weeks
ago.
As the result of some last minute cancellations, I ended up being the
only
"Tips and Tricks" presenter and so I was given the entire hour to
demonstrate
my favorite techniques. Those of you who couldn't attend can read
the
articles that I demonstrated:
http://www.kenhamady.com/tips.html
Those of you who are long time readers of my newsletter will recognize
some
of these techniques.
The meeting also included a brief introduction (sales pitch) for the
new
release of Crystal Enterprise 9, and a panel discussion that tried to
troubleshoot
some sticky user issues. Not a bad meeting, overall.
However, I do have one small complaint. In my September
newsletter
I describe submitting a meeting handout to the DCUG Board for
approval.
The handout was not commercial and didn't even mention what I do for a
living.
But, I was told by the Board that including my website or even my Email
address
would make my handout "commercial". I had to remove both my web
site
and Email address before I could distribute the material at the
meeting.
Judging by the handout I picked up at this meeting, it seems that
commercial
handouts are fine for certain vendors. I picked up a board
approved
handout that advertised classes being sponsored by another local
training
vendor, including their website. One board member, after looking
more
closely at the handout, agreed that it was inappropriate. I have
asked
the board to explain the discrepancy, and will let you know what they
say.
February Case Study - CE9 RAS Advanced Edition:
Occasionally
I encounter a real-life scenario that cuts through all of the mushy
marketing
jargon. If you have a problem scenario, or get a confusing answer
from
Crystal Decisions, I would be happy to take a look at your case.
If
I think it would be of general interest, I will write it up for my
newsletter
and ask Crystal Decisions for a response.
This month I have one that helps clarify web performance issues with
the
RAS Advanced Edition of Crystal Enterprise. Now the RAS is still
pretty
new and users are just beginning to uncover some of the undocumented
'features'.
I am not sure that it is being widely used as a web platform.
The client was deploying the RAS Advanced Edition. His users were
getting
"rejected request" errors - the kind you get when you exceed the 3
active
request limit. The Advanced Edition isn't supposed to reject
requests,
it is supposed to queue requests that exceed the limit. So, he
called
CD tech support who couldn't seem to solve the problem.
Eventually
they told him that he should upgrade to the $25,000 processor
license.
After the client called me, I called my contacts at Crystal Decisions
who
began looking at the case and are still working with the customer to
trouble
shoot the problem. As of today the issues is still
unresolved.
I am not sure if we have uncovered a bug or if we have found some
unpublished
limits in the Advanced Edition. Report complexity has been
discussed
as a factor. I will follow-up next month with the outcome.
I have already learned one important fact as a result of this
case.
My Crystal contact pointed out an item in the release notes of CEv9 RAS
Edition.
Any report that has subreports will NOT be cached, even with the
Advanced
Edition. This is something to be aware of if you plan on relying
on
the caching feature, with complex reports.
The Expert's Guide to Crystal Reports Formulas:
Learn
to write and understand formulas like a Pro, with "The Expert's Guide
to
Crystal Reports Formulas". I take you from the basics all the way
through
variables, arrays and looping logic. I explain HOW, WHY and WHEN
to
use these techniques and provide tips and tricks that are rarely taught
in
classes.
The guide includes 28 annotated reports and 45 no-nonsense pages of
detailed
explanations. The cost is only $36 and you can usually have it
within
an hour. For more details, visit my website at:
http://www.kenhamady.com/form00.html
Shareware "Crystal Passage" Viewer/Scheduler:
Kevin
Groff (who says he is more of a hobbyist than a programmer) has written
a
shareware scheduler for Crystal Reports. You can download it and
and
use it for free. While Kevin can't make any guarantees, he has
tested
it with Windows 2000 and Crystal Reports v9. I have tested
briefly
with Windows XP and Crystal Reports v8.5. It seems to work
fine.
Even though it is free, it uses the runtime files from Crystal Reports
v9.
This means that you must accept some Crystal Decisions EULA
terms.
These, among other things, restrict the use of this tool for automated
broadcasting.
See the articles on my website regarding the Crystal Broadcast License
for
v9. You can download the shareware scheduler using a link on the
Links
page of my web site.
Even though I have told Kevin that the program is good enough to sell,
he
intends to keep it as shareware and accept donations from those who
find
it helpful. He has it on a free server now, but he has submitted
it
to several shareware host sites which will make for a more reliable
download
in the near future.
Special Offer on Report Scheduler Pro v9:
CrystalDesk
Software has just released Report Viewer v9 and Report Scheduler
v9.
These new releases are both compatible with CRv9 reports. The new
Report
Scheduler has some added features which include:
Batch Scheduling.
Multiple Parameters
Stored Database Logins
SMTP and MAPI Email support
Scheduler Sorting
Background Operation
A single User/Server License is $259. Current users qualify for upgrade
pricing.
If you order Report Scheduler in February 2003, and mention the Crystal
Reports
Underground News in your order, you will receive a free copy of
CrystalDesk
Report Viewer 9.0, a $48 value.
You can download a time-limited trial version of both products for
free.
Use the link on my Links page.
Don't just take a Crystal class, learn from a Expert:
I
offer
public classes in:
Leesburg, VA
Baltimore, MD
Philadelphia, PA
Each class is $675 per student.
Dates, course outlines and registration info are on my website at:
http://www.kenhamady.com/public.html
Or, call for more information at (540) 338-0194.
The Complete Reference to Crystal Reports v9:
George
Peck, one of my favorite Crystal Reports authors, has released his
"Complete
Reference" volume for version 9. I have collected all 4 of the
books
in this series and find them a great place to get an overview of any
Crystal
topic. If you are going to buy this book, you should compare the
prices
on bookpool.com and Amazon.com to any other prices you see.
VB Quick Reference Guide,
updated
for v9:
If
you
use Crystal Reports in VB applications, you should get my Quick
Reference
Guide. It gives an overview of the different integration methods,
syntax
examples for the most common commands and troubleshooting tips.
It also
comes with source code examples including a simple report viewer.
It
is only $16 and you can usually have it within an hour. Follow
the link
below for more details:
http://www.kenhamady.com/vbref.html
Removal
instructions:
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because
you are a former client, or because you have contacted me regarding
Crystal
Reports. If I am mistaken, or if you don't wish to receive the
newsletter,
please reply to this message with the word 'unsubscribe' in the
header.
Contact Information
Ken Hamady, MS
525K East Market St. PMB 299
Leesburg, VA 20176
(540) 338-0194
ken@kenhamady.com
http://www.kenhamady.com
Copyright 2003 by Ken Hamady
All rights reserved - Republishing this material requires written
permission