Crystal Reports 8.5

CrystalReports needs very little introduction - it's a recognized leader among reportgenerators. In addition, Microsoft has bundled Crystal Reports intoMicrosoftVisual Studio for several years, so most veteran Visual Basic programmers arefamiliar with it. Then Microsoft decided to build a report writer (DataReport)and include it with Visual Basic. Now, although Visual Studio 6 still includesan earlier version of Crystal Reports, you have to know where to look to findit on the Visual Studio disks.

Ifyou're only experience with Crystal Reports is the version packaged with VisualStudio, forget everything you know and get the 8.5 demonstration version;there's no comparison between version 8.5 and the version in Visual Studio. AndMicrosoft's DataReport is no competition at all.

SeagateSoftware, the company that produces Crystal Reports, was recently renamedCrystal Decisions. The release of Crystal Reports 8.5 quickly followed, butit's much more than a simple interim version. There are many new features thatmake an upgrade to version 8.5 an excellent decision. Although the ability tointegrate reporting and analysis into intranet, extranet, and portalapplications with Crystal Enterprise is reason enough, Crystal Reports 8.5 nowsupports cross-platform development, with support for Windows NT, Windows 2000,and UNIX. OLAP support is also much improved. The Report Publishing Wizard publishesreports to the Web in seconds. In addition to these impressive new features,there are enhancements to the Report Designer, analysis tools, export formats,and report viewers.

What DoesIt Do?

Anambitious product, Crystal Reports 8.5 has very versatile reportingcapabilities. You can use Crystal Reports as a stand-alone report generator,writing ad hoc queries against a wide variety of data sources. There's nothingvery remarkable about accessing databases with ODBC or even native drivers;those are standard features in a report generator. Crystal Reports 8.5 goes farbeyond database and PIM support to include Lotus Notes and Domino, MicrosoftExchange, Microsoft IIS, Microsoft SMS, Windows NT event logs, and NCSA-formatWeb server activity logs. When you do need to pull data from a SQL database,Crystal Reports can handle XML, OLAP, and relational data sources.

CrystalReports excels at publishing data. You can create presentation-quality reportsand publish those reports to the Web in seconds. There are many options forexporting reports: PDF, HTML, DHTML, XML, RTF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel,a variety of text formats, a variety of e-mail formats, etc.

WithCrystal Reports 8.5 you can deliver rich, interactive content via the Web usingWeb reports that go far beyond static tables and forms. Available reportviewers include a Netscape plug-in, Java, ActiveX, and DHTML. Interactiveviewers let users drill down on charts and subreports, and even perform localprinting and local exports. 

Crystal Reports8.5 is not just a stand-alone report generator. It also integrates withMicrosoft Office 97 and Microsoft Office 2000. Crystal Reports 8.5 takesadvantage of Office's Add-in technology to automatically add report designcapabilities to Excel and Access. Creating a report is as simple as selecting aspreadsheet, table, or query, then launching the Crystal Report Wizard.

CrystalReports 8.5 integrates with the Microsoft Visual Basic 5 and Visual Basic 6IDEs. It also integrates with the VBA IDE (the VBE) in Office 2000. You canopen, design, and customize reports directly from the VB IDE/VBE.

CrystalReports 8.5 gives developers unprecedented flexibility, with a range ofcomponents for Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual InterDev, Visual C++, Lotus DominoDesigner, Informix NewEra, and Delphi. The developer version of Crystal Reports8.5 adds a new COM-based component for embedding drag-and-drop report creationto your applications. You can interact with Crystal Reports through an ActiveXcontrol, an Automation Server (OLE) interface, the Crystal Reports Print EngineAPI, a Delphi VCL control, or a class library for MFC.

Installation

Installationof version 8 could be, well, exasperating. Once you got version 8 loaded, thesystem was so extensive it was difficult to figure out where to start. Quite tothe contrary, installation of version 8.5 is quick and easy. And becauseversion 8.5 includes a familiar Microsoft Office look and feel, getting startedis equally as easy.

CrystalReports 8.5 is available in three editions that progressively add morecapabilities. The Standard Edition provides report design and reportpublication features. The Professional Edition adds Web publishing features.The Developer Edition includes powerful development tools and samples. 

Theprofessional and developer editions of Crystal Reports 8.5 include a five-userlicense for Crystal Enterprise. Crystal Enterprise replaces the Webcapabilities from earlier versions of Crystal Reports with a new Web-basedreport publishing system. Crystal Enterprise can be deployed in single serveror multi-server environments, and it's cluster-enabled. The result is highlyscalable and reliable information reporting.

How Good IsIt?

I testedCrystal Reports 8.5 on two machines: a 750 MHz Pentium III laptop with 256 MBof RAM running Windows 98, and a dual 866 MHz Pentium III processor server with1 GB of RAM running Windows 2000 Server.

CrystalReports 8.5 is impressive, but not perfect. Version 8.5 corrects some obviousblemishes, but there are a few features that still leave me muttering. One thatespecially perturbs me is the way Crystal Reports handles multi-line textboxes. If you want your text boxes to grow, and you want to stack themvertically, you need to separate them into distinct sections to prevent textbleeding across text boxes. Microsoft Access reports handle "can grow" textboxes much more gracefully. 

Withthat said, forget the DataReport in Visual Basic. Crystal Reports 8.5 continuesto be the product of choice for adding powerful reporting capabilities to yourapplications.

Glenn Mitchell is president of .Com Consulting Group, aconsulting firm in Tallahassee, Florida, specializing in Microsoft enterprisesolutions. In addition to consulting, he lectures and writes about enterpriseapplication development for Microsoft-sponsored conferences and journals, suchas Microsoft OfficePRO. He can bereached at mailto:[email protected].

asp.netPRO Fact File

Withversatile reporting capabilities, Crystal Reports is a recognized leader amongreport generators. Version 8.5 is more than a simple interim version. Newfeatures include the ability to integrate reporting and analysis into intranet,extranet, and portal applications with Crystal Enterprise. In addition, it nowsupports cross-platform development, with support for Windows NT, Windows 2000,and UNIX. It continues to be the product of choice for adding powerfulreporting capabilities to your applications. 

CrystalDecisions

Phone: (800) 720-8586

WebSite: http://www.crystaldecisions.net

Price: Crystal Reports 8.5 Standard,US$199; Crystal Reports 8.5 Professional, US$395; Crystal Reports 8.5Developer, US$495. Upgrades and multi-user licenses are available for theProfessional and Developer editions.