The Crystal Reports Underground News - Volume 2006.11 (November 2006)
an independent source for Crystal Reports Information by Ken Hamady
Contents for November 2006:
** New Data Dictionary builder is released
** Keep up with my BLOG via Email
** New Associate Trainers in Vancouver/Seattle and Detroit
** BO partners with IBM
** Recover a corrupted RPT File
** Best FREE utilities recommended by Ian "Gizmo" Richards
** My Library of Crystal Reports Guides
** Formula naming tips
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html
New Data Dictionary builder is released:
Barry Walter has just released a tool to help Crystal Reports developers organize and explore their reports. It automatically extracts and stores all of the database connections, tables, joins and even the formulas used in all of your reports. You can then select any connection, table or field to see which reports use that object. You can see and compare all of the joins that have been created with each field, and which SQL join types were used. In other words you can generate a data schema or dictionary from the information stored in your existing reports.
This tools is especially handy when you have to explore someone else's reports. Just import a group of reports and see how the key tables fit together and what fields and formulas are used in each report. Other features include:
1) The ability to store notes and comments for your tables and fields
2) The ability to view Stored Procedures and browse the data that they generate
3) The ability to view all of the information from several different angles.
The tools is called MyDataDictionary and you can try it free for 30 days. The price is normally $120 but my readers get a 10% discount by using my discount code - which is KH7259. See the LINKS page of my web site if you are interested.
Keep up with my BLOG via Email:
Sam Santos of USA Today pointed me to a service that sends you an Email whenever an update is posted to your favorite BLOG. The service, provided by r-mail.org, is free and works with any BLOG that supports RSS. Although the terms of service do leave an opening for sending you messages for "new services, and special offers", Sam hasn't seen any significant SPAM originating from the service.
So if you would like to be notified whenever I post a new entry to my BLOG, you can sign up at R-Mail.org
Recent highlights of my BLOG include:
Interesting comparison of Cognos and BO
Processing Speed Tips from the Experts
Where to buy Crystal on the Web
Using Dynamic Parameters in Commands
The Saved Data trap
The Stealth Subreport
Mysterious Shifting Objects
New Associate Trainers in Vancouver/Seattle and Detroit:
My associates team is still growing. I keep finding experienced instructors with excellent references who can provide a class at a great price. The team now includes associates in and around Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Vancouver and Toronto. Most are willing to do regional travel. They all use my materials and their students (just like my own students) can send me questions after class when they are stuck.
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. Next round is January 16 - 19.
For more information you can call me at (540) 338-0194.
BO partners with IBM:
According to CBROnline.com (and several other sources) Business Objects has signed a strategic alliance with IBM. This brings BO's relationship with IBM to the same level as that of Cognos and SAS who have had similar deals for some time. This will help BO penetrate several new areas in the global market and also help them penetrate the mid-market where IBM has a solid presence.
Recover a corrupted RPT File:
A user recently sent me a Crystal Reports file that seemed to be corrupted. Every time he tried to open it Crystal would crash. I tried it myself using several versions of Crystal and got the same results. I told him that there was no way I knew of to recover the file and hoped that he had a backup of an older version. Lesson number one: Keep some interim backups.
But, later that same day he told me that he found a company that was able to recover the file. They charged him $99 and fixed it the same day. The company is called E-Tech Recovery Inc. (www.etechrecovery.com) and they specialize in data recovery.
I contacted the company and they said that $99 is a typical price for a Crystal Recovery and they have had a pretty good success rate. They will make the attempt for free and give you a quote if they can fix it. If you feel the quote is too high you can decline. They also mentioned that In the cases they've seen, the files get corrupted because they were open when either Windows or a Crystal DLL crashed.
Best FREE utilities recommended by Ian "Gizmo" Richards:
I have been impressed several times, just in the past month, by free software. I know that there is plenty of bad 'free' software that contains advertising, spyware or even worse. It can take lots of time to sort the good from the bad. So when I found a site dedicated to evaluating and comparing these products, I couldn't resist.
The best part was that I had just researched an HTML editor and an FTP program. I searched for recommendations and ratings and found two top quality free products that I now use regularly. When I checked the Gizmo list both products were on his "recommended" list. So, now I don't hesitate to try something he recommends. When a customer told me yesterday that he couldn't unzip one of my guides because his computer didn't have a ZIP program, I sent him to GIZMO. Check it out for yourself at:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm
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's Guide to Cross-Tabs ($22)
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
Formula naming tips:
If a Crystal report has many formulas, and they aren't named well, the report can become very difficult to understand. What seems clear today can seem confusing a few weeks down the road - even when working on your own reports. So, here are a few tips that I follow to keep things clear. They stem from the fact that the list of formulas is sorted by name, so keeping formulas in a logical order involves considering how the name will sort in the list. My goal is to see the formula list in chunks rather than as a random list of names.
1. If you need to have a series of almost identical formulas that are numbered, for instance if you create a sales formula for each of 12 months, it is better to use the month number than the name. So I would use Sales 01 and Sales 02 instead of January Sales and February Sales. Using the names means the formulas end up sorted all over the list. It is harder to see these formulas as a set if you need to update them all.
2. Note that in the last formula the numbers have a leading zero so that all 12 months will be 2 digits. I used Sales 01 instead of Sales 1. If I didn't use that leading zero the months would sort as strings and not be in the correct order. (They would sort 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, etc). The leading zeros keep them in the correct order.
3. Select the first word of the formula name carefully. This is what places the formula in its position in the list of formulas. So if you want a group of formulas about Cost to be together in the list, start them all with the word Cost.
4. Don't be afraid to rename your formulas to improve the organization of the list. Remember that Crystal will automatically update the name of the formula inside all of the other formulas where it is used.
5. Be sure to delete any formula once you decide that is no longer needed. If I am not sure about a formula I will put an X at the front of the name so that it falls to the bottom of the formula list. Then I know that this formula should not be used.
6. When working with variables it is common to have several formulas that all work with the same variable. This is especially true with variable based Running Totals where you might have one formula that accumulates, one that displays and a third that resets the variable. I would start each of these with the name of the variable so that all 3 stay together in the formula list.
7. If you have the same formula, like a percentage formula, that occurs at different groups levels I would name them the same but add the name of the group onto the end, like this:
On Time Percent Customer
On Time Percent Region
On Time Percent Grand
Again, this keeps the similar items together in the list, but makes it clear what each one does. If I had several sets of these formulas I would try to make sure that each one follows the same pattern.
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 - Republishing this material requires written permission