Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Applies to:
Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Summary
Learn about the improvements available to Visual Studio 2010 developers that integrate Crystal Reports into their applications. Author(s): Blair Wheadon Company: SAP Created on: April 5 2010

Author Bio
Blair Wheadon is a Product Manager in the Volume Business Unit at SAP. His team works on Crystal Reports, Crystal Reports Server, and the Volume Xcelsius Products (Present, and Engage).

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Table of Contents
Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 ...................................................................................... 3 For Report Designers ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Fewer reports needed ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Parameter panel .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Sort controls ................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Saved data selection formula ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Dynamic, cascading parameters .................................................................................................................................. 5 Optional parameters .................................................................................................................................................... 5 Multi-value SQL command parameters ........................................................................................................................ 6

More powerful ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Report sections can be portrait or landscape ............................................................................................................... 7 Flexible page size definition ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Clamp page footer ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Improved control over page breaking........................................................................................................................... 8

For .NET Developers .......................................................................................................................................... 9

WPF Viewer ................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Easier to migrate Report Designer Component (RDC) applications ............................................................................ 9 Simpler ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Easy to access ........................................................................................................................................................... 10

For Report Consumers ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Easier ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 More insight ................................................................................................................................................... 12

Embedded Flash ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 Sort controls ............................................................................................................................................................... 13 Parameter panel ........................................................................................................................................................ 13 Export to XLSX .......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Export to XML ............................................................................................................................................................ 14

Why Upgrade to Crystal Reports 2008? ........................................................................................................... 15 More productivity ........................................................................................................................................... 15 More data access .......................................................................................................................................... 15 More analytical tools ..................................................................................................................................... 15 More control over exports ............................................................................................................................. 15 Copyright........................................................................................................................................................... 16

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 makes your .NET application more powerful by delivering more insight with fewer reports. It is completely free, embeds into the familiar Visual Studio environment, and benefits all users - Report Designers, .NET Developers, and Report Consumers

For Report Designers

Fewer reports needed A set of powerful, complementary features combine to reduce the number of reports required to meet your reporting requirements and add value to your application.

Parameter panel

The report viewers now include a panel on the left-hand side to enable customers to easily see and modify parameter values. This enables parameterized control of both report formatting and report data. Now a single report can take on multiple looks, all controlled by parameters set by the end user.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Sort controls

Reports can now embed sort controls directly on the report page so end users can change record and group sorts on the fly without refreshing the data from the data source.

Saved data selection formula

This powerful feature allows for parameterized filtering of data records previously retrieved from the data source. This enables a specific slice of the data to be filtered and viewed by the end user without refreshing the data from the data source.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Dynamic, cascading parameters

Parameter lists of values can now be populated from a dynamic data source. Cascading parameters combine these dynamic lists into multiple levels where the parent value filters the child levels.

Optional parameters

Useful for signifying the no filter or all records option, parameters can now have no value and be used to apply no filter to the underlying data.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Multi-value SQL command parameters

Custom SQL can now receive multi-value parameters.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

More powerful Formatting features are enhanced to broaden the range of reports that can be created. Report sections can be portrait or landscape

You can now combine portrait and landscape sections as required in your report. Flexible page size definition

Define your page size in pixels for reports that are commonly viewed only.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Clamp page footer

Dynamically remove white space at the end of a section or group. This option will pull up the page footer so its right underneath the last content on a page. Improved control over page breaking

Set page breaks after any number of records or groups.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

For .NET Developers

WPF Viewer

Add value to your WPF applications by using the new WPF based Crystal Reports Viewer control to view reports within your application. Easier to migrate Report Designer Component (RDC) applications
1

A set of API enhancements make it easier to migrate from your existing COM-based RDC applications.

A Format event on the Section object will be added. This is similar to section formatting events in the RDC, however the RDC functions allowed for report modifications during section formatting events. The .NET implementation will support read-only access only. Check report processing status. A new set of properties under ReportDocument .ReportRequestStatus will allow for access to the number of report pages and the number of records selected. Report level formatting and field mapping events. This will provide for .NET equivalents to the following RDC events: ReportDocument.BeforeFormatPage, ReportDocument.AfterFormatPage, ReportDocument.FieldMapping, and ReportDocument.NoData. Add the new ReportDocument.ReadRecords API to process records at runtime

API enhancements not available in the beta version.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Simpler We will offer a single runtime engine for reports embedded into .NET applications with Visual Studio 2010. Previously, there were 2 separate Crystal Reports runtime engines and developer tools for use with Visual Studio the version included with Visual Studio, and the version included with Crystal Reports Developer Edition or Crystal Reports 2008. Starting with Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010, there is only one version of Crystal Reports for Visual Studio. Easy to access Free to download, and just a click away, Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 is just as easy to access as prior versions of Crystal Reports.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

For Report Consumers

Easier The modern report viewers are simple, intuitive, and beautiful. Animated page transitions and clear visual cues boost the value of any application.

Reports drilldown in tabs, not new windows Report processing indicator Separate group tree and report page scrolling

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

More insight Embedded Flash

Dynamic Flash visualizations can be integrated into your report that instantly communicates the business value in the data. Crystal Reports 2008 must be used to add Flash to your Crystal Report.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Sort controls

Report consumers view the report the way they want, reducing additional report requests and reducing time required to answer business questions.

Parameter panel

Report consumers can change parameters that affect both data and formatting without triggering a database refresh.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Export to XLSX

Enable support for large spreadsheet grids in Excel 2007 for large data sets.

Export to XML

Enables your report data to be converted to almost any required format. This is especially powerful when combined with the optional XSLT transform available only with Crystal Reports 2008.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Why Upgrade to Crystal Reports 2008?

Crystal Reports 2008 enhances Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010, making report design faster and enabling access to more data sources. It includes a standalone desktop designer which enables you to author reports that use all of the capabilities in the Crystal Reports runtime engine*. More productivity Editable preview: View a report with data and edit it at the same time. No need to switch back and forth between an edit window without data, and a read-only report preview window. Design reports without Visual Studio. Report designers dont need a copy of Visual Studio to create or modify reports. Crosstab calculated rows and columns: Add calculated rows and columns to your crosstabs with this powerful new feature that enables access to any cell in a crosstab from within a formula. Integrated barcodes: Easily add barcodes to your report with the supplied Code 38 barcode font. Additional barcode fonts are easily integrated. Templates: Use the supplied report templates, or create your own to enforce a consistent look and feel. Improved support for multilingual reports: Simulate the viewing of a report in different viewing locales, to ensure it works in all deployment scenarios. Repository to reuse common text, images, and SQL: When using Crystal Reports with Crystal Reports Server, Edge, or BusinessObjects Enterprise, you can save common text, images, and SQL commands in the repository. More languages: Crystal Reports 2008 is supported an additional 9 languages, including: Dutch, Portuguese (Brazilian), Swedish, Czech, Finnish, Korean, Polish, Norwegian, and Thai.

More data access OLAP Data Access: Crystal Reports 2008 includes an OLAP grid for embedding cube-based data in your Crystal Report. Web Services data driver: Access both local XML files and XML retrieved from Web Services with this powerful driver. Salesforce.com data driver: Easily create reports that access your Salesforce.com implementation. DataDirect drivers: Crystal Reports 2008 includes the high performance Data Direct drivers that support wire protocols for easy deployment theres no need for heavyweight client side database drivers.

More analytical tools Adobe Flash integration: Author reports that embed Flash from either Xcelsius or other sources. What-if models: Xcelsius based Flash are a powerful way to add forward-looking what-if analysis based on the historical data already in your Crystal Report. Geographical map integration: Use either the integrated mapping tool, or the Flash based map viewer to visualize geographical trends in your data.

More control over exports Save report options: By saving export options within your report, you can ensure your export works exactly as intended, even when deployed within your application. This relieves you from training your end users on which export options to choose. Add XSLT transforms to your XML exports: By including an XSLT transform with you XML export, you can export reports to virtually any format you require.

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Whats New in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010

Copyright
Copyright 2009 SAP AG. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice. Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. Microsoft, Windows, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, System i, System i5, System p, System p5, System x, System z, System z10, System z9, z10, z9, iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, zSeries, eServer, z/VM, z/OS, i5/OS, S/390, OS/390, OS/400, AS/400, S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, PowerVM, Power Architecture, POWER6+, POWER6, POWER5+, POWER5, POWER, OpenPower, PowerPC, BatchPipes, BladeCenter, System Storage, GPFS, HACMP, RETAIN, DB2 Connect, RACF, Redbooks, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli and Informix are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, PostScript, and Reader are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group. Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. JavaScript is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape. SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP Business ByDesign, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and in other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

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