The Crystal Reports Underground News - Volume 2008.07 (July 2008)
an independent source for Crystal Reports Information
by Ken Hamady
Contents for July 2008:
** Crystal Reports Knowledge Base moved to SAP support
** Listing of Free Trials from Business Objects
** Associate available for Business Objects Enterprise and CR Server
** Cascading page breaks (page breaks on interior groups)
** My library of Crystal Reports materials
** Multi-value parameters for commands and stored procedures
** "Sticky" buttons for the Format Painter and other controls
** Training and Courseware on CR 2008
** Free PDF generators
** Other recent BLOG topics
** Read back issues at http://www.kenhamady.com/news.html
Crystal Reports Knowledge Base moved to SAP support
If you are used to searching the Business objects KB for CR technical info you will need to look in a new place. SAP, the new owners of Business objects, has incorporated the BO Support information (including Crystal Reports) into the SAP Support system. If you have any bookmarks to specific documents or KB articles, these will have to be updated. All links to the old support pages are now forwarded to the new system's front page.
The new location has forums, a Wiki, and lots of ways for users to contribute to the site. If you check it out and find anything interesting, let me know.
The bad news is that along with this change the entire support system for Business Objects (including all active support tickets) has been moved to the SAP support system. According to several articles I have read this change was a fiasco.
Listing of Free Trials from Business Objects
I found a handy link that lists all of the "Free Trial" software available from the Business Objects web site. You can download trials for both CRXI (v11) and CR 2008 (v12), although you do have to register to get the download and key. These are fully functional versions that can be used for 30 days. They can then be converted to full licenses by using a key from purchased software.
Associate available for Business Objects Enterprise and CR Server
For the past 2 years I have been helping customers find expert independent instructors and consultants to help them with Crystal Reports projects. Some customers have asked about getting help with other Business Objects Software products. So I am pleased to announce that my newest associate in not only an expert in Crystal Reports, but is also an expert in Business Objects Enterprise and Crystal Reports Server. One customers is in the middle of a project with this associate and sent the following feedback:
"He has been extremely efficient and has helped greatly in solving the problem we were having. I cannot thank you both enough really for the support we have received."
So if you need some assistance with these products we would be happy to help out.
And, if you are an independent consultant who has specialized expertise related to creating Crystal Reports, I would like to hear from you. Areas of special interest include:
Consultants with experience reporting against Stored Procedures or XML data.
Programmers that integrate Crystal Reports into applications (Java, .NET, ASP, VB).
Consultants with experience using Excelsius.
Consultants with experience using Crystal Enterprise, BO Enterprise or CR Server.
Crystal Reports instructors and consultants
Cascading page breaks (page breaks on interior groups)
Say you have 2 group levels in your report Customer and Product. You have subtotals in both Group Footer 1 and Group Footer 2. So, what do you do if you want to have a page break after each product? Your first attempt would be to simply go into the section expert for GF2 and check "New Page After". This works fine except for the last product in each Customer. The Customer's subtotals would end up printing on the top of the next page, which would be a different Customer's page. So you add the same "New Page After" setting to GF1. Now the Customer subtotals end up on a page all by themselves. You probably want the Customer subtotals printing right below the last Product's subtotals. To get this effect you keep the check mark in the "New Page After" of Group 1, but you change the "New Page After" for Group 2 to be a condition formula. The formula would be:
{Table.Customer} = Next ( {Table.Customer} )
Note that this is the condition for Group Footer 2 but it uses the field for Group 1. The formula says that Group 2 is allowed to do the page break as long as the record is not on the last product of the Customer. (If the Customer is the same as the next record's Customer then you CAN'T be on the last product of the Customer.) The reason you don't want to do a page break on the last Product of the Customer is because that page break is taken care of by Group Footer #1.
This method can be used regardless of the number of groups. Group Footer 1 always has the "new page after" checked. Every other group has a condition formula like the one above. Each condition uses the field of the next group 'up' in the hierarchy. Group Footer 3 would refer to the field used in Group 2, etc.
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)
Expert Techniques Vol. III($19)
Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in Visual Basic ($16)
Quick Reference to Crystal Reports in .NET ($14)
You will find these on the LIBRARY page of my site.
Multi-value parameters for commands and stored procedures
Last year I published the "Expert's Guide to SQL Expressions, Options and Commands", just as CR 12 was coming out. In the Guide I explained the workaround for passing multi-value parameters to SQL Commands. Until recently I had missed a new (but little noticed) feature of CR 12. Commands parameters in CR 12 have a new option that allows multi-value parameters. No workaround needed. And, because you can launch stored procedures from a command object, you can now pass true multi-value parameters directly to your stored procedures.
You will see this feature at the bottom of the window when you add a new parameter to a Command. However, if you are using versions 9 - 11 you will not have this feature.
"Sticky" buttons for the Format Painter and other controls
Starting with Crystal Reports version 11.5 (also known as XI r2) there are several tool bar buttons that can be made "sticky". This means you can double click the button to make it stay on until you turn it off. This is especially handy if you are using the Format Painter, because it allows you to format many objects at once, without having to re-click the tool bar button in between.
To use the format painter you highlight the field that is formated correctly. Then you click the Format Painter button (the paintbrush) on the tool bar. Then you click another field and the formatting properties of the first field are transferred to the second field. At this point the paintbrush normally turns off.
If you want to "Paint" multiple fields with the same format you double-click the paintbrush and it stays on. You can now click on as many individual fields as you want. Each click transfers the formatting attributes to that field. When you are done you click the paintbrush again to turn it off, or you can hit the escape key. And, there are several other buttons that can be "stuck" in this way, such as the buttons for lines and boxes.
If you are using version 11 (XI) this feature isn't there. But I am pretty sure that you can still get a free upgrade from version 11 to version 11.5. There is a page for the free trial download of XI (see above), which I believe actually gives you version 11.5. Last I heard a valid keycode for 11 could be used to install 11.5 or unlock the trial.
Training and Courseware for Crystal Reports 2008
I have updated my course books to cover the new features of Crystal Reports 2008. So if you are looking to have on-site training on this newest version of Crystal, I can help. The new features include interactive parameters, sort controls and calculated rows/ columns in cross-tabs. I also provide a free review of the new features in CR 2008.
So, there are now 2 editions of my courseware. The new edition covers versions 9 through 12 while the older edition covers versions 6 - 8.5. If you are looking for reasonably priced courseware you can read more about what makes my books different.
And, if you want a Crystal Reports class at your office, incorporating your own data, than give me a call. That is my specialty. And I have found several other top-notch instructors around the US, UK and Canada that can deliver my class at your location for a very competitive price.
So what makes my class different? Course materials written by an expert who has done Crystal Reports full time for 12 years. I have personally taught 2,500 satisfied students. And every student gets my toll-free number for questions after class.
My Intro class makes sure you know all of the basics, including cross-tabs, charts and formulas. The Advanced class shows you how to solve several common reporting problems and when to use advanced features like running totals, subreports, parameters and commands. Course outlines are on my web site.
For more details call me at (540) 338-0194.
Free PDF generators
Every once in a while I have found that Exporting from Crystal Reports to PDF doesn't look as good as the printout. In those cases I might not use Crystal's built in Export function, but instead will use one of the free PDF printer drivers that are available. My current favorites are PDF Creator and Cute PDF.
These tools, once installed, behave like a new printer on your computer. You select this faux printer and print the report as you normally would. The driver converts the output of the report (or document or spreadsheet) into a PDF file. PDF Creator is open source and works with all Microsoft operating systems except for Vista. Cute PDF is free but is not open source. I use it currently on Vista.
Note - to install Cute PDF you must download both the writer and the converter on the left of the page.
Other Blog topics since the last newsletter:
Adding Business Hours/Minutes to a Start DateTime
Exporting column headings in CSV format
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 2008 by Ken Hamady
All rights reserved - Republishing this material requires written permission