We see Crystal Reports deployed in a wide range of
environments. We have also been using it for a long time, we can see why
some things happen the way they do.
Crystal Reports uses the default printer settings to
determine what fonts are available and the level of image resolution.
That was important in the days when most reports were printed on paper.
But now, many reports are viewed on the screen for a
drill down, or delivered as an email attachment or on a Web page. The
default printer isn’t really relevant if the report is not printed on
the machine where it is processed. The net effect of this is that
sometimes fonts or images don’t appear correctly.
One solution is to configure a pretend high resolution
printer on the report processing machine.
A second approach is to configure the report using the
"No Printer" option. This will process the report at maximum quality.
This is the recommended approach.
But if you're putting images in reports, what about dynamic
image inclusion? A very neat tool for this is our
cViewIMAGE product.
cViewIMAGE lets you dynamically include images in your Crystal
report even if they are not stored in a database. It calculates the file + path
name from fields in your database without storing images in your database. Make
your reports sharper and more powerful. Free 30-day trial.
Give your Crystal Reports the ability to send crystal clear
messages, by dynamically including images.
-
cViewIMAGE allows a developer to design a report that calls
images for dynamic inclusion in those reports. To see those images, the
clients must also have cViewIMAGE installed.
-
cViewIMAGE enables you to include images in your Crystal
report even if they are not stored in a database. Hold the reference to the
image e.g. c:\Product Images in your database, instead of the image, and
cViewIMAGE will retrieve them from the folder for your Crystal report.
-
cViewIMAGE uses a COM data driver to create a recordset you
can use in your Crystal Report to include a dynamic image in your report.
cViewIMAGE includes a SingleIMAGE driver that takes an image file name and
presents it in a recordset to use in your report. This will work well inside
a subreport. There is also an ImageFolder driver that will return all the
pictures from a folder.
-
cViewIMAGE requires Crystal Reports 8.5 or higher to process
the recordset. Yes, it works with CR8.5, 9.0, 10.0, and XI.
You do not need the image to be stored in your database. Your
database simply holds the file path to the image, not the image itself.
The advantages are that:
-
Your database is very much smaller than if it were storing
images.
-
It's easier to manage your images. Adding, changing and
deleting images is simpler if they are stored in a folder rather than held
in a database.
How would you use cViewIMAGE to do it?
To put your image of say, your product into your Crystal report,
you would create a new connection using cViewIMAGE as well as your normal
Product database/file connection.
hen write a formula to access the file path reference of the
image (e.g. c:\Product Images) from your Product database to point cViewIMAGE to
the folder/s where your images are filed.
Then place the image in your report along with any other
information from your Product database.
You're all set!
