Reporting with SAP Crystal Reports

Transcription

1 Coy W. Yonce, III 100 Things You Should Know About Reporting with SAP Crystal Reports Bonn Boston

2 Contents at a Glance 1 Report Layout Field Formatting Types of Reports and Forms Guided Analysis Using Web Technology with Reports Charting Creating Reusable and Accessible Report Designs Using Parameters Distributing Reports Extending the Design Experience Monitoring and Improving Report Performance

3 Contents Acknowledgments PART 1 Report Layout Creating Reports with Different Page Headers Repeating Group Headers across Pages Adding Watermarks to Reports Setting Up Unlinked Subreports Setting Up Linked Subreports Using Subreports as Templates for Headers and Footers Using On Demand or In Place Passing Data between Subreports and Main Reports Suppressing and Hiding Sections Suppressing a Blank Subreport or a Section with a Blank Subreport Creating Side-by-Side Reports Suppressing Duplicate Rows Displaying Records Horizontally Displaying a Checkbox in a Report Designing a Cover Page for Reports PART 2 Field Formatting Printing Vertical Text Fields Alongside Horizontal Text Fields Concatenating Strings with Different Formats Aligning the Vertical Alignment of Text in a Field Inserting Leading Zeroes for a Field Formatting Parts of a String Forcing a Header or Footer to Grow Automatically or Remain a Specific Size Displaying Values in a Field That s Based on a Parameter Creating a Running Total with Values Derived from a Formula Field Creating a Formula to Calculate an Average while Ignoring Zero Values Creating a Formula to Calculate a Minimum while Ignoring Zero Values Performing Data Type Conversions Checking for the Existence of Text

4 Contents PART 3 Types of Reports and Forms Creating Reports for Immediate Decision Making Creating Reports to Support Front Line Managers Creating Reports for Upper-Level Management Creating Mailing Labels Creating an Earnings Statement for a Paycheck Creating a Table of Contents for a Report Creating Calendars from an Excel Spreadsheet Laying Out Form Fields PART 4 Guided Analysis Highlighting Information Showing Visual Indicators Creating Tool Tips Enabling Drill-Down Reporting Creating a Gradual Drill-Down in a Report Sorting and Ranking within a Group Displaying Top N Records in a Report Based on a Parameter Applying and Formatting a Sort or Rank in a Crosstab Applying Color Banding to a Report Creating and Using Parameters in a Report Creating Dynamic Cascading Parameters PART 5 Using Web Technology with Reports Creating Reports from HTML Content Creating Hyperlinks in a Report Formatting Reports Using Cascading Style Sheets Creating Reports from Local XML Documents Using Web Services as a Data Source for a Report Creating XML Documents Using SAP Crystal Reports Publishing Reports as a Web Service PART 6 Charting Inserting Bar Charts in Report Details Creating a Combo Chart that Contains a Bar and Line Visualization Using Overlays with Complex Charting Removing Decimals in the X- and Y-Axis Formatting Dates in a Chart Creating Visualizations with Negative Values

5 Contents PART 7 Creating Reusable and Accessible Report Designs Creating Effective Report Templates Providing Default Formatting for a Field Using Chart Styles to Eliminate Unnecessary Report Elements Creating Reusable Formulas Setting Default Formatting Options Using Color Effectively Making Text Legible Ordering Report Objects for Screen Readers Making Tables Accessible for Screen Readers Naming Formula Fields for Ease of Use PART 8 Using Parameters Displaying Parameter Values in a Report Creating a Parameter That Provides an ALL Value Allowing Wildcards as a Parameter Value Providing Users with Groupings as a Parameter Value Controlling Values Entered into Parameters Finding and Deleting Stubborn Parameters from a Report Prompting the User for the N Value to Use for Top N Reports PART 9 Distributing Reports Scheduling Timely Reports Running Reports Based on Events or Triggers Designing Reports for Effective Excel Exports Choosing the Right Excel Export Option Analyzing Report Data with SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Sharing Reports on the Web Embedding Dynamic Reports in Microsoft Office Documents Exporting Reports to XML Creating Read-Only Reports PART 10 Extending the Design Experience Working with Files within a Report Sending s from a Report Exporting Data to CSV While Processing a Report Exporting Data to XML While Processing a Report Creating Barcodes in Your Reports Creating QR Codes in Reports Looking Up Text in an External File Creating a Report Index from an Existing Report

6 Contents 94 Using Templates to Create Labels Accessing Windows Functionality from a Report PART 11 Monitoring and Improving Report Performance Using a Built-in Dialogue to Monitor Report Performance Using Selection Formulas to Restrict Report Queries Hiding Unnecessary Data Offloading the Processing of Report Functions Using SQL Expressions The Author Index

7 Part 6 Charting Things You ll Learn in this Section 54 Inserting Bar Charts in Report Details Creating a Combo Chart that Contains a Bar and Line Visualization Using Overlays with Complex Charting Removing Decimals in the X- and Y-Axis Formatting Dates in a Chart Creating Visualizations with Negative Values Inserting charts into your reports provides your users with a visual way to understand relationships and patterns in the information being displayed. If the charts are designed well, they ll also allow users to make decisions faster. The tips in this section will help you learn the most efficient and effective ways to utilize charts in SAP Crystal Reports. 181

8 Tip 54 Inserting Bar Charts in Report Details You can provide your users with data visualizations directly beside the detailed text in a report. This allows users to see how the detailed item they re viewing compares to other items in the report. When viewing a report that has a significant amount of text in the detail, you should provide your users with some context regarding how the detailed level of data that they re viewing fits into the overall picture. Without a visual representation of how one report element relates to another, viewers must rely on pure text to make this comparison, which will slow down their analysis. However, inserting a bar chart alongside the specific items listed in the detail section of your report is not easy using the existing insert chart feature provided by SAP Crystal Reports So when you want to display a visual representation of how one value in your detail section relates to another value in your detail section, you must use special characters and formulas to create the proper visualization. And Here s How... For this solution, we ll will start with a listing report and use a formula to build an in-line bar chart alongside each value in the detail section. As you can see in Figure 1, the initial report displays the list of product categories and their associated sales revenue. 182

9 Charting Part 6 Figure 1 «Initial Report with Product Category and Sales First, create a formula that will calculate the percentage of total sales that are represented by each category. To do this, create a new formula field by right-clicking on Formula Fields and selecting New. Once the Formula Workshop dialogue is displayed, enter the following formula: {Category_Sales_for_1995.CategorySales} % Sum({Category_Sales_for_1995. CategorySales}) Now that you have the field that calculates the percentage of total sales, you can create another formula field to build the bar chart. Use the following formula for this purpose: ReplicateString (ChrW(9608), Round ({@Percentage of Total Sales}, 0)) Let s dissect this formula so that you can understand what s being done: EE The ReplicateString function repeats a string that s identified in the first argument the number of times that s specified in the second argument. E E ChrW(9608) is an ASCII character that looks like a solid black box. EE The Round function calculates the number of times the solid black box needs to be repeated by rounding the percentage formula created above to zero decimal places. Based on this formula, if we have a percentage amount of 23.1%, then the solid block box represented by ChrW(9608) will be repeated 23 times. After creating the formula above for displaying the bar chart, insert the percentage formula field and the bar chart formula field into the report by dragging them from the Field Explorer into the design canvas. This should give you a report that looks similar to the screen shown in Figure

10 Tip 54 Inserting Bar Charts in Report Details Figure 2 Report with In-Line Bar Chart Next, reduce the scale of the font used for building the bar chart so that you don t see spaces between the blocks. Access the Format Editor by right-clicking on the field and choosing Format Field. On the Font tab, you can specify a value for how many spaces should be between each character. The default value is zero. This tells SAP Crystal Reports to use the typeface s default value for spaces between characters. We re going to reduce the number of spaces by inserting a value. For our purposes we ll use a value of 5, but you can insert other values to determine the best one for your report. The end result will look similar to the screen shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Final Report 184

11 Tip 55 Creating a Combo Chart that Contains a Bar and Line Visualization By combining a bar chart with a line chart, you can show variations in values while also displaying a goal line of the value you want to achieve. When creating reports that contain visualizations, one of the most frequent needs is to display a bar chart that represents a comparison of a measure (e.g., revenue) over a period of time or across a specific context (e.g., product). While displaying how a dimension is tracking over time, it s also important to compare these values to a baseline or a goal. You can do this by inserting a line across the bar chart that represents the goal for each measure. Unfortunately, this is not straightforward using SAP Crystal Reports, and requires changing one of the series in the bar chart to a line. And Here s How... Let s create a report that has a single chart to display the change in revenue across a list of product categories. We ll insert a line across this bar chart that displays a goal line for revenue across each of the product categories. Figure 1 shows an initial chart available in the report that displays the sales revenue for each product category. 185

12 Tip 55 Creating a Combo Chart that Contains a Bar and Line Visualization Figure 1 Initial Visualization Using a Bar Chart Now we need to create the line that will run along the bars to display how close we have come to hitting the revenue goal for each product category. Since this data is contained within another data source, we need to add this data source to our report. To do this, choose Database Database Expert. Select the data source where the goal data is contained and insert the relevant tables into the selected tables on the right side of the Database Expert. Click on OK, and the fields from the new data source will be added to the Field Explorer. Now that the data is available, add this data into the current bar chart as another series. Right-click on the chart and choose Chart Expert. In the Chart Expert dialogue, navigate to the Data tab and insert the Revenue Goal field under the Show Value(s) heading by selecting the Revenue Goal field under Report Fields and clicking on the greater than (>) sign next to the Show Values(s) heading. Click on OK and you ll see that a new bar is inserted alongside the previous bar. This new bar represents the revenue goal. To change this bar into a line visualization, right-click on the bar and select Series Options. With the Series Options dialogue open, select Line for the Show Select Series As option. Click on OK and you ll see that the revenue goal is now displayed as a line across the bars that represent the actual revenue for each product category. After a bit of formatting, your chart can look something like the one shown in Figure

13 Charting Part 6 Figure 2 Final Visualization 187

14 Tip 56 Using Overlays with Complex Charting Building charts that can sit on top of one another in layers provide your users with more context about their data. There may be times when the charting capabilities don t allow you to build the visualization you require to display information to your users. For example, SAP Crystal Reports does allow you to build a combo chart that shows a line chart on top of a bar chart, but if you want to display the bar chart horizontally, then it s not possible to include a line as one of your series. In this tip, we ll show you how to bypass this issue and create this type of combo chart by using two charts, with one sitting on top of the other. And Here s How... Figure 1 displays a visualization that uses a horizontal bar chart for showing the total sales revenue for each product category. We want to create a line chart that represents the total revenue goal for each product category and overlay this line chart on top of the bar chart. Now, create the line chart that will display vertically across the top of the bar chart. The first thing to do is to insert a new report header section beneath the existing one. Right-click on the existing report header section and select Insert Section Below. This inserts a new report header called RHb. Now, insert a line chart into this new report header section. This opens the Chart Expert. On the Type tab of the Chart Expert, ensure that you re creating a line chart, and then set the chart to display 188

15 Charting Part 6 horizontally. Setting the chart to display horizontally forces the X-axis to become the vertical axis, thus displaying the line chart in the same orientation as the bar chart. Figure 1 Initial Visualization with a Bar Chart Navigate to the Data tab and use the Category Name field for the On Change of option and the Revenue Goal field for the Show Value(s) option. After a bit of formatting to remove unnecessary elements from the chart, you should have something similar to Figure 2. Figure 2 Line Chart with Ornamentation Removed The background color for the line chart needs to be set to transparent to allow the bars on the bar chart to show through the background of the line chart. To do this, 189

16 Tip 56 Using Overlays with Complex Charting right-click on the line chart and select Format Background. Set the foreground color to transparent rather than white and click on OK. The last step is to overlay the line chart on top of the bar chart to create the final visualization. Right-click on the RHa section (i.e., the one with the bar chart) and choose Section Expert. On the Common tab, select the Underlay Following Sections option. This forces the bar chart to display under the line chart. After a bit of formatting, you should have something similar to Figure 3. Figure 3 Final Visualization Showing a Bar Chart and Line Chart Together 190

17 Tip 57 Removing Decimals in the X- and Y-Axis You can help users better understand numeric values by removing unnecessary decimal places. Sometimes the numeric data coming from your database is stored with additional decimal places, even when there is no value after the decimal. When including these numeric values in the X- and/or Y-axis of a chart, showing values after the decimal adds nothing to the interpretation of the visualization and can be confusing for users. SAP Crystal Reports makes it possible to remove these decimal places easily for the Y-axis, but not as easily for the X-axis. And Here s How... The numeric values in the following chart that are coming from the database have values after the decimal; however, there s no need to display them, as they re always zeroes. So we re going to format the values to remove those decimal places shown in the X-axis in Figure 1. There are two ways to change the format of the X-axis and, unfortunately, neither of them are exposed via the Format Editor. You cannot format a numeric value in the X-axis using the normal field-formatting capabilities. 191

18 Tip 57 Removing Decimals in the X- and Y-Axis Figure 1 Initial Visualization with Decimals in the X-axis Default Numeric Formatting In the first option, change the default numeric formatting style. The X-axis of a chart uses the default styles for formatting the values. If you don t mind impacting the global formatting of all numeric values displayed in SAP Crystal Reports to use no decimal places by default, then you can use this option. Click on File Options, which brings up the Options dialogue, where you can navigate to the Fields tab. On this tab, you ll see various buttons that allow you to modify the default formatting options for the String, Number, Currency, Date, Time, Date and Time, and Boolean fields. For our purposes, we want to modify the default numeric value, so click on the Number button. This brings up the Format Editor. Navigate to the Number tab and can select an option with no decimal places under the Style dropdown menu, such as the one shown in Figure 2. Click on OK to close the various dialogues and then refresh your report. You should see that the decimal places are removed from the numeric values in the X-axis. 192

19 Charting Part 6 Figure 2 «Changing the Default Numeric Style Formula If you don t want to affect the global style for all numeric values, then you can use the second option: Create a formula that turns the number into a string. To do this, create a new formula field by right-clicking on Formula Fields and selecting New. In the Formula Workshop dialogue, enter the following formula: ToText ({auto_mpg_txt.mpg_continuous},0) This formula will convert the MPG field into a string and force the formatting to set the number of decimal places to zero. Next, replace the database field displayed in the chart with your new formula field. To do this, use the Chart Expert, which you access by right-clicking on the chart and selecting the Chart Expert command. In the Chart Expert dialogue, remove the current field in the On Change Of section of the chart by selecting the field under the On Change Of heading and clicking the less than (<) sign. Insert the formula field into the On Change Of section by selecting the formula field and clicking the greater than (>) sign as shown in Figure

20 Tip 57 Removing Decimals in the X- and Y-Axis Figure 3 Replacing a Numeric Field with a Text Field in the Chart Expert 194

21 Tip 58 Formatting Dates in a Chart You can help your readers understand reports more easily by ensuring that the dates displayed in your report follow the formats typically used by your organization. Often when you return data in a report, it isn t in the format you want to display. This is often the case with date fields, as they can be stored in a variety of formats depending upon the database or the application that inserted the data. If you display date formats with which your users aren t familiar, it creates confusion and potentially incorrect analysis of information. With SAP Crystal Reports 2011, it s possible to format the dates in a chart to be displayed based on specific requirements for each report. In this tip, we ll show you multiple ways to change the format of a date field in a chart. And Here s How... Let s look at a chart that displays the list of store open dates for a retail store and provides a count of the number of stores opened for each time period. As you can see from Figure 1, the report currently shows the date in a format of 1/1/2011. Figure 1 «Initial Chart with Default Date Format 195

22 Tip 58 Formatting Dates in a Chart Default Date Format The first method to format the dates is to modify the default date format. You can do this by changing the default format for all dates that are displayed in any report built using SAP Crystal Reports. If this is an option, access the Options menu and then click on File Options. In the Options dialogue, click on the Date button and then navigate to the Date tab. From here, you can modify the default date format. After changing the default date format, refresh your report to ensure that the new format is shown in your chart. Numeric Axis Chart If changing the default date format for all reports is not an option and you re using a bar, line, or area chart for your visualization, then you can use a numeric axis chart instead. To do this, open the Chart Expert by right-clicking on the chart and selecting Chart Expert. In the Chart Expert, navigate to the Type tab and select Numeric Axis. Be sure to select a date axis chart and then click on OK. This changes the chart type. You can now format the axis label by right-clicking on it in the chart and selecting Format Axis Label. As shown in Figure 2, you can navigate to the Number tab and change the Date format. «Figure 2 Date Format Options for Numeric Axis Chart 196

23 Charting Part 6 Base Chart off of Group Another method is to base the chart off of a group. First, insert a group into the report based on the date field you want to use in your report. Then insert a summary field for the measure you want to visualize. When inserting the summary (in our case, a count of the number of stores), be sure to select the Add to all Group Levels option before clicking on OK. You can now launch the Chart Expert and navigate to the Data tab. From here, click on the Group button as shown in Figure 3, and specify the group field and summary field to use for the chart. Format the date field in the group with the date format you want to use to display the date. Figure 3 Chart Based Off of a Group and Summary Field Base Chart off of Crosstab Your final option is to base the chart off of a crosstab rather than a group. To do this, you first need to insert a crosstab into your report with the values you want to use for your visualization. Once you ve inserted the crosstab, access the Chart Expert and navigate to the Data tab. As shown in Figure 4, select the fields you want to use for your chart. You have the additional option of subdividing your chart, based on the rows in the crosstab. You can then format the date field in the crosstab to affect the format of the date field in the chart. 197

24 Tip 58 Formatting Dates in a Chart Figure 4 Chart Based Off of a Crosstab 198

25 Tip 59 Creating Visualizations with Negative Values When you create reports for analytical purposes, you may need to create charts that effectively display negative values. You can do this by modifying the scale of the report. When creating visualizations that report off of numeric values, you need to include the potential to visually display negative numbers. This is helpful when creating visualizations that show inventory levels where there are backorders or negative profit margins. Including negative values in your visualizations properly takes some understanding of the available options in the Chart Expert. With SAP Crystal Reports, you can create these types of visualizations by modifying the scale of the chart, which we ll explain in this tip. And Here s How... For this solution, we ll create a report that contains a bar chart for displaying the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Atlanta, Georgia, from 2001 to The dataset currently has values for the year, the month within each year, and the CPI for each month. It doesn t contain a value representing a change in the CPI. The first thing to do is create a formula field to calculate the change. Your formula should look like the following: {Pivot_.CPI} - Previous({Pivot_.CPI}) With this formula field created, you can now create your visualization. For our purposes, we ll create a group on the year and then insert a chart into a secondary group header, as you can see in Figure

26 Tip 59 Creating Visualizations with Negative Values Figure 1 Initial Chart Missing Values As you can see, we re missing several values from the formula field. One of the reasons for this is that the CPI can only be tracked for each month in the dataset. The other reason is because the bar chart only shows positive values. To ensure that the chart shows negative values, you need to change the ranges for the axis. Right-click on the chart and choose Chart Expert. Once the Chart Expert dialogue is open, navigate to the Axes tab. As shown in Figure 2, turn off the Auto Range option and set a manual range. Select the Min and Max ranges that are appropriate for your data. For example, if your possible lowest value is -10, then you should set the Min to a value of -10. Figure 2 Modifying the Data Range in the Chart Expert 200

27 Charting Part 6 After clicking on OK to close the Chart Expert dialogue, you ll notice that your bar chart displays a zero line with bars going above and below the zero line. The next step is to apply a color change to the bars based on whether the value is above or below zero. Reopen the Chart Expert dialogue, but choose the Color Highlight tab. Click New to create a new condition and select the CPI Change field as the field to evaluate. Set the evaluation to be less than a value of 0.00 and set Format Color to Red, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Color Highlighting in the Chart Expert The condition you just created will change the color of the bar to red if the visualized value is less than 0. You can now create a new condition to evaluate the same field for a value greater than zero. After creating both conditions and exiting the Chart Expert, you ll see that you have green and red lines based on the value of the CPI change field. Clean up the bar chart by turning off the gridlines; right-click on the Y-axis label and select Data (Y) Axis Options. In the Data (Y) Axis Settings dialogue, navigate to the Gridlines tab and turn off the Show Major Gridlines option. To clean the bar chart even further, set the chart frame border to be transparent so that only the zero line, X-axis line, and Y-axis line are displayed, as shown in Figure

28 Tip 59 Creating Visualizations with Negative Values Figure 4 Final Visualization 202

29 Index?ALL, 242, 245 A Accounts Receivable statements, 124 Add custom value, 243 Additional functions, 286, 292, 310 a href, 162, 164 Allow custom values, 253 Allow multiple values, 237 ALL value in parameter, 239 Alternating page headers, 14 Analysis, 127 Appearance and personalization, 299 Array, 95, 245 asmx, 172, 179, 180 ASP.NET web site, 167, 179 Attributes, 162 Auto Range option, 200 Average, 323 Average calculation, 86 Axes tab, 200 AZTN, 301 B B, 162 Background color, 168 Bar chart, 182, 185, 186, 211 Bar chart and line chart, 190 Barcodes, 298, 301 Base chart off crosstab, 197 Base chart off group, 197 BIG, 162 BI inbox, 260 BI launch pad, 104 BODY, 162 Boolean, 52, 192 Bottom N, 107, 144, 148, 253 Bottom percentage, 107 BR, 162 Build website, 180 Business processes, 102 C Calendar, 119, 123, 259 Cascading Style Sheets, 166 CDate, 91 CDateTime, 91 CENTER, 162 Change group options, 18 Change subreport links, 26, 35, 45, 123, 251 Character spacing exactly, 59 Chart, 105, 107, 181, 211 Chart Expert, 106, 186, 193, 199, 212 Chart styles, 211 Checkbox, 52, 53 Checking for null values, 94 Checking for numeric values, 93 Checking for the existence of a partial text string, 94 Checking for the existence of text, 93 Checkmark, 132 Chelsea Technologies, 286, 289, 292, 295 CodeType, 302 Color-banded rows, 150 Color banding, 149 Color highlighting, 201 Color Highlight tab, 201 COM and.net UFLs, 286, 289, 292, 295 Combo chart, 185 Comparison of a measure, 185 Complex charting, 188 Composite information view, 44 Concatenate, 61 Concatenating Strings with different formats, 61 Conditional format, 130, 132 Conditional formulas, 129 Conditionally hiding subreports,

30 Index Conditional page header, 14 Confidential, 20 data, 19 text object, 20 Consumer Price Index (CPI), 199 Controlling values, 246 Conversions, 90 Count, 95 Cover page, 54 CR.COM, 273 Create custom value, 240 Create new parameter, 152, 156, 157 Create parameter, 154 Create reports from local XML documents, 170 Create running total field, 87 Creating operational reports, 98 Crosstab, 147 CrossTab Expert, 147 Crosstab top N, 148 CRUFLContents, 305 CRUFLFileManagement, 286 CRUFLFileManagement.dll, 286 CRUFLGrid, 292 CRUFLIndex, 305 CRUFLXML, 295 CrystalKiwi, 305 Crystal Reports, 275, 276 CrystalReports.com, 273, 274 Crystal Reports read only, 281 CrystalReportViewer, 168 CSS, 168 CSV, 279, 292 Currency, 192 CurrentLocale, 304 Custom functions, 215 Customize group name, 119 cviewmail, 289 D Data, 302 Database, 326 Database Expert, 160, 174 Database files, 171 Data labels, 106 Data range, 200 Data type conversions, 90 Data (Y) axis options, 201 Data (Y) axis settings, 201 Date, 91, 192 Date and time, 192 DateDiff, 288 DatePart, 120, 122 DateTime, 91 DayOfWeek, 120, 122 Default.aspx, 168 Default date format, 195 Default formatting options, 218 Default numeric style, 193 Define, 261 Destination, 260 Detail, 137, 156 section, 149 Directed analysis, 127 Display parameter values, 236 Display string, 52 Display user values, 238 Distinct count, 323 DIV, 162 dlsoft, 300 DLU2Dbars, 301 Double, 91 DrillDownGroupLevel, 139, 140 Drilling, 105, 136, 321 Drill-through reporting, 136 Duplicate records, 47 Dynamic cascading parameters, 156 Dynamic cascading prompt, 158 Dynamic list of values, 237 Dynamic reports, 275 E Earnings Statement, 112, 114 Edit Mask option, 247 Edit parameter, 240 Edit Parameter dialogue, 237, 244 Effective Excel exports, 264 , 260, 289 Enterprise, 258 Enterprise reporting, 97 Evaluation time,

31 Index Events, 261 Events to trigger upon completion, 263 Events to wait for, 263 Excel, 264, 267, 269 export, 267 Explorer in the cloud, 271 Export, 264, 267, 279, 281, 295 report, 280 Export data to XML, 295 Exporting data to CSV, 292 Extending the design experience, 285 F Field Explorer, 29, 174, 236 Field formatting, 57 Field interpreted as HTML, 161 Fields, 207, 208 FileManagementFileCopy, 287, 288 FileManagementFileDelete, 288 FileManagementFileExists, 287 File system, 260 Filters, 127 Find and delete parameters, 250 Find in formulas, 250 Fit section, 265 FONT, 162 Fonts, 207 Footers, 28 Form, 126 Format, 259 Best practices, 264 Format background, 190 Format Editor, 134, 218 Format field, 52, 160, 164 Format graphic, 132, 301 Format subreport, 31, 32 Formatting dates, 195 Formatting the chart, 106 Formula, 136 field, 136 workshop, 134, 149 Formula field, 293, 301, 323 Formulas, 90, 325 Formula Workshop, 66, 115, 176, 183, 215, 240, 242, 304 Free-form text, 246 Front line managers, 102 Front line personnel, 98 FTP, 260 Funds Transfer Forms, 124 G Global, 95, 115, 217 Goal line, 185 Gradual drill-down, 138 Graphic location, 302 GridCellClear, 293 GridCellLoadRawValue, 293 GridCellSave, 294 Gridlines, 106 Grids, 265 Grid UFL, 293 Group, 103 Group by, 120 Group Expert, 138 Group footer, 89, 142, 176 Group header, 17, 39, 89, 100, 101, 103, 117, 120, 130, 136, 141, 156, 176 GroupName, 130 Group Report Expert, 147 Group Sort Expert, 142, 143, 146, 254 Guided analysis, 127 Guidelines, 265 H H1, 162 Headers, 28 Hide, 38, 137, 140 drill-down OK, 40 report sections, 15, 38 Hide (drill-down OK), 137 Hide (drill-down okay), 321 Hierarchy, 17, 156 Highlighting, 129 information, 128 Highlighting Expert, 128, 129 HL7, 279 Horizontal alignment, 219 Horizontal bar chart,

32 Index Horizontal records, 50 HTML, 160, 162, 279 HTML anchor tag, 164 HTML tags, 160, 162 Hyperlinks, 163 Hyperlinks inserted into report, 165 I IDAutomation, 298 IDAutomation_SUni_XL, 299 IDAutomation_Uni_C128C, 299 Ignoring zero values, 87 Import XML transform, 279 Improving report performance, 313 Inbox, 260 Include negative values, 199 Index, 306 IndexEntryClear, 306 IndexEntrySave, 306 IndexEntryStore, 306 Indexes, 323 Informative text, 133 INI, 310 In-line bar chart, 182, 184 In place, 31 Insert subreport, 22, 25, 34, 45 InStr, 94 InStrRev, 94 Interactive analysis, 275 Interactive report elements, 127 Interpret text as HTML, 163 Invoice, 124 IsNull, 94, 176 J Join, 238 JXDM, 279 K Keep group together, 18 L Labels, 58, 109, 111, 307 Landscape, 119 Languages, 260 Latest report changes, 315 Layout, 264 Leading zeroes, 69 Left, 63 Line chart, 185, 188, 189 Linked subreports, 25 Listing, 115 List of values, 99, 125, 241 LiveOffice, 275, 277 add-on, 275 Live Office Insert Wizard, 276 Load template, 213 Local, 115, 288 Locales, 304 LocalLookup, 303 Long-term strategic reports, 105 Long-term trends, 105 Look up, 303, 304 Look up text, 303 M Mailing Label Report Wizard, 109, 110, 307 Main report, 44 with two subreports side-by-side, 46 Main report preview, 167 MakeArray, 245 Manage XML exporting, 279 formats, 279, 280 Map Fields dialogue, 308 Match type, 309 Max, 200 Median, 136 Metrics, 102, 105 Microsoft Excel, 270 ( ), 267 ( ) Data-only, 268 Workbook data-only, 259, 269 Microsoft Office documents, 275 Microsoft Word, 109, 275 Min,

33 Index Minimum, 87 Modify the default numeric value, 192 Monitoring report performance, 313 Month, 122 More data sources, 288 Multiple context, 105 Multiple page headers, 14 N Negative values, 199 New page after, 55 Non-zero values, 86 Nth day of the month, 259 Number, 192 Number converted to words, 92 Number of records, 317 Numbers to text, 92 Number to date conversion, 91 Numeric axis chart, 196 Numeric fields, 69 NumericText, 93 O Object properties, 278 Object size and position, 265 Office 2007, 269 Offload, 322 On-demand, 31 subreport, 32 Open from repository, 278 Operational report, 98, 99 Options, 218 Options dialogue, 192, 196 Orientation, 105 Outlook, 311 Outlook.exe, 312 Overlays, 188 P Page, 55 Page footer, 177 Page header, 14, 19, 125, 177 Page number, 15 Paragraph, 161 Parameter, 99, 127, 144, 152, 157, 235 field, 101, 125, 144, 152, 156, 235, 236, 240, 247 panel, 247 value, 243 value masks, 246 Parameter edit mask options, 248 Passing data between subreports, 34 Paycheck, 112 PDF, 114 Performance Information dialogue, 314 Performance timing, 314 Perform grouping on server, 322, 326 Picture, 131, 301 Precisely formatted, 97 Printing, 14 Print state, 217 Processing, 315 Prompt group text, 125 Prompts, 259 Publish report as a web service, 178, 179 Purchase orders, 124 Q QR code, 300 image, 301 R Rank, 141, 147 Rank in a crosstab, 147 Ranking, 144, 253 parameter, 145 Read only, 281 Read-only reports, 281 RecordNumber, 293 Record Selection Formula, 101, 104, 122 Record Selection Formula Editor, 154 Recurrence, 259 Reducing the amount of information, 128 Refresh all objects, 278 Refresh object, 277 Removing decimals, 191 Repeating group headers,

34 Index ReplicateString, 183 Report custom function, 215 Report definition, 252, 315 Report footer, 177 Report header, 105, 177 Report header template, 29 Report index, 305, 306 Report layout, 13 Report options, 323 Report preview, 167 Report Wizard, 23 Reposition images, 132 Repository, 257 Request for disability forms, 124 Reset page number after, 55 Right, 63 Round, 183 rptr, 281 Rulers, 265 Running totals, 87, 323 S SAP BusinessObjects, 104 SAP BusinessObjects BI, 258 platform, 258, 274, 276 SAP BusinessObjects BI launch pad, 258 SAP BusinessObjects Central Management Console, 261 SAP BusinessObjects Edge, 258 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, 270 SAP BusinessObjects LiveOffice, 275, 277 SAP BusinessObjects OnDemand, 270 SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010, 166 standalone viewer, 271 template, 167 viewer, 270 SAP Crystal Server, 258 Save as, 273 Save as template, 213 Saved data, 315 Save to repository, 278 Schedule, 259, 261, 263 Scheduling, 258 Schema, 171 Section Expert, 15, 20, 38, 40, 55, 111, 137, 139, 149, 190, 321 Select data in subreport based on field, 27 Select distinct records, 48 Select Expert, 125 Selection formulas, 101, 104, 122, 154, 207, 245, 317, 318 SendMailUFL, 289 Separated values (CSV), 269 Series, 106 Series options, 186 SetClipboardText, 312 Set CSS class, 168 Set datasource location, 307 dialogue, 307 Set the text interpretation, 161 Setup, 119 Shared, 217 Sharing data between reports, 25 ShellExecute, 311, 312 Short-term strategic objectives, 102 Short-term strategic reports, 102 Show major gridlines, 201 Side-by-side reports, 44 Single value selection, 243 Size and position, 265 SMALL, 162 Smart tag, 168 SMTPMsgBody, 290 SMTPMsgClear, 290 SMTPMsgSaveOutbox, 290 SMTPMsgSendOutbox, 291 Solution Explorer, 168 Sort, 147 Sorted and ranked crosstab, 148 Sorted group header, 142 Sort Expert, 148 Sorting, 141 Sorts, 127 SPAN, 162 Span a single section, 58 Span multiple sections, 60 Special fields, 54 Split, 114 SQL,

35 Index expressions, 325, 326 Standard Report Creation Wizard, 23, 206 STRIKE, 162 String, 192 Strings with different formats, 61 StringVar, 117, 288, 290, 311 Style, 168 of the report, 166 Sub-divide chart, 197 Subreport, 107, 108 options, 42 Subreports, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 44 as templates, 28 Sum, 126, 130 Summary, 141 Supported HTML attributes, 162 Supported HTML tags, 162 Suppress, 38, 48, 105, 118, 119, 132, 137, 139, 140 blank subreport, 41 duplicate rows, 47 no drill-down, 51 page header, 15 report sections, 38 Switch to fields, 276 System events, 262 T Table of Contents, 115, 118, 306 Tags, 162 Template Expert, 206, 210 Templates, 109, 204, 208, 307 Text interpretation, 165 Text object, 124 Text to numbers, 92 Time, 91, 192 ToNumber, 92 Toolbox, 168 Tool tip, 133 text, 134 Top N, 107, 143, 144, 148, 253, 323 reports, 253 Top percentage, 107 ToText, 63, 116, 135, 193, 312 ToWords, 92 TR, 162 Tracking over time, 185 Triggers, 261 Type conversions, 90 Types of reports, 97 U U21win32, 310 UBound, 66, 95 UFL, 285, 289, 292, 295, 298, 300, 303, 305, 310, 311 Underlay following sections, 20, 60 Universe query, 275 Unlinked subreports, 22 Update, 308 UpperCase, 62 Use a formula, 89 Use editor, 216 Use export options defined in the report, 260 Use extractor, 215 Use formula as group name, 119 Use indexes or server for speed, 323 User-filtered values, 236 User function libraries, 217 User function libraries (UFL), 285, 310 User parameters, 239 Use web service data source, 173 V Value options, 247, 253 Variable, 66 Variations in values, 185 Vertical alignment, 65 Vertical field spanning multiple sections, 60 Vertical text fields, 58, 59 View in browser, 180 Visual indicators, 131 Visual information, 105 Visualizations, 211 Visual Studio,

36 Index W Watermarks, 19 Web-based data formats, 159 Web-based viewer, 274 Web-enabled data structures, 159 Web Service Definition Language, 172 Web services, 170, 172, 173, 174, 178 Web technology, 159 WhilePrintingRecords, 293, 296 Wildcards as a parameter value, 241 Windows variables, 310 World Label, 307 WSDL, 172, 173 X X-axis, 192, 201 XBRL, 279 xlsx, 269 XML, 170, 171, 172, 175, 176, 177, 279, 295, 296, 304 export options, 280 transform (XSL), 279 XML and web services, 172 data source, 173 XMLFileCloseheader, 297 XMLFileCreateheader, 296 XMLFileEndGroup, 296 XMLFileStartGroup, 296 XMLFileWriteTag, 296 XSL, 279 Xunit, 302 Y Y-axis, 201 Year, 62,