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Crystal Reports: Where to Store Report Version History

Programmers are used to using comments to store programming information, such as revision notes. This may be why many report designers use the Report Comments Field in the Summary Information to keep a history of changes made to the report.

Seems like a good idea, but it's not. The reason it's a bad idea is the report comments display on the Web page if delivered by Business Objects Enterprise or Crystal Reports Server. You may not be presenting the impression you want, if the report appears to have a lengthy development history.

It may seem like not such a big deal, if you're presently doing this and not using Business Objects Enterprise or Crystal Reports Server. But what if your company is bought out or, for some other reason, goes to Business Objects Enterprise or Crystal Reports Server? Do you really want to go through those reports and pull out every comment?

A better approach is to create a formula called “Report History” and place your comments in there. Third-party report documenting tools like Report Analyzer could help display those history formulas.

 

We received this tip from Joe Cigno at Avalon Systems, Inc.:

I saw your tip on how to record version history. This is how I initially did it.

I have since switched to making my very top section a large text box and record notes here. I do a conditional suppression on the section 1=1 and change the background color to Aqua. That way we I see the versions history in design mode and I don’t have to go fiddle with a formula. I call it the flowerbox.

 

 

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.
 

Let's take a closer look at what Report Analyzer for Crystal Reports allows you to do:

Improve report performance
  • Automatically detect reports that do not take advantage of server side database processing.
  • Detect record selection formulas which use data type conversion functions.
  • Detect group fields which use formulas instead of SQL Expression fields.
  • Find report tables which use less than an optimal number of fields.
  • Discover special fields which cause an additional pass over the report data source.

 Improve report reliability and reduce maintenance effort

  • Discover unused Formulas, Fields, and Variables.
  • Identify group settings which cause blank pages and footers.
  • Identify missing standard Crystal documentation best practices (Report Title, Author, Description special fields).
  • Locate reports which may use the "Convert null field to default" setting inconsistently.
  • Keep versions of your documented reports for historical comparison.

 Speed development and maintenance

  • View report designs in a design window similar to the one in the Crystal Reports designer program.
  • Select design objects and view/print settings, formula code (including conditional formatting formulas), dependencies with other design objects, and call stacks (for formulas only).
  • Use interactive diagrams (trees) of formula hierarchies, object dependencies and report design elements.
  • Query and print over 600 report settings across all documented reports. Perform instant impact assessment for database changes and formula changes across all documented reports.
  • Locate which reports use specific functions, parameters, and design settings.
And then there's the powerful project management part....

Improve Project Management

  • Generate summary and detailed documentation.
  • Analyze report complexity metrics to assist with test plan development and maintenance planning.
  • Easy to use documentation explorer to browse and compare report design settings.
  • Print report design diagrams.
  • Print report data dictionaries.
  • Extensive formula printouts including call trees, object cross references, formatted listing, and conditional formulas.
  • All documentation can be exported in a variety of formats including PDF, HTML and Word.
  • Uses Crystal Reports to produce the documentation, enabling complete customization
  • Plus more!

For pricing and/or purchase, click here.

 

 

"Report Analyzer does it all. This is the best Crystal Reports 3rd party application on the market today! The numerous features combined with great performance makes Report Analyzer the ultimate documentation and analysis tool." -- Brian Kuipers, CrystalInfo.Net, USA

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Report Analyzer is the ultimate documentation and analysis tool for Crystal Reports users and developers. With a comprehensive library of analysis and documentation reports, Report Analyzer provides you with complete documentation, analysis, and performance suggestions for your Crystal Reports projects. Keep your investment in Crystal Technology at its best performance using Report Analyzer!

 

How does Report Analyzer Work?

Report Analyzer connects to your local Crystal Reports or Crystal Enterprise APS servers and imports their design definition into a documentation database. These imported reports are organized into documentation groups within the database to organize your information for easy referencing and reporting.

How can Report Analyzer help you?

Report Analyzer now comes in two editions - Standard and Enterprise (click here for Enterprise features).
Both editions of Report Analyzer assist with:

  • Comprehensive report analysis
  • Reducing maintenance effort
  • Performance/design tuning
  • Change management
  • Test plan development
  • Extensive documentation

    Improve report performance

    Report Analyzer automatically detects potential performance issues in your report design settings, including record selection formulas, grouping options and database options.

  • Automatically detect reports that do not take advantage of server side database processing.
  • Detect record selection formulas that use data type conversion functions.
  • Detect group fields that use formulas instead of SQL Expression fields.
  • Find report tables which use less than an optimal number of fields.
  • Discover special fields which cause an additional pass over the report data source.

    •  

    Report Analyzer for Crystal Reports Screenshot

    Improve report reliability and maintenance

    Report Analyzer documents over 30 design and style settings.

  • Discover unused Formulas, Fields, and Variables.
  • Identify group settings that cause blank pages and footers.
  • Identify missing standard Crystal documentation best practices (Report Title, Author, Description special fields).
  • Locate reports which may use the "Convert null field to default" setting inconsistently.
  • Keep versions of your documented reports for historical comparison.

    •  

    Speed development and maintenance

    You can easily view dependencies between report objects such as formulas, SQL expression fields, parameters, and database fields with the dependency viewer. Additionally, the powerful query feature lets you view dependency information across reporting projects.

  • View report designs in a design window similar to the one in the Crystal Reports designer program.
  • Select design objects and view/print settings, formula code (including conditional formatting formulas), dependencies with other design objects, and call stacks (for formulas only).
  • Use interactive diagrams (trees) of formula hierarchies, object dependencies and report design elements.

    Click to Enlarge
    Click to enlarge

  • Query and print over 600 report settings across all documented reports. Perform instant impact assessment for database changes and formula changes across all documented reports.
  • Locate which reports use specific functions, parameters, and design settings.

    •  

    Click to Enlarge
    Click to enlarge

    Project Management

    Report Analyzer generates comprehensive documentation of your reports, with over 100 presentation quality reports. Complexity metrics assist with test case planning and maintenance estimates.

  • Generate summary and detailed documentation.
  • Analyze report complexity metrics to assist with test plan development and maintenance planning.
  • Easy to use documentation explorer to browse and compare report design settings.
  • Print report design diagrams.
  • Print report data dictionaries.
  • Extensive formula printouts including call trees, object cross references, formatted listing, and conditional formulas.
  • All documentation can be exported in a variety of formats including PDF, HTML and Word.
  • Uses Crystal Reports to produce the documentation, enabling complete customization.
  • Plus more!

     

    Click to Enlarge
    Click to enlarge

    		•