Crystal Reports XI: Beginner Tutorials
Introduction / CRXI Installation Options
Subtitles of the Movie (Crystal Reports XI: Beginner / Introduction / CRXI Installation Options)
In this movie we're going to discuss Crystal XI installation options. While this tutorial will not cover the actual installation of Crystal Reports Ð this is best left to your IT professional and your specific Windows setup Ð you will need to be aware, or at least know where to go in case you find yourself using Crystal Reports and missing a feature or a data access driver that you're going to need. This is the Crystal Reports XI Release 2 setup window. This, as it clearly states, helps you select features that you'd like to install. As you can see, once we collapse this window we have many different options. Crystal Report Designer Functions, Data Access, Export Support, Custom Charting, Geographic Mapping, et cetera A lot of these come by default installed with the Crystal Reports program, however, not all functions are installed. One of the most important functions are the Data Access Functions, as you can see here Crystal Reports has a lot of native Direct Access drivers Ð we'll get into that later Ð that allow you to connect to virtually any data source. We have the Business Objects Universe, Microsoft Access, OLAP Cube, JVBC, IBM DB2, Microsoft Outlook, Pervasive, Sybase, Oracle. These are functions and features that help you communicate more effectively in having a more stable and solid connection with your chosen data source. This is an important list to go through as if you are installing it, or your IT professional's installing it, you need to kind of pick and choose the ones you want. If you're in doubt you can, of course, just install them all and figure it out later, or if you have limited drive space and want to make an efficient installation you can go through and remove the ones you don't want to see. I do have some recommendations. The File System option is actually a fairly neat tool that allows you to point at your own PC and treat it as if it were a database and basically be able to read and see what files, what type they are, what size they are, and all sorts of attributes. This is especially handy in some places where there's a multiplication of thousands and thousands of Crystal Reports in various locations and this will help you find them and classify them and hopefully bring them to some semblance of order. I've also seem people take Crystal Reports and point them at Microsoft Outlook to classify and organize and get a list of their basic Email. Another option I'd recommend are the Field Definition and Crystal Data Objects. If you have complicated Crystal Reports using Data Objects and or you need to see how a certain field is defined, either via the database or via your own custom formula, these options will come in handy. As for your specific case, obviously if I was clairvoyant I'd probably focus my attention on winning lottery numbers, but you're going to have to go through this list and see if your case applies. And I would highly recommend if it does download this driver or make sure that your IT professional will choose this option for your Crystal install. Export Support is another option that I would also recommend in passing. It's good to have because while you may have Crystal Reports the people you're distributing the actual data to may not, so you'll probably have to use like an Excel or PDF and this is just something that makes it a little bit easier to get from point A to point B. You also have some Custom Charting, Geographic Mapping, which is a neat tool that if your database has data broken down by state or region this will help you visually represent that data as opposed to producing a mere list with, hey, these records belong to Texas. They also come with some Sample Reports. Now, Sample Reports you have to be careful. Sample Reports does not mean you can pull these reports out and point them at your data source and expect them to work. But, these Sample Reports are very helpful when learning how to do different things, or if you want to see how things are set up they provide some samples for you. In summary, it's important to know how you're going to use it and what your data source is. I've given you some common options that will come in handy as you work through this tutorial. In your specific case, you may need to do a little bit of research and find out which data sources, options in this case, will come in handy.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | Crystal Reports XI: Beginner |
| Author: | Kurt Dunlap |
| SKU: | 33966 |
| ISBN: | 1-935320-29-7 |
| Release Date: | 2009-02-10 |
| Duration: | 6.5 hrs / 95 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
VTC Sign up & Benefits
- Unlimited Access
- 81,350 Video Tutorials (14,200 free)
- Video Available as Flash or QuickTime
- Over 715 Courses
- $30 for One Month Access
- Multi-User Discounts Available
