2. OUR PRESENT
NEEDS / GOALS
1. Do we need SAP Business Objects
Intelligence to achieve our objective?
2. We can do everything we need to
accomplish without SAP servers.
3. We can use our own database as a
repository to store templates.
4. We will need to spend development time to
achieve this, but not immediately.
5. We can simply manually update logos as an
interim solution, and create templates.
6. We can create our own repository in the
future to act as a data warehouse.
USING OUR OWN SERVERS
3. Using Existing Crystal Reports as Templates
A lot of report formatting tasks can be accomplished by applying a template. Many of these tasks would take
a report designer many hours to complete if they had to be done by hand. For example, let's apply the
sample “Confidential” template from the Templates subfolder of Crystal Reports. By applying a Custom
Template, the following tasks can be completed automatically with two exceptions:
• We CAN NOT use a universal logo applied to all reports from the Crystal Repository without the BI server
• We CAN NOT Add an image that displays “Confidential” as an underlay to each page of the report
• Modifying the fonts and positions of all the database fields
• Showing the Record Selection Formula on the report
• Adding dashed lines between all items in the Details Section
• Adding a rounded box around the Record Selection Formula
• Using a rounded box to show where groups start and end
• Moving the Field Headings for each data field into the Group Header and formatting them
5. DRILL DOWN CAPABILITY
CROSS TAB DESIGN
DESIGN USING CROSS TABS
Crystal Reports allows you to drill down on group or summary information in the Preview tab in both
the Standard and the Group Tree. When you position the cursor over any summary value that you
can drill down on, the program displays a Drill-down cursor.
DUAL MENUS: DESIGN AND PREVIEW
Group headers appear on the Drill-down tab just as they do in the main report itself. If you then double-click, the program
reveals the details behind that specific summary value. For example, if the Drill-down cursor becomes active over the city
summary, you can double-click to see the details behind that summary, but you must change menus to accomplish this.
• With a single summary, you can look at the details of the data from the individual records that are summarized.
• If you have multiple summaries, you can look at the summaries behind summaries (the city summaries that make up the
region summaries, for example), or at the data from the individual records that are summarized.
6. Drill Down/Up allows the user to navigate among levels of data
ranging from the most summarized (up) to the most detailed
(down). The picture shows a drill-down operation: The analyst
moves from the summary category to see the sales figures for the
individual products. Crystal Reports requires using two menus for
this process, the design is done in a separate area from the data.
OLAP CUBE
7. EXPORTING FILES
Exporting to HTML
HTML export formats are page based. The HTML 4.0 format preserves the layout and formatting of the
report by using DHTML. The HTML 3.2 format, however, cannot maintain all of the layout precisely. The
HTML 3.2 format is intended for backward compatibility with older browsers that do not support HTML 4.0. All
of the images in your report are saved externally and a hyperlink is inserted in the exported HTML output.
Therefore, this export format generates more than one file in the output.
Exporting to an ODBC data source
Crystal Reports allows you to export reports to any ODBC data source. If you have an ODBC data source
setup for a database or data format, you can export your report to that data format through ODBC. For
instance, you may have an ODBC data source setup through ODBC Administrator that you normally use to
access database tables designed in Microsoft SQL Server. Using the Export dialog box, however, you can
select your SQL Server data source and export your report as a new SQL Server database table.
You must have a connection to the SAP BI server in order for the program to export a report object to an
ODBC database format. Files designed with the Cross Tab Drill Down will not Export properly without it.
8. COSTS
● PROPOSED INVESTMENT IN
CRYSTAL REPORTS
● WITHOUT PURCHASE OF
SAP SERVER STORAGE
1. CRYSTAL: $495.00
2. VIEWER: $500.00
3. TOTAL: $995.00
4. USING THIRD PARTY
SOFTWARE: JEFF-NET
CRYSTAL CONCLUSION
ADVANTAGE
● WE WILL CREATE OUR OWN
REPOSITORY IN THE FUTURE
● THIRD PARTY VIEWER MAY BE
LICENSED ATJEFF-NET TO AVOID
MALWARE FROM FREE DOWNLOADS
● POTENTIAL FOR UPGRADE TO ADD
ON A SCHEDULER AS WELL
DISADVANTAGE
● CAN NOT STORE HEADER OBJECTS
IN THE REPOSITORY
● DEVELOPMENT TIME TO CREATE
OUR OWN TEMPLATES
9. NO COST
● FREE REPORT SOFTWARE
● NO UPFRONT COST FOR
BASIC REPORTING
1. i NET CLEAR
REPORTS: FREE
2. VIEWER: FREE
3. BEWARE OF
MALWARE!
FREE i-Net Clear Reports
ADVANTAGE
● INTERFACE IS SIMILAR TO CRYSTAL
REPORTS BUT STREAMLINED
● PROGRAM USES JAVA SCRIPT
INSTEAD OF THE .NET PLATFORM
DISADVANTAGE
● MALWARE ON FREE DOWNLOADS
CAUSES SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH
FUTURE USERS WHO DOWNLOAD
● JAVA PLATFORM COULD CREATE
EXPORT PROBLEMS
● CLIENTS HAVE TO DOWNLOAD
SOFTWARE TO VIEW REPORTS
10. OVERCOMING TEMPLATE CHALLENGES
WINDWARD STUDIOS
COMMON CHALLENGES
Whether creating a new report or editing an existing one, every field and every label in a Crystal
Report has to be individually formatted, by hand. If any form of conditional formatting is used, the
details need to be entered anew for every use. This is well known in the report design Community.
CONSISTANTCY: A CHALLENGE IN CRYSTAL REPORTS
Consistency is an important aspect of report design. Not only consistency within a report, but
between reports. All the reports related to a single system should demonstrate a high level of
consistency - each report should use the same fonts, at the same sizes, use the same formats for
dates and currency values, and apply the same rules for rounding and aggregating values.
Presently, Windward Studios provides the support for helping a developer achieve this desired level
of consistency. The entire process is automated using templates to overcome design errors.
11. SEMANTIC LAYER SOLUTION
Provide a mechanism for separating content from presentation. Microsoft products
all use this strategy, and the method has Some history:
• Microsoft Word has had Styles since Word 97. Each style defines the formatting to apply to a different
part of the document, based on the semantics of the text. IE: this is a heading; that is a quote.
• HTML started with the idea of semantic mark-up in 1991 - and it copied the idea from SGML. In both
languages, the content is marked up with tags that describe meaning, not presentation. IE: This should
be emphasized; that is a hyperlink.
• CSS is a newer standard that allows fine control of presentation, but in a way that is well separated from
the content itself. Earlier still, the Model-View-Controller design pattern emerged from the Smalltalk
community in the 1980's. Under MVC, the model captures the business domain, while the view takes
care of the look and feel.
• At present, software developers have created new reporting software that achieves full integration with
Microsoft Products. The reports may all be viewed in Word, Access, or Excel, and do not require a report
viewer. Windward Studios is Crystal Reports main competitor due to this clever integration.
12. EXAMPLE
TEMPLATES APPLIED TO DATA
• Imagine using a template to define styles, for both fields and labels, that get reused across multiple reports.
• For example, let me define a field style called "currency" with these characteristics:
• 40 mm wide;
• Tahoma 10pt;
• 2 decimal places with a period separator;
• Leading "$" immediately to the left of the first digit;
• Digit groups of 3, with comma separators; and
• Right justified.
• Once defined, this style could be applied to a dozen fields within the report, and they all should be consistently
displayed. Any changes to the style ( IE: making all the fields 45mm wide) should be automatically propagated,
with any problems caused ( IE: fields that now overlap) being highlighted for easy resolution.
• This is not possible within crystal reports. The solution has been achieved by a new reporting software platform
separate from Crystal Reports, developed by a company called Windward Solutions addressing these issues.
13. DESIGN TEMPLATES WITH
WINDWARD STUDIOS
IMPORTING DATA TO TEMPLATES
• When previewing a report created with old data applied to a new template, Crystal Reports has a nasty habit of silently
failing. Sometimes, all you see on screen is a blank window with nothing at all. No diagnostic message, no error dialog, no
indication of failure, no picture of an empty page, no buttons, nothing.
• When this happens, development becomes a battle of wits with the machine - requiring me, the developer, to intuit (or
guess) the nature of the problem. Most of the time an error number is given, requiring research for explanation.
• All errors in the transfer of data to a template must be repaired by hand, one at a time. This is a very labor intensive process,
and results in a lot of troubleshooting, even when the developer has followed the correct procedures.
• The process is almost never automated, and it is unimaginable that a user, or a client would be able to upload their own
data seamlessly to a document created in Crystal Reports. If an online version of the report is to be provided, with live data
from the database, changing the layout of the report will require a physical human being to do the work manually. By
working with Microsoft, Windward Studios has solved these problems by using templates with the Auto Tag program.
ERRORS FROM USING TEMPLATES CAN BE AVOIDED!
14. CONCLUSUON
Crystal Reports is a very effective product that dominates both the mind-share and market-
share of the enterprise reporting space. I have however identified several areas where the
Crystal Reports makes life difficult when developers attempt to use templates.
Data Import / Export Problems with Cross Tabs
Interface and Presentation Problems
Template Errors Requiring Manual FIX
Hidden Information About Errors
For each of these areas, Windward Studios has provided an excellent solution. New features
that provide quantum leap in the productivity and output quality of Report Developers.
WINDWARD STUDIOS
NO SAP SERVER NEEDED
NO REPORT VIEWER TO DOWNLOAD
15. COSTS
INVESTMENT OF SOFTWARE
WITHOUT NEED FOR USING
SAP SERVER
1. WINWARD: $995.00
2. VIEWABLE IN
MICROSOFT
PRODUCTS
3. DOWNLOAD NOT
REQUIRED TO VIEW!
WINDWARD STUDIOS SUMMARY
ADVANTAGE
● NO PURCHASE OF SAP SERVERS TO
STORE REPORT OBJECTS
● NO CROSS TAB ERRORS
● SUPPORTS JAVA AND .NET
APPLICATIONS
● USER INTERFACE IS MORE
INTUITIVE FOR TEMPLATES
● WORKS WITH MICROSOFT ALL
PRODUCTS, WORD, XCEL, ACCESS
DISADVANTAGE
● TIME HAS BEEN SPENT LEARNING
CRYSTAL REPORTS PLATFORM
● ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT TIME
TO CREATE OUR OWN TEMPLATES
