Crystal Reports is a business intelligence application used to design and generate reports from a wide range of data sources. Several other applications, such as Microsoft Visual Studio, bundle an OEM version of Crystal Reports as a general purpose reporting tool. Crystal Reports became the de facto standard report writer when Microsoft released it with Visual Studio.
Featuers:
Report Designer:
Crystal Reports allows users to graphically design data connections and report layout.In the Database Expert and users can select and link tables from a wide variety of data sources, including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Oracle databases, Business Objects Enterprise business views, and local file system information. Fields from these tables can be placed on the report design surface, and can also be used in custom formulas using either BASIC or Crystal's own syntax .Crystal Reports comes integrated with Visual Studio. Crystal Reports allows Java developers to build applications with Crystal Reports components.
Formatting and Design:
Crystal Reports offers a high degree of flexibility and control over how data is presented and formatted. Visual report designer. Quickly design interactive reports using an intuitive, drag-and-drop interface and object-oriented explorers. Experts and wizards. Use optional experts and wizards to simplify common reporting tasks such as connecting to a data source, selecting, grouping, sorting, and summarizing data. Any report type. Create virtually any report you need including cross-tab, conditional, top N/bottom N, summary/drill-down, form, mailing label, OLAP, and subreport. Charting and mapping. Increase the graphical impact of your reports by choosing from a wide variety of map and chart types including bar/3D bar, pie/doughnut, line, gantt, gauge, funnel, XY scatter, ranged map, dot density map, and more. Customizable templates. Spend less time formatting individual reports. Design and apply customized templates that specify standards in formatting and logic including data access operations to ensure design consistency across reports.You can even use existing reports as templates.
Report Viewing and Interaction:
Crystal Reports provides flexible options that let end users view and interact with information in familiar formats and via familiar environments. Multiple export formats : Provide end users with reports in the format they prefer. Export reports to popular formats, including Excel, PDF, XML, HTML, RTF, and more. Alerting : Highlight specific information for your end users with report alerts. Parameters : Let users view the same data in different ways without creating multiple reports. Guided navigation: Define specific navigation paths between report objects within the same or different reports for easier end user navigation. Drill-down: Without additional coding, create reports that allow end users to drill down on relational and OLAP data to uncover details that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Application Integration:
Crystal Reports provides a range of proven Java, .NET, and COM components that help reduce the complexity of integrating dynamic reporting functionality into applications. Interface SDKs: Use the Crystal Reports comprehensive interface SDKs in J2EE, .NET, and COM applications for flexible control over how end users interact with reports. Reporting components: Embed the Crystal Reports powerful Java, .NET, and COM reporting components in your application for powerful report processing and rendering.
Supported Data Sources:
Accessible data sources include the following: Databases such as Sybase, IBM DB2, Ingres, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Interbase and Oracle. Btrieve Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel Text files HTML XML files Groupware applications as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise SAP: BW, Info Sets, Tables and Business Objects Universes. Any other data source accessible through a webservice, ODBC, JDBC or OLAP.
Development:
Crystal Reports comes integrated with Visual Studio . Crystal Reports allows Java developers to build applications with Crystal Reports components .
