Crystal Reports Training by Ken Hamady, MS, Reporting and Training Nationwide
The
Crystal Reports Underground News - Volume 2006.05 (May 2006)
an independent source
for Crystal Reports Information by Ken Hamady
Contents
for May, 2006:
** BO hosts free
Crystal Reports portal
** Google OneBox partners with Cognos, SAS, Oracle and FINALLY BO
** Associate Trainers for NYC, Philly, Chicago, L.A. and Toronto
** Former partner sues BO over commissions
** Crystal extends support for older versions
** My Library of Crystal Reports Guides
** New viewer adds scheduling and email distribution
** Viewer that allows "in-place" drill-down and one-click resort
** Setting section height numerically
** Can't copy parameters in XI
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html
BO hosts free Crystal Reports portal:
Business Objects has
launched a portal service for Crystal. It allows any licensed
user of CRvXI to publish up to 60 reports to a server at
CrystalReports.com. The user can then invite up to 9 people to
view those reports. The users viewing reports don't need a
Crystal Reports license or any software at all, just an Email address
and a browser. They can even be notified of report updates
automatically. All of this is free, so what is the catch?
1) These are static reports with saved data. They cannot be
refreshed by the users.
2) The reports can't be exported to local formats (without additional
fees).
3) You can't restrict users to seeing only certain reports (without
additional fees).
4) Users have to provide an Email address and BO terms allow them to
send them ads. You can't opt out of this 'service'.
In the near future you will be able to upgrade to the "Premium" version
for $299 a month. (This price is tentative). Premium will
allow unlimited reports, folder level security, and the ability to
export to a local file. Additional users will be available in
packs of 10 for an additional $299 per month.
Personally, I think "client based" viewer programs are a better
value. All of the third party viewers I list on my site allow the
user to either refresh the data or read saved data. All provide
export capabilities. One new viewer (described below) will even
distribute the reports via Email for you. While they aren't free
they are inexpensive, have no monthly fees, and most are easy to
use. Contact me if you have questions about the viewers or if you
would like a recommendation.
Google OneBox partners with Cognos,
SAS, Oracle and FINALLY BO:
Google has been using
its ubiquitous presence to cement partnerships with established BI
vendors. Recently Cognos, SAS and Oracle have announced
extensions to their applications that allow the Google "OneBox" feature
to locate and display data from within business applications. I
thought the Cognos partnership was interesting seeing that Cognos is
one of the primary competitors to BO Enterprise. Cognos has
already introduced their Go! Search Service which uses the Google
engine to organize and search report instances, dashboards and alert
messages in addition to Emails and other documents on the
system. Just this month (May 2006) BO announced their
partnership with an application due later this year.
Associate Trainers for NYC, Philly,
Chicago, L.A. and Toronto:
I have found a new
way to make on-site training more affordable for folks who aren't in
the DC area. I have been putting together a team of experienced
Crystal Reports instructors who are based in major cities throughout
the US and Canada. These folks have excellent references and can
provide a class at a significant savings. So far I have
associates in and around Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York
City, Philadelphia and Toronto. These instructors all use my
materials and anyone who takes their class gets my Email address and
phone number for questions after class.
And if you still can't afford your own private class, come to my public
classes in Frederick, MD. These are very small classes (usually
3-5 students) and people come from all over to attend. The
mid-May class included 2 students from Texas. Next round is June
26-29
For more information you can call me at (540) 338-0194.
Former partner sues BO over
commissions:
There is a great
article in the CRN.com webzine. It discusses an unhappy former
partner that has decided to sue Business Objects over unpaid
commissions on sales. The article goes on to mention other
unhappy partners who have left the BO "family" and how BO has in some
cases threatened legal action to prevent them from staying in the
Crystal market. As far as I know, this is the first partner to
actually file a suit. Business Objects promptly filed a detailed
countersuit claiming various licensing violations, dredging up all of
the fine print in their partnership agreement. Some of the
countersuit complaints will sound familiar to those of you who have
been following my campaign regarding licensing. I have posted a
link to the article as well as copies of both the suit and the
countersuit on my campaign page (see below).
The suit is being filed by Creative Technology & Training Solutions
located in Michigan. One of the senior partners, Michael Ward,
stresses that they have attempted many times to resolve this short of
litigation but was not successful. Mr. Ward feels confident that
he has adequate written documentation to support his claims but he
thinks some other BO partners may not be as prepared. I recommend
that all current partners read the about the disagreement so that they
can avoid a similar situation.
http://www.kenhamady.com/licensingissues.html
Crystal extends support for older
versions:
Two years ago on the
Crystal web site I read that Crystal Reports v8.5 was scheduled to lose
all technical support by September 2005. Version 9 was scheduled
to end support in April of 2006. This schedule was probably
intended to help speed people down the upgrade path by making them
build earlier upgrades into their long range plans.
However, it seems that the customers may have had the final say by
simply holding onto their older versions. Many realized that
independent providers would be happy to provide training and support if
BO turned out the lights on an older product. BO has decided to
quietly 'adjust' the support schedule to reflect the versions being
used. Now v8.5 is listed as being supported until September 2006
while v9 has been extended until April 2007.
So next time your sales rep starts talking about the end of support,
remind him that these dates seem to be flexible. The SUPPORT page
on Business Objects web site has a link to the current life cycles of
all products.
My complete Library of Crystal Reports
Materials:
Let a master teacher
help you understand these Crystal Topics. Each guide comes with
clear explanations and sample files to illustrate each concept.
Expert's Guide to Formulas ($36)
Expert's Guide to Subreports, Parameters and Alerts
($28)
Expert's Guide to Totals ($24)
Expert Techniques Vol. I ($19)
Expert Techniques Vol. II ($19)
Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in Visual Basic
($16)
Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in .NET ($14)
http:/www.kenhamady.com/tools.html
New Viewer also does Scheduling and
Email:
I have just added a
new viewer to the list on my web site. "Easy View" by Easy Street
Software is an unusual viewer. It is priced at the low end of the
viewer list but it provides several features that are typically
reserved for higher end report managers.
Like any viewer program it allows a user to view, print and export
reports without having to have a full CR designer license. But
Easy View adds a built in scheduler, and the ability to do Email
distribution to a fixed recipient list. Easy View even has a
command line interface which allows you to launch reports from a batch
file or a Windows shortcut or even from within another application.
You can try Easy View for free for 30 days. If you decide to buy
it the price is $35 per seat. And you get a 5% discount if you
use the promotional code listed on the LINKS page of my web site.
In-place drill down and one-click
resorting:
Ido Millet of Millet
software has done it again. He has given the Data Link Viewer two
new features for preview mode that can't be duplicated within Crystal
Reports:
1) Users can now do drill downs "in-place", which means a drill-down
without switching tabs or screens. This lets the user expand and
collapse individual groups simply by clicking in the preview screen.
2) Users can now resort the records in preview mode, with one click,
without having to refreshing the report. If you set up your
formulas correctly, your users can click on a column heading and sort
the records by that column.
If you would like a free trial of the new functionality, drop me a
line.
Setting Section Heights Numerically:
If you have ever
tried to get two different sections to be exactly the same height you
quickly realize that the section height in Crystal is an analog
setting, not a digital setting. In other words you can't go into
a section anywhere and set the height to be exactly 1.25 inches.
You have to go by the ruler on the side and make the adjustments
visually. But if you know the secret, there is a way to force the
section to be exactly the size you want. It relies on the fact
that field objects have both a size setting and a position setting that
you can set digitally. Here are the steps:
1) Make the section smaller than your target size.
2) Place an extra field anywhere within the section.
3) Right click on the field and select "Object Size and
Position".
4) Set the "Y" property to zero which puts the object at the top of the
section.
5) Set the height of the object to be the height you want for your
section.
6) Click 'OK'
7) Delete the object (optional).
When you click OK, the object will grow vertically to the desired
height, forcing the section to grow. And, since the object is
starting at position zero the section will be exactly the same height
as the object.
Can't copy Parameters in XI:
Last month I
explained how easy it was to move a formula or parameter object from
one report to another by copying and pasting the object. Then I
heard from Jim Johncox of Epic Systems Corporation who pointed out an
exception. Version XI of Crystal doesn't allow the transfer of
Parameter fields from one report to another, although it does allow
formulas. It isn't clear if this was a bug or an intentional
change on the part of BO but I have confirmed that it doesn't
work.
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 2006 by Ken Hamady
All rights reserved -
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