The Steps in Creating a Crystal Report - an Overview
Whilst systems and companies vary widely, the process of writing a report with Crystal Reports is broadly quite similar. Being divided into a number of sections that need to be executed in order and with precision, the steps below provide a high level view of the procedure.
- Step 1 - Planning the Report
The first and obvious part of the process is to lay out exactly what you wish to achieve, what data you wish to analyse and perhaps most importantly how the data gained will be useful to your organisation.
- Step 2 - Creating the Framework of the Report
Before any data can be retrieved, a connection to the data source must be made, tables must be added and any objects positioned and sized.
- Step 3 - Selecting Records
Using the "Select Expert" the criteria for selecting the records must be set, the data then retrieved and modified as required.
- Step 4 - Data Organisation
Here the sorting and grouping of records and the summarising of the data is carried out.
- Step 5 - Formatting the Report
Any specialist formatting is now carried out, as is the adding of graphical elements and the combining of text objects with database fields.
- Step 6 - Formula Creation and Formatting
Here all the formulas are defined and any necessary formatting at section level actioned.
- Step 7 - Representing the Data Visually
Chart creation etc. is carried out at this stage.
- Step 8 - Distributing the Report
Covers the areas of exporting and saving the report to BusinessObjects Enterprise systems as applicable
As pointed out, this is a very high level description and covers only the basics in just one of our many Crystal Reports training courses. Courses designed to give you and your staff the abilty to access and understand your company's data and then transform that data into information.
Crystal Reports - Powerful but Complex
As can be seen by the very high level "walk through" above, Crystal Report writing is not for the untrained or inexperienced, as it would be all too easy to create a report that was actually not telling the whole story. So, if your organisation is serious about business and wants to produce quality accurate results from its data, then Contemporary can help, either by providing a report writing service or by training your staff so that they can fully access, understand and therefore utilise the data held in your corporate systems.
The accurate insights you gain will enable your business to make business decisions easier and faster, something that could really give your company the competitive edge that is needed today.
See Contemporary's extensive range of courses on Crystal Reports
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the difference between data and information?
A: Data can mean a lot of things to people but we are all guilty of walking into meetings with spreadsheets of data that is really just numbers and doesn’t mean that much to people that haven’t written them. What we are looking at with information, is making it available in a format that is instantly readable and relevant to the individual person that is looking at that information. And the other side of it is that it might not be just numbers or numerical figures, it may be that information around the business; documents knowledge, and other information that we may want to look at and that’s business intelligence.
How does BI save me money and make me more competitive?
Q: Can you give me an example of how this can save me money or make me more competitive?
A: Well, if you think of the example of a commercial banking or retail banking organisation. Enquiries coming in from customers, where the employee needs to make a critical decision which could affect the viability of the business. If someone phones me up and asks for a loan, enterprise reporting allows me to look at their repayment history their current outstanding debt and allows me to make a better decision as to whether I should go ahead with that business transaction.
Public or On Site Training?
Q: Should I opt for a Public Scheduled Course or an On Site Training Course?
A: The choice comes down to whether you are seeking to train some individuals or a group of people. If it is individuals who require the training and can attend the public classes- that will be very cost effective. If however, you have a group of people who you wish to train at about the same time you should probably look at an on-site training course.
I'm not sure that the regular Training Courses fit our organisations needs, what are the options?
Q: Can you give me an example of how to tailor a training course?
A: Typical tailor training courses or custom courses would involve the training provider offering 2 to 3 days of consulting to actually look at the data to be used with your organisation and then adapt the training course to use that data. That offers significant advantage over many training courses that just use standard training data base- retail as an example. Using this method of customising the training you get a much better return on investment and you are working with real life information.
How would e-learning fit into a Custom Training Programme?
Q: What are your thoughts on e-learning?
A: e-learning offers a number of advantage points it is very useful for people that are very busy and are on the road a lot who just want to quickly do a couple of hours learning on a product. So a portable e-learning solution will help them. Many people don't like that approach and prefer class room training. There are also initiatives in e-learning that enable us to customise e-learning solutions around a particular customers applications, so from working from a set of templates we can custom the training so that it actually reflects their own business, so e-learning has its place amongst other strategies? - it is very useful for maintaining your return on investment over a long period of time or over the life cycle of a project.
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