Many people want to have vertical lines that run through all of the detail records in a report and so they draw lines that cross over the details, going from header to footer. But a problem arises when the details carry over a page break. Lines that cross over the Details section may extend below the last Detail of the page, down to the page footer. This is especially likely to happen when you have a deep Details section. This is because a deep section may not fit at the bottom of the page, leaving a large white space. Lines that cross over the Details section will continue through this space.

The alternative approach is to have the lines contained completely within the Details section. Continue Reading »
Vertical lines hang down too low at the bottom of the page

Indexes in the database normally improve the performance of a report. But I had a situation with a customer this week where the index caused a report to misbehave. The user ran a simple report listing account numbers. The report had no selection criteria. One of the account numbers showed up in two different records. But when he added a selection criteria to select just that one account number, only one of the two records was returned. The account numbers were identical and there were no other report features (like select distinct or group on server) that would affect the number or records returned. He puzzled over it for hours before sending me a copy of the report with saved data.When I added the same criteria at my end (and used the saved data) I got both records. But when I sent it back to him and he clicked “Refresh” he got only one.

That told me the problem wasn’t in the report. Continue Reading »
The index that ate my data

The brand new Crystal Reports 12 (or 2008) no longer includes the sample MDB that has been provided ever since I started working with Crystal 12 year ago. You still have sample reports but they all read XML data that is on the BO web site. You can download the XML data but I still prefer the MS Access format, because it can be made to behave just like the normal SQL based data that everyone uses. It is what is used in all of my books and is also used in most of the BO Knowledgebase examples. If you don’t have a version of Crystal with the MDB you can download a copy from the SAP support site.

If you are going to use one of these with the sample reports in my guide books then you should set up an ODBC connection to the database by following these steps: Continue Reading »
CR 2008 doesn’t include the Xtreme.MDB

According to this press release, Business Objects is planning a 10% price increase for most of their product line as of January 2008.  It doesn’t affect Crystal Reports (and Xcelsius) but does affect most of the other products and web based training.  They are also eliminating ’standard’ support.   The lowest level of support will be ‘corporate’.   I have read speculation that this is related to the SAP acquisition (happening this week).

If you are planning on deploying a COM application you should NOT upgrade to Crystal Reports 2008. The Report Design Component (RDC) is no longer supported starting with CR v12 (or 2008).   The .NET SDK documentation and Merge Modules/MSI files are still available but are a separate download on the CR start page.    For more of what is missing in CR 2008 see the very bottom of the “What’s New” (PDF) document.