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Overview
The purpose of this white paper is to demonstrate how you can use Microsoft’s new smart tag
technology to add powerful end user interaction with Crystal Reports objects that are embedded in
Microsoft Office XP documents. End users who receive a document with Crystal Reports Smart Tags
can refresh the report object’s data within the Office XP document itself and they can choose to view the
original report. With Crystal Reports Smart Tags the report data available in the Office XP document is
linked to the original Crystal Report, providing one, consistent source for information for your entire
enterprise.
Contents
WHAT IS A SMART TAG ...........................................................................................................................................................1
CRYSTAL REPORTS SMART TAGS BENEFITS ............................................................................................................................1
HOW CRYSTAL REPORTS USES SMART TAGS ..........................................................................................................................2
USING CRYSTAL REPORTS SMART TAGS WITH OFFICE XP DOCUMENTS .................................................................................2
SETTING UP CRYSTAL REPORTS SMART TAGS ........................................................................................................................2
SCENARIO ...............................................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................................................8
Smart tags have two components, a recognizer that can identify certain types of text or objects in a
document as belonging to the smart tag, and an action that provides one or more commands that can
be executed. The Office XP document contains the XML data that identifies the recognizer for a
particular smart tag and points to locally stored smart tag code for the recognizer to provide that
particular smart tag’s list of available commands. Of particular note is that smart tags themselves do
not place any code into a document and cannot be used to spread unauthorized code via Office
documents.
Client side smart tag code is easily installed and registered on client computers. Smart tags support
digital signatures and can be deployed and secured via policy templates. However, if smart tags are
turned off by the user in an Office XP application or via policy no smart tag indicators are displayed.
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
containing Crystal Reports Smart Tags contain live data linked to the original report, so it is always
reliable and accurate.
Administration of this feature involves installing and registering the Crystal Reports Smart Tags code on
all client computers; no other Crystal components are required for end users to view, refresh, and share
report objects.
Field Object
Field Object
When an end user opens an Office XP document containing a Crystal report object it displays the smart
tag indicator, usually a colored dotted line under the object. When the end user hovers over the report
object the smart tag icon displays. The end user can click on the smart tag icon and can select to view
the original Crystal Report from which the data was taken in an .asp or .jsp page (determined by the
original report’s smart tag options), or to refresh the data displayed in the report object in the Office XP
document.
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
specified by the Smart Tag options defaults; if not you need to manually create an .asp or .jsp file for the
report.
In addition, end users who do not have Crystal Reports installed on their machine must install the
Crystal Reports Smart Tag code, which is contained in the file smarttag.dll, to act on Crystal Reports
Smart Tags in Office XP documents that contain Crystal report objects. In this case if the end user
opens an Office XP document containing a Crystal Reports Smart Tag the smart tag does not display
any report options. Instead, the end user will be given an option to install the smart tag code. If the user
elects to do so the smarttag.dll file is downloaded from http://support.crystaldecisions.com/ and will
prompt the user to install. No other user action is required and once installed the Crystal Reports smart
tag displays the report options.
The smarttag.dll file can be deployed via policy templates, or with Systems Management Server. You
can also download the file to a network server and use administrative policies to redirect users to the
server on your network if your users are working behind a firewall.
Note: If Crystal Reports is installed on the client computer the Crystal Reports Smart Tag
code for Office XP is also installed, automatically.
Scenario
The Xtreme Mountain bike Company holds a contest every quarter and rewards the salesperson with
the greatest quarterly sales.
At the end of each quarter the Sales Manager views her “Employee Sales Report” using Crystal
Reports. This quarter she sees that Ms. King has the greatest sales numbers. The Sales Manager
right clicks the graph in the report and chooses Copy Smart Tag (Fig. 1.1).
Fig. 1.1
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
The Sales Manager then opens a new e-mail message to Ms. King in Outlook XP and pastes the copied
smart tag for the graph into it (Fig. 1.2).
Note the smart tag indicator (dotted purple line) under the graph, indicating that the Crystal
Reports Smart Tag recognizes the copied graph as a Crystal Reports Smart Tag
The Sales Manager
pastes the copied smart
tag for the graph into the
e-mail message.
Fig. 1.2
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
The Sales Manager sends the e-mail to Ms. King, who opens the message using Outlook 2002. Ms.
King sees the Crystal Reports Smart Tag when she hovers over the Crystal Report graph (Fig. 1.3).
Fig. 1.3
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
If Ms. King has not yet installed the Crystal Report Smart Tag she will only see the “Check for New
Actions” smart tag option (Fig. 1.4). Once Ms. King clicks on the smart tag option it will bring her to the
Crystal Decisions support web site for her to install the Crystal Reports Smart Tag.
Fig. 1.4
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
If Ms. King or her administrator had installed the Crystal Reports Smart Tag previously she would see
the “View Report” option, as well as the default smart tag options (Fig. 1.5).
Note that Outlook does not support the “Refresh” option on the receiver side for charts.
If Ms. King had installed
the Crystal Reports Smart
Tag previously she would
see the “View Report”
option.
Fig. 1.5
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Crystal Reports Smart Tags Demonstrating the Benefits and Uses of Smart Tags
Ms. King selects to view the report, which opens the original report in a browser through the DHTML
viewer and enables her to view and analyze the report (Fig. 1.6).
Fig. 1.6
Conclusion
Crystal Decision’s use of Microsoft Office XP’s new smart tag technology empowers end users to share
and interact with Crystal Reports data in the environment they know best – familiar Microsoft Office XP
applications such as Word, Excel and Outlook. This whitepaper demonstrates the benefits and use of
the Crystal Reports Smart Tag.
For further information and technical specifications for this and other Crystal Reports features please
refer to Crystal Decisions Dev Zone: http://www.crystaldecisions.com/products/dev_zone/default.asp.
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The information contained in this document represents the best current view of Crystal Decisions on the issues discussed as of the date of
publication, but should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Crystal Decisions or a guarantee as to the accuracy of any information
presented.
This document is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a guarantee or warranty of any kind. The information is provided AS IS.
CRYSTAL DECISIONS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. Crystal Decisions
will not be liable for any damages (direct, indirect or consequential) to you for your consumption, use or reliance on the information provided herein.
© Copyright 2002 Crystal Decisions, Inc. All rights reserved. Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, and Crystal Decisions are the trademarks or
registered trademarks of Crystal Decisions, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.
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