What’s New in Crystal Reports XI
Crystal Reports XI is the eleventh release of this popular reporting tool. The “XI” is the Roman numeral 11 as well as an abbreviation for Xtreme Intelligence (playing on the business intelligence theme). Crystal Reports XI has exciting new functionality that goes far beyond the previous versions of Crystal Reports. In fact, until XI was released, a large percentage of users were still using version 8.5 and never upgraded. The improvements for version 9 and 10 weren’t compelling enough to justify it. But with the new features in this latest release, many people have upgraded to XI and are looking forward to the enhancements. The following sections give you an overview of the new features and list which chapters have more information about them.
Dynamic and Cascading Prompts
If you are someone who has been using Crystal Reports 8.5 and are just now upgrading to XI, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Dynamic and Cascading Prompts are what sold you on the upgrade. Dynamic and Cascading Prompts (DCPs) are a milestone upgrade over the static prompts of previous versions.
DCPs give you two benefits. The first benefit is that the list of values is linked directly to the data source. When the underlying data changes, the list of values is updated to reflect the latest information. The second benefit is that the prompts are linked together. The value chosen in one prompt affects the list of values in the following prompt. The user only sees a list of values directly related to their previous choices.
DCPs improve the usability of parameters by ensuring that the data is always current and that the user only sees choices relevant to what they are doing. Chapter 4 covers DCPs in the advanced section.
Dynamic Image Location
If you wanted to include dynamic graphics in previous versions of Crystal Reports, you either had to embed the images into binary fields within your database or write an application that programmatically loaded the images into memory and placed them on the report. There was no easy way to display images stored on the hard drive of your computer on a report. XI makes dynamic graphic locations possible. By referencing an image via a file path or URL, reports can load new images on the fly and display them on the report. Dynamic images are covered in Chapter 8.
New Export Features
Exporting report output is a very common task — so common, that you often find yourself exporting a report in the same way each time. Rather than requiring you to set the same options each time, Crystal Reports now lets you save default values for the export options. Setting default values makes it faster to export reports and you don’t have to remember which options are best.
A new RTF export format lets you export reports so that it is easier to edit the final output. This is ideal for reports that are used for data entry forms. Previous versions of Crystal Reports allowed you to export to RTF, but the format was optimized for precise formatting. Editing the RTF wasn’t very practical. You now have a choice between optimizing for editing or optimized for precise formatting. This is covered in Chapter 15.
Parameterized Sorting
The sorting of groups and Top N/Bottom N reports now have a Formula button associated with them. Conditional formatting formulas can be used to change the sort order. By integrating this with parameters, the user gains more control over their report output. Sorting and grouping is in Chapter 3.
Hierarchical Grouping Improvements
Hierarchical reports were very limited in how the final output looked. Columns weren’t formatted very well and sometimes the report wasn’t easy to read. XI gives you an improved set of formatting functionality that increases how much control you have over a report’s final output. You control the indentation of report objects and the grouping sections. This is covered in Chapter 3.
HTML Preview
A new tab in the report designer lets you view reports in their HTML format. This gives you immediate feedback about how accurately your reports will appear when viewed as a web page. HTML preview is only available when using Business Objects Enterprise or the Report Application Server. These versions of Crystal Reports are not covered in the book.
Dependency Checker
The Dependency Checker verifies formulas and error checks a report and lists all problems found. This consists of checking the syntax of formulas, validating hyperlinks, validating database fields, and verifying subreports. This is covered in Chapter 5.
Workbench
The Workbench makes it easy to organize multiple reports into folders. By organizing reports into specific categories you can easily find the reports you need and manage them. You can also use tools such as the Dependency Checker across all the reports in a folder. The Workbench is covered later in this chapter.
Application Designer Improvements
Programmers have many new improvements to look forward to after installing XI. Programmers now have more control over their reports, better integration of Java functions, client-side web printing, and improved report design. Although this book doesn’t include programming specific topics, this is covered in extensive detail in Volume 2 of this series, “Programming .NET 2005”.
If you are a programmer who builds custom reporting applications using Visual Studio .NET 2005, you need to install Crystal Reports XI R2. Crystal Reports XI was released almost a year prior to .NET 2005 being released and they are not compatible with each other. Installing R2 updates all the .NET 2005 components.
