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WTH is Crystal Reports?

D

DAM

Diamond Member
Ok, I know this is not the software forum however I am just looking for a somewhat high level description of whatever Crystal Reports are...

Is it a framework to generate db reports?
How does it interface with your dbs?
Why is this stuff so popular?

I have no idea, ie I have never seen/touch/played with this stuff and I am just confused since I hear so much about it.


dam(thanks)
 
it's just a quick and dirty way of pulling data out of a db in readable form. i use it to create a lot of reports at work, it's decent.
 
Is it a framework to generate db reports?
Click to expand...

Essentially, yes.

How does it interface with your dbs?
Click to expand...

OLEDB, ODBC, etc.

Why is this stuff so popular?
Click to expand...

Because it takes raw database data, makes it pretty and presents it; because it's not tightly coupled to a particular data model and can be adapted to various schemas and DBMSs; because you can setup with reports without knowing SQL
 
It is a whole lot better than Cognos. We dumped Cognos and went with Crystal last year. wow what a relief that was.
 
I have been using it to create simple reports for years. There is also a nice web client called enterprise that allows you to run canned reports right off the bd. Keeps people from building reports will illegal joins and what not.
 
Originally posted by: toekramp
it's just a quick and dirty way of pulling data out of a db in readable form. i use it to create a lot of reports at work, it's decent.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I use it at work all the time.
 
Just to reiterate what others have said - it's a very handy report generator that typically uses ODBC kits to to interface with databases. It allows you to pull live data in often times much more logical and useful manners than the built in canned reports that the database itself can't do.

For example - I have an accounting program that has a database of all of our AR, AP, GL, and Payroll information. We might have 10 canned reports for each of those different accounting modules, but often times they are pretty basic in what they report and don't offer the flexibility and in depth reporting that the accountants I work with require.

With Crystal Reports I can reference a data dictionary of the database and pick certain records out of the database and then sort, select, and calculate them in a manner that is more useful to the accountants.

It's also nice because in the latest version you can dump it right into excel files or turn it into a PDF file on the fly. Both very handy in a small office environment.
 
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