Creating Graphical Reports

Part one of article:

By: Frahan Zia

Some of the power that Microsoft .NET provides to accomplish converting business data into reports using Crystal Reports.

Editor's Note: This article's code has been updated to work with the final release of the .Net framework.

Reports are an integral part of many applications. Business activities like monthly sales, collected receivables, etc., are usually presented in reports. All to the good, then, if the reports can be presented in a graphical format - graphs allow us to take in data more quickly and spot trends more easily. In this article, we will take a simple but fully functional example of a business web application to create the scenario for displaying such reports. Our application will be a 3-tier model. We will be using ASP.NET with C# code behind pages to accomplish our task, with a Visual Basic .NET middle tier component and SQL

XML Data Type

Author: S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton

Publsihed: 10 January 2007

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 introduced a new data type, the XML data type. Now you can associate an XML schema with XML table columns to force them to adhere to constraints defined within the specified schema. Such XML table columns are ideal to save InfoPath forms in, since InfoPath forms are based on XML schemas and have XML data as output.
In this article we will set up a database table that has an XML column associated with the XML schema of an InfoPath form. We will then use an ASP.NET page to submit and save InfoPath forms to the database table. We will also discuss common challenges you may encounter when trying to set up such a solution.
This article assumes that you have experience developing InfoPath forms, working with SQL Server and Internet Information Server, and that you are familiar with C# and ASP.NET.

XML Vakudator Buddy

Author:Ewa Ciecierska

Summary:Learn how to do XML batch validation using ValidatorBuddy

Take a look at spycomponents.com to see how you can do quick and easy XML batch validation using ValidatorBuddy.

Use ValidatorBuddy from the command line and deploy the results anywhere you like.
Use ValidatorBuddy within XMLSpy and do additional processing to the results such as XSLT processing, export to Database or any other possibility offered by the XMLSpy API.

Server Technology

Part 4 Server Technology
by:Reports guru David McAmis

And at long last there is a single merge module you can use to deploy your application, which makes creating installation and setup packages much easier. There has been a renewed focus on this area with this release and it is now possible to setup packages that install right the first time.

On the Java side of things, the enhancements are along the same lines, with the exception of dynamic parameters which didn’t make it in time for the first release. However, there are enough new features though to keep most Java developers happy, including a new JavaServer Faces(JSF) Viewer and set of custom JSF tags to cut down on development time.

There are a number of enhancements to the Java API itself, with additional methods that give more control over the data source and location. There is also an updated version of the Java Reporting Component that brings it closer to rough parity to with the other platform API’s.

Updated Server Technology
This version of the product not only includes new features, both for report design and application development but also brings together the platform components from Crystal Decisions and Business Objects. Business Objects bought Crystal Decisions over a year ago and this version represents the first “combined” product featuring the tools and functionality from both product lines.

The first immediate benefit for application developers is Crystal Reports Server, which provides a subset of the features and functionality found in Business Objects Enterprise, which is an enterprise framework for publishing reports to the Web, as well as scheduling and distributing reports in a secure environment. And in addition to the subset of features, it is also a subset of the price, at around AU$12,000 for 5 concurrent users.
Crystal Reports Server brings the core report scheduling and distribution framework and functionality to application developers, which they can use to create scalable, multi-tier applications for small to medium-sized user bases. And when scalability to thousands of users is required, there are only minor changes required to use the same code with the full-strength Business Objects Enterprise.

It also bears mentioning that the licensing within both Crystal Reports and related products has been simplified and now is much more competitive with other products in the market. For most internal applications you won’t need any additional licensing and if you are developing applications for commercial distribution, there is a free runtime for thick-client applications and simplified process for any components that are licensed and would require a software license.

Summary
So in the end, this release offers a little bit of something for everyone. Report developers will love the new look and feel and features found in the report designer itself, while application developers can look forward to an updated set of tools and technologies to help them easily integrate reports into their application.

New Developer Features

Part 3 of Crystal Reports XL
by: Reports guru David McAmis

For developers, there is a grab-bag of new features regardless of whether you develop in .NET, COM or Java. To start, Crystal Reports XI now includes the ability to store images external to the report file itself. This may seem like a small thing, but it has been a sore point with developers for a while, especially with web developers who want to use Crystal Reports in Web applications but don’t want to store the images in the report itself, which could increase the file size dramatically.

In addition, the use of CSS Style Sheets has been better documented in this version, making it a viable option for Web developers who want to integrate reports with the same look-and-feel into their web applications.

For application developers integrating reports into their .NET applications, the viewer components have been updated (Figure 3) and include all of the new features found in the report designer (dynamic parameters, new export formats, etc.). There is a setting to disable tool-tips, which was an annoying feature in previous versions, as most report developers would not enter tool-tips for each element on the report.

Dynamic Parameters

Part 2 of Crystal Reports XI
by:Reports guru David McAmis takes the new version for a spin.

This version introduces the concept of “cascading” parameters, where the values shown in a list of values are determined by your previous selection. For example, going back to our previous example, you could set up two parameters, “Manager” and “Employee”. Whenever you selected a manager, the next parameter value list would be filtered to only show those employees who work for that manager.


This flexible approach to report parameters should mean less time coding custom application pages for reporting and more time spent getting on with the application development.
In terms of time-saving features, the updated charting components make it possible to simply insert a chart into your report and let Crystal Reports decide what data and chart type should be created. Often this will not be the final desired result, but it does make it easy to quick pull together visual, information-rich reports without having to click through multiple dialogs to get a simple chart.


This same concept has also been applied to cross-tabs, with a single click all that is required to place a cross-tab object in your report. Unlike charts, there isn’t an easy way to automatically select the content for the cross-tab but just the creation of a blank cross-tab is enough of a time saver to make you want to use cross-tabs again.

Crystal Reports XI

Part 1 of Crystal Reports XL
by: Local reports guru David McAmis takes the new version for a spin.

Most developers might know Crystal Reports from versions included in Studio, Visual Studio.NET, and other popular developer IDE’s such as BEA Workshop, C# Builder, Delphi 2005, JBuilder, WebSphere.


In this latest installment both report and application developers have something to be excited about as there are a host of new features for report design and integration. Here’s a run-down of what you can expect in this release.


Updated Report Designer The first thing developers will notice when they first open the Crystal Reports XI designer is a new user interface. The changes to the UI are apparent from the start, with a new “Start Page” that features links to external resources, sample reports, a list of report wizards, and the most recent reports you have been working with.


The toolbars and icons have also been updated and developers who are familiar with Crystal Reports will notice that when you open multiple reports, a new tabbed interface has been included to allow you to switch quickly between open reports. The report designer also features a new “Project Workbench”, shown below in Figure 1, that you can use to organise reports into projects and publish these reports en-masse to Crystal Reports Server.

Taking Advantage

In addition to maps, charts, and graphs, ArcGIS provides two tools for generating reports that are available directly from the ArcMap interface. A generic reporting tool creates simple reports that can be added to a layout and can use group layers. The other choice, Crystal Reports, is an industry standard application that produces sophisticated, presentation-quality reports.

With ArcGIS 8.3, users receive a full standalone copy of Crystal Reports 9 from Crystal Decisions. This article shows users how to take advantage of the Crystal Reports wizard that is integrated with ArcMap in ArcGIS ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo. The wizard minimizes the learning curve for new users by walking them through the report creation process and helps more experienced users generate reports quickly. For stand-alone reports, Crystal Reports supplies extensive sorting and grouping functionality and incorporates formulas and templates that speed report generation.

However, if an appropriate template is not available for the desired report, the formatting options available solely from the wizard are limited. Because ArcGIS comes with a full copy of Crystal Reports, a good strategy is to rough the report out using the wizard from the ArcGIS interface and go directly into Crystal Reports to refine the report.