Crystal Reports Training by Ken Hamady, MS, Reporting and Training Nationwide
The
Crystal Reports Underground News - Volume 2005.08 (Aug 2005)
an independent source
for Crystal Reports Information by Ken Hamady
Contents
for August, 2005:
** The Expert's Guide to Totals in
Crystal Reports
** Crystal Reports Server XI for Linux
** Security Vulnerability for XI Web Deployments
** September Classes in Frederick and On-Site Classes
** Updates on the "Don't Pay Twice" campaign:
*BO official response
contradicts Dan Klein's letter
*Article in
ITBusiness.ca
*OEM classes to
be targeted next
*Crystal Experts
weigh in at Tek-Tips.com
** Free Mailing Label
templates from WorldLabel
** Business Objects conference in November
** No way to default TODAY for XI date parameters
** Formula for finding the first and last day of a month
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html
The Expert's Guide to Totals in
Crystal Reports:
Many of you have purchased items
from my "Expert" series. This month I have added - "The Expert's
Guide to Totals". There are several different methods for
creating totals and many users paint themselves into a corner by using
the wrong method. This guide explains each method, when it should
be used and why. Each lesson includes example reports and
exercises that walk you through each step. Also included are
several relevant articles on totals from my "Expert Techniques for
Crystal Reports". The cost is only $24 and it can be downloaded
immediately after purchase. See the LIBRARY page on my web site
for more information.
Crystal Reports Server XI available
for Linux:
Last Summer I reported that
Crystal Enterprise for Linux was in Beta. It was supposed to be
released last year but if it was I didn't know about it. This
week I found an article in InfoWorld that gives the official release of
both BO Enterprise XI and CR Server XI for RedHat Linux and Suse
Linux. To read articles about this see the LIBRARY page of my web
site.
I am a strong believer in the value of open source software and applaud
this move by BO. However, I find it ironic that Business Objects
is embracing open source platforms while simultaneously taking one of
the most aggressive licensing positions in the software industry.
One note of caution. You can deploy CR Server on Linux but
Crystal Reports itself, as far as I can see, must still be run on a
Windows box. CR Server comes with one Crystal Reports license but
it seems that you would still need a Windows box to install this
license and create the reports. If anyone wants to share a Linux
implementation experience please let me know.
Another Security Vulnerability for XI
Web Deployments:
Hopefully you already know this
but in June BO announced a security vulnerability for XI web
products. In short, the vulnerability could allow someone to
launch Denial of Service attacks from your server. There is a
patch available from BO's website. See the LINK near the bottom
of my LINKS page.
Expert On-site Training / Classes in
Frederick:
My specialty is teaching Crystal
Reports at your office, with your data. And I charge by day, not
by student. So, if you have 4 or more students you may find the
cost of an on-site class less than the cost of sending the same
students to a public class. Even if you have fewer students you
might find the benefits of working with your own data
worthwhile.
If you only have one or two students you can come to my public classes
in Frederick, MD. See the "Public Classes" page on my web site
for dates and details.
How good are my classes? I have personally taught over 2,000
satisfied students. Here is the feedback I received from my July
class for DHL:
"Thanks so much for your training - we are already seeing improved
productivity from learning better and correct ways of designing
reports!! It was a very practical course ... especially since you
were able to so quickly adapt and use our data!!" FS - DHL
For more information you can call me at (540) 338-0194.
Updates on the "Don't Pay Twice"
campaign:
A) BO official response
contradicts the letter from Dan Klein
B) ITBusiness.ca writes an article highlighting negative user
feedback
C) BO gives indications that specialized OEM classes will also be
targeted
D) Other Crystal experts weigh in on this topic in Tek-Tips.
For details on all of these updates go to:
http://www.kenhamady.com/licensingissues.html
Free Mailing Label Templates from
WorldLabel:
If you have to configure a Crystal
report to print mailing labels you might want to visit
WorldLabel.com. They have a page of template reports that you can
use to print many standard label sizes. Of course, the template
reports do not read your data. They read a sample database
provided with each template. However, you can set the location of
the report to be your tables, or you can simply use the settings and
measurements as a guide when setting up your report.
And, if you are a heavy label user you might want to have WorldLabel
send you some free label samples. Labels are usually a high
markup item, and WorldLabel prices are about half of the Avery
cost.
Business Objects conference in
November:
And for those of you who want a
larger gathering, Business Objects has announced their annual
conference called Insight. It is to be held November 6-9, 2005 in
Orlando. Those of you who have attended CDUGNA may be
disappointed, though. CDUGNA was an independent organization so
their speaker list did not need to be approved by BO. I have
already heard from some of the most popular CDUGNA speakers who have
either been turned down by the selection committee or have simply been
turned off by the conference structure. You will also find less
Crystal content in Insight then you would at CDUGNA since it is a broad
Business Objects conference.
I am not currently planning on going but I always like to hear from
attendees to get their feedback. If you have gone in the past to
a Business Objects conference, or are planning on going this year, I
would like to hear from you.
No way to Default TODAY in in XI Date
Parameters:
It seems that every month I
discover something else that we lost with XI. This month I heard
from David Leland with Kadant Johnson. He asked me how to get a
date parameter to default to today in XI like it does in all prior
versions. Sure enough it can't be done. To get today you
either have to type it in (in yyyy-mm-dd format) or open the calendar
control.
In testing this I also discovered a way to make the calendar
fail. If you have XI try this little test. Refresh a report
with a single date parameter. When the prompt comes up open the
calendar control window and then click the "Cancel" button without
closing the calendar. It should take you back to the design
screen. Now click refresh again to get back to the parameter
window and try opening the calendar control a second time. It
won't appear. If you switch windows you can see the calendar
control window which stayed open the whole time but was hidden.
You will also see some ugly error messages. This probably wasn't
intentional behavior.
Formula for the first and last day of
a month:
Calculating the first of a target
month is done differently depending on whether the target month is the
current month or the month of a date field. If you are looking
for the current month you can use:
Minimum ( MonthToDate )
This will give you the first day of the current month in any
report. Not everyone realizes this but you can take the Minimum
or Maximum of any one of the 27 date range functions Crystal
provides. However, if the date is a database field, a formula or
a parameter you need a different syntax. I use:
{Table.Date} - Day ( {Table.Date} ) + 1
The {Table.Date} field can be replaced with any Date value. If
your field is a DateTime value you can add the DATE() function around
the whole calculation to strip off the time:
DATE ( {Table.Date} - Day ( {Table.Date} ) + 1 )
Finding the last day of a month can be done several ways but I think
the one below is the simplest. It can be used with any date value
including the CurrentDate function:
DateAdd ('m' , 1 , {Orders.Order Date} - day({Orders.Order
Date}) + 1) - 1
You will notice that the first formula is used within this one. I
find the first of the target month, then use DateAdd to add one month
and find the first of the following month. Finally I subtract 1
day to get the last day of the month. Note that DateAdd always returns
a DateTime value. As above, you can use the DATE() function
around this formula to strip off the time.
These calculations are especially handy when you need rolling date
columns that are all derived from a parameter date. By adding and
subtracting more months you can calculate the first and last date of a
whole range of months.
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 2005 by Ken Hamady
All rights reserved -
Republishing
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