Crystal Reports is a business intelligence application, currently marketed to small businesses^[1] by SAP SE.

• 3Features

History[edit]

Terry Cunningham and the Cunningham Group originated the software in 1991.^[2] Crystal Services Inc. marketed the product^[3] (originally called 'Quik Reports') when they couldn't find a suitable commercial report writer for their accounting software.^{[citation needed]} After producing versions 1.0 through 3.0, Crystal Services was acquired by Seagate Technology in 1994.^[4] Crystal Services was combined with Holistic Systems to form the Information Management Group of Seagate Software, which later rebranded as Crystal Decisions and produced versions 4.0 through 9.0. Crystal Decisions was acquired in December 2003 by BusinessObjects, which produced versions 10, 11 (XI) and version 12 (2008). SAP acquired BusinessObjects on October 8, 2007 and released Crystal Reports 2011 (version 14) on May 3, 2011.

Several other applications, including Microsoft Visual Studio versions 2003 through 2008, and Borland Delphi, at one time bundled an OEM version of Crystal Reports as a general purpose reporting tool.^[5] Microsoft discontinued this practice and later released their own competing reporting tool, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).^{[6][verification needed]}

Versions and editions[edit]

• A=Advanced Developer, D=Developer, P=Professional, S=Standard^[8]

Features[edit]

Report designer[edit]

Crystal Reports allows users to graphically design data connection(s) and report layout. In the Database Expert, users can select and link tables from a wide variety of data sources, including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Oracle databases, Microsoft SQL Server databases, Microsoft Access databases, BusinessObjects Enterprise business views, and local file-system information. Report designers can place fields from these sources on the report design surface, and can also deploy them in custom formulas (using either BASIC or Crystal's own syntax), which are then placed on the design surface. Formulas can be evaluated at several phases during report generation as specified by the developer.

Both fields and formulas have a wide array of formatting options available, which designers can apply absolutely or conditionally. The data can be grouped into bands, each of which can be split further and conditionally suppressed as needed. Crystal Reports also supports subreports, graphing, and a limited amount of GIS functionality.

Central Management Server[edit]

The Central Management Server (CMS, formerly 'Crystal Management Server') operates as the main server for BusinessObjects XI.^[9]

Supported data sources[edit]

• Databases such as PostgreSQL, Sybase, IBM DB2, Ingres, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Interbase, Btrieve, Informix, Oracle and Salesforce.^[10]
• Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel
• XML Files
• Groupware applications as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise
• APIs such as ODBC and OLE DB^[11]
• SAP: BW, Info Sets, Tables, and BusinessObjects Universes

Target audience[edit]

Crystal Reports came integrated with Visual Studio versions prior to 2010. Crystal Reports competes with several products in the Microsoft market, such as SQL Server Reporting Services, XtraReports, ActiveReports and List & Label. Users can also access Crystal Reports from outside of Microsoft environments; this allows (for instance) Java developers to build applications with Crystal Reports components.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Crystal Reports small business marketing website
2. ^'Meet the Team'. Indicee. Retrieved 2012-10-11. That's what initially motivated his family business, The Cunningham Group, and his brother Terry to begin building… Crystal Reports in 1991.
3. ^'Crystal Reports links dBASE and Paradox data'. Data Based Advisor. Access my library. September 1, 1992. Retrieved 2009-07-09. Crystal Services says that they will address both the installation problem and the documentation omission in the new version. …Crystal Reports is being marketed by them and Borland International…
4. ^'Seagate to acquire Crystal Services'. San Jose Mercury News. News bank. 1994-05-11. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
5. ^Peck, George (2008). Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 566. ISBN978-0-07-159098-3. Retrieved 2009-07-09. Not only was Crystal Reports bundled with earlier versions of Visual Basic…, but every Professional or higher version of VS.NET, up to and including Visual Studio 2008, includes an option to install Crystal Reports as well…
6. ^'Support for Crystal Reports for Visual Studio'. Support (knowledge base). Microsoft.
7. ^Short history and resources for Crystal Reports Software Developer Kits (SDK)
8. ^'Crystal Reports family of offerings. Features by edition comparison chart'(PDF). SAP. 2009.
9. ^Ganz, Carl (2006). Pro Crystal Enterprise / BusinessObjects XI Programming. Expert's voice in .NET. Apress. p. 22. ISBN9781430202776. Retrieved 2014-09-25. The aptly named Central Management Server (CMS) is the main server in the BO XI collection. Before the rebranding effort, it was known as the Crystal Management Server, and before that as the Automated Process Scheduler (APS).
10. ^Compare for example: 'Crystal Reports Server 2008 V1 Service Pack 4 for Windows: Supported Platforms'. SAP Community Network. SAP. 2012-02-15. pp. 8ff. Retrieved 2015-07-28. Supported Data Sources for Crystal Reports
11. ^Fitzgerald, Neil (2008). Crystal Reports 2008 Official Guide. Business Objects Press. Pearson Education. ISBN9780768685701. Retrieved 2015-07-27. The two major indirect access drivers provided are ODBC and OLE DB. [...] The Crystal Reports ODBC database driver communicates with an ODBC driver, which in turn communicates with the actual database. The database vendors generally develop the ODBC drivers, which often come bundled with the database software.

Bibliography[edit]

• G. Taylor, Allen (June 3, 2008). Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies (1st ed.). For Dummies. p. 396. ISBN0-470-29077-3.
• Peck, George (June 19, 2008). Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. p. 968. ISBN0-07-159098-6.
• McCoy, Cate; Maric, Gord (2002). Mastering Crystal Reports 9 (1st ed.). Sybex. p. 639. ISBN0-7821-4173-0.

External links[edit]

Provides comprehensive functionality to design, explore, visualize, and deliver compelling reports within a friendly environment

What's new in SAP Crystal Reports 2011 SP2:

• SAP Crystal Server software has a new name and a new approach to the management and sharing of your business information. SAP Crystal Server 2011 is the next generation of SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008 – and it is now faster, easier to use, and more comprehensive than ever before.
• Here’s a snapshot of key new features and benefits in SAP Crystal Server: Self-serve access to relevant information. Get immediate answers to your business questions with the newly included SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software, which combines simple keyword searches with intuitive data exploration functionality.
• Google-style search. Find the most relevant business information instantly, with search results automatically ranked to help narrow the areas of interest. Guided data exploration. Get factbased answers to spontaneous questions without needing to rely on IT for assistance.

SAP Crystal Reports addresses small business manager that need to outline and produce reports out of various data sources such as databases or other much simpler entities.

With SAP Crystal Reports, you can achieve all of that and even turn your data into collective, advanced reports using the effective yet easy-to-use core of it in order to supply the best solution to any of your everyday potential issues in not just one but many formats in timely fashion.

This particular piece of software provides various layers that break down every problem into modules and elegantly solves problems simultaneously for faster, better results. Thus, the environment proposed as the workbench of the application is intuitive, allowing you to quickly and easily get to designing tasteful reports. Moreover, its WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) blueprint also comes packing numerous options for planning, incorporating and expanding.

SAP Crystal Reports also sports a wide variety of databases to work with harmoniously including some of the most well-known choices comprising Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Interbase, Sybase, Btrieve, Ingres or IBM DB2 as well as spreadsheets, text file, XML file and even Groupware software.

Furthermore, SAP Crystal Reports also takes advantage of formulas for minimizing the time needed to design your reports or utilize data mashups in order to broaden them with the help of Adobe Flash and Flex or other dynamic charts. As for deployment options, SAP Crystal Reports offers miscellaneous exhaustive techniques to ensure you of an ample propagation of your reports.

All in all, SAP Crystal Reports has to compete with not one but many products on this specific software market segment and this is clearly to the advantage of the end user, as each and every one of them will forever try to bring more for less, as the rules of a free market apply. SAP Crystal Reports gets the attention of many customers and can surely attract more as it evolves.

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