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Crystal Reports Basics: Five steps for the beginner--Getting started
This is based on the book, Crystal
Reports: A Beginner’s Guide. For more detail and explanation, plus
practice exercises, order the book here.
- Define the concept. Determine what information you want in the final
report, and how you want it laid out. Sketching on paper or doing a
mockup in another program (e.g., Excel) is helpful. If you look at the
sample reports included in Crystal Reports, you’ll have a good basis
for design.
- Source the data. Determine what kind of data are available. You may
not have the sales figures, allocated overhead, or some other data on
which to base the report you are designing. Think of the data as your
raw materials—build what you can, based on what you’ve got to work
with. You may also have to determine the calculation abilities of the
database, which is the preferred location for calculations.
- Create the design. Again, sketching this out ahead of time is the
most effective approach. If you can sketch in your head, fine. Most
people find a pencil and paper works well—simply arrange blocks or
representative text to show what should go where, and be sure to show
the source of data for each result. You will also need to look at data
grouping, sorting, and calculating. Which fields and records do you
need from which tables? Figure all of this out before starting your
work with Crystal Reports, and you save time.
- Develop and test. It shouldn’t be hard at all to develop a basic
report. Put the basic structure in place, and see if the results are
what they should be. Try it on the various platforms it must operate
on, and see if it works as intended. Then, tweak for the other
features you want. Make sure any user prompts are clear in their
message.
- Deploy and operate. How will people use this report? Will they want
to export it? What software are they likely to use in doing so? Test
the report based on how people will use it, and then see if your
design needs some rework. Do your formulas, naming, and coding
conventions make sense to end-users? Can end-users make necessary
modifications?
Next steps:
- Develop your own system. Write down the rules, as you go. The more you work
your system, the more second-nature it will become. Developing a system keeps
you from reinventing how you do things, and it keeps things consistent. It also
saves you time and reduces errors.
- Seek feedback. Ask users what they like and don't
like. The more you tailor the reporting system to the people whose opinions
matter to your boss, the better your job security is.
- Train and educate. You don't need to conduct formal
classes to train users. Just as you get their feedback, give them input.
Provide helpful tips, let them know some things the system can do that it
isn't doing now, and help them make the best use of the information it
provides.
- Evolve. Keep in mind that report design is an ongoing
process. Once you know the basics of Crystal Reports, you’ll want to add
functionality offered only by third-party vendors. Take a look
here
at what some of that functionality is and what some of those offerings
are.
This article is copyrighted by Crystalkeen, Mindconnection, and Chelsea Technologies Ltd.
It may be freely copied and distributed as long as the
original copyright is displayed and no modifications are made to this
material. Extracts are permitted. The names Crystal Reports and Seagate
Info are trademarks owned by Business Objects.
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