The Crystal Reports Underground News - Volume 2016.07
an independent source for Crystal Reports Information
by Ken Hamady, MS
Contents for July 2016:
** RPT management utilities for 2016
** Crystal Reports 2016 new features
** My library of Crystal Reports materials
** SAP embraces the Crystal ecosystem
** Crystal Reports versions over time (2016)
** Let me create your Crystal Reports
** Special offer from Find it EZ
** When "Size and position" won't do what you want.
** Open enrollment Crystal classes in Frederick, MD
** Reading spreadsheets in XLSX format
** Extra characters in PDF export
Gems from the Archives:
How to format a paragraph with a "hanging indent"
Conditional Drill-Down
RPT management utilities for 2016
I have just updated my comparison of RPT management utilities for 2016. These are tools that allow you to scan, document, compare and in some cases batch update RPT files. The list now includes 8 tools:
Report Runner Documentor by Jeff-Net
R-Tag Documentation and Search by R-Tag
R-Tag Version Control by R-Tag
Report Miner by the Retsel Group
Code Search Professional by Find it EZ Software Corp.
Dev Surge Enterprise by Find it EZ Software Corp.
Report Analyzer by Cortex Systems
.rpt Inspector 3 Professional Suite by Software Forces, LLC
Crystal Reports 2016 new features
After 8 years I have finally purchased a new version of Crystal Reports. I skipped the last two upgrades because there wasn't enough to justify the cost of the upgrade. But there are several new features in CR 2016. Here is what's new:
Formatting conditions for lines and boxes:
Six new formula condition buttons to control formatting properties of lines and boxes based on data or parameter conditions:
Suppression
Style
Width
Border color
Fill Color (Boxes Only)
Drop Shadow (Boxes Only)
Vertical Alignment Control:
Before now, all objects were top-aligned. Now there is a control that allows you to set vertical alignment to top, center or bottom. And there is a formula condition button that allows you to change the alignment based on data or parameter conditions. The function constants are:
crTopAligned
crCenteredVertically
crBottomAligned
Functions:
GetValueDescriptions()
When you create a parameter you are allowed to assign a description to each parameter value. Before CR 2016 you were only able to use the parameter values in your formulas. There was no easy way to get to the descriptions associated with the chosen values, although there were some cumbersome workarounds. Crystal 2016 has a new function that can read this list of descriptions. Here is a formula that would display the descriptions of all the selected values for the {?items} parameter.
Join( GetValueDescriptions( {?Items} ) , ', ' )
Range Functions:
These functions are for getting the top and bottom from ranges values, but they don't provide any new capabilities that I can see. They do the same thing that CR already does with the minimum() and maximum() functions. They were probably added to make the CR formula language more compatible with other languages.
GetLowerBound()
GetUpperBound()
My complete library of Crystal Reports materials:
Do you want to really understand Crystal formulas? Do you know when to use the four different methods to add totals? Why not let me explain these Crystal Topics to you with one of my Expert's Guides. Each guide comes with clear explanations and sample files to illustrate the concepts.
Expert's Guide to Formulas ($36)
Expert's Guide to Subreports, Parameters and Alerts ($28)
Expert's Guide to SQL Expressions, Options and Commands ($26)
Expert's Guide to Totals ($24)
Expert's Guide to Cross-Tabs ($22)
Expert Techniques Vol. 1 - 4 ($19 each)
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.
SAP embraces the Crystal ecosystem
Something has changed at SAP. In the past it was rare that I heard them mention third party products. Now they are openly promoting them on their web site through the SAP Analytics Extension Directory. It is great to see them embracing the rich ecosystem that makes Crystal Reports so powerful. So, if you are a Crystal user or a Crystal-related vendor you might want check it out. It lists all sorts of add-on tools for the entire SAP product line, including Crystal Reports, and it even allows users to rate the tools. The Crystal selection is still small, but it should eventually be a nice compliment to my Product Links page and annual comparisons.
The real surprise was when someone from SAP asked me to list my formulas page in the directory. I declined once because it required a partnership agreement with SAP (lots of fine print). But then they changed it to a simpler "vendor agreement". So I went through the process this week to list that one page. It is currently the only free extension listed for Crystal Reports.
So if you are a vendor you should consider submitting your product. I found the process relatively painless.
Crystal Reports versions over time (2016)
I do a chart each year based on my newsletter subscribers. It shows the version of Crystal Reports that they were using when they sign up for the newsletter. Over time, it shows which versions have staying power and how quickly new versions take hold. I have included numbers for 2016, even though the year is only about half way there. Those numbers will change in next year's chart when 2016 is complete.
Note that almost 1/4 of users are still using Crystal Reports XI, which is over 10 years old. That is roughly the same as the user base for the next two versions combined. That may be partly because all versions after XI are limited to the .NET runtime engine.
Let me create your Crystal Reports
There aren't many people who know Crystal Reports better than I do. It is what I do all day, every day. So if you need a tough report created why not leave it to an expert? Let me show you how I can mix and match techniques to create the reports you need - even the ones that "can't be done". And since I am also a teacher I am happy to explain to you how the techniques work together.
I can also review existing reports that break, or run slowly, or seem overly complex. Let me have a look at them and see if there is a more elegant solution.
Special offer from Find it EZ
The team at Find it EZ have announced a special promotion for the month of July. If you can show that you own a license for any of the RPT management utilities in my annual review matrix, they will give you a free 1-year subscription to their latest Dev Surge 365 product. Dev Surge 365 supports the latest versions of Crystal Reports/BOE and also provides native support for SAP HANA. So if you were thinking about an upgrade, this is worth checking out.
To claim your free license, first register on finditez.com. Then contact sales@finditez.com to submit proof of purchase. They will send you your free copy of Dev Surge 365. If you are an existing Find it EZ customers you are also eligible for a free additional license if you can show proof of a past purchase of one of these products.
When "Size and position" won't do what you want.
Whenever you want to give Crystal Reports a specific coordinate for an object, you can right-click on the object and use the "Size and Position" dialogue. Here you can enter the exact XY coordinates for the upper left corner and then enter the height and width.
I wrote about a bug in this screen in older versions of CR. That problem was fixed in CR 2008. But I just noticed that CR 2008 and other newer versions (up to the brand new CR 2016) have their own bugs related to that same dialogue.
1) Namely, if you enter a number that is just slightly different from the number already there, the object doesn’t move and the entry is ignored. There is a minimum amount of change required before any box will accept a new value, and it appears to be .008.
So, say I have an object whose x value is 2.494 and I want to change it to 2.5. I enter 2.5 and hit OK and it appears that the value was accepted. But if I go back in and check the X value it is still 2.494. The box will take .255 but not .250 because the change has to be .008 or greater. But you can get Crystal to take the value you want if you move the object slightly before you try to put in the value. For instance, if you are trying to change the X value, just his [CTRL-Left Arrow] a few times. This will move the object to the left. Now you should be able to put in the 2.5 because the new position of the object should be more than .08 away from position 2.5
2) This works great in CR 2008, but when I tested this in the new CR 2016 I found a different bug that wasn’t in CR 2008. When you enter a new Y value it adds the difference between the old Y value and new Y values to the height value. Sounds like someone used the wrong variable name in the internal CR code. This bug isn’t in CR 2008 but probably will affect CR 2011 and CR 2013, since they are all the same base code as CR 2016. I don’t have those versions to test but if someone does and wants to test this out please let me know.
Open enrollment Crystal classes in Frederick, MD
Stop struggling with Crystal Reports and learn how to use it fully. Come join me in one of my September classes and learn how to make Crystal work for you. My Intro class makes sure you know all of the basics. We even include material on cross-tabs, charts and formulas. The Advanced class shows you how to solve reporting problems with running totals, subreports, parameters and commands. The material is good for any version. See my web site for course outlines and dates.
So what makes my classes different? I have written my own course materials and have used them to teach over 2,500 satisfied students. And, I give you a toll-free number so you can call me after class with questions at no charge.
Or, if you want to schedule a class at your office, using your data, that is my specialty. I have found some stellar instructors in the the US and Canada that deliver my class for a very competitive price. They are based near Spokane/Seattle, LA, Omaha, Detroit, Tampa, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Vancouver and Montreal. Call for details.
Reading spreadsheets in XLSX format
Crystal has a native driver that lets you read data stored in older Excel spreadsheets (XLS). But if you want to read data stored in the current spread format (XLSX) then you will need to get an OLEDB/ODBC driver for Excel. I have had to do this recently for two customers and it took me a while to find the correct driver. So to make it easier for the next time I am going to put the link here.
Part of the problem is that the Excel driver is part of a larger set of drivers included in the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable. This includes both ODBC and OLEDB drivers for Access (MDB/ACCDB) and Excel (XLS/XLSX). When you start the download there will be two options:
AccessDatabaseEngine.exe (32 bit)
AccessDatabaseEngine_x64.exe (64bit).
Even though you most likely have a 64 bit PC you should get the 32 bit driver. That is because Crystal Reports is still a 32-bit application and can't read ODBC connections that are created using a 64-bit driver.
Once you have installed the 32-bit driver you can read my previous blog post on how to launch the 32-bit ODBC Administrator on a 64-bit computer, or you can skip over that confusion and use the OLEDB driver. The ODBC configuration is much more confusing than it should be.
And thanks to Adam Butt of APB Reports in Norway for showing me how much simpler OLEDB is over ODBC.
Extra characters in PDF export
I had a customer who contacted me to ask why every 't' was duplicated in her report. I assumed that the customer was describing duplicate records and was ready to start troubleshooting the joins between tables. What I found, instead was that every letter 't' in the text of the report was printing twice whenever the document was exported to PDF. The Crystal preview was not affected.
So I did some web research and found that there is a rare glitch that can occur in some environments when using the Calibri font. It seems to be related to a DLL conflict but the simple solution for many users is to use a different font. If you run into this and a font change is not an option, you will have to try tracking down usp10.dll to make sure Crystal is using the right version. These links might help:
http://help.acctivate.com/articles/18812/
http://scn.sap.com/thread/1272660
https://www.arcanadev.com/support/kb/K00000454.aspx
Gems from the Archives:
How to format a paragraph with a "hanging indent"
Conditional Drill-Down
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Contact Information
Ken Hamady, MS
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http://www.kenhamady.com
Copyright 2016 by Ken Hamady
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