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Crystal and Reporting Services Interview Questions

Win
Introduction
Surprise
Gifts!!!
We have two IIS application 'Reports' and 'Reportserver' what do they

Congratula Can you explain Report definition language (RDL) file in reporting serv
tions!!!
How can we consume reports in ASP.NET?

Can you explain the difference between private and shared data sourc

How does reports caching in reporting services work ?

How does reports caching in reporting services work ?

What are the major differences between Crystal and SQL reporting se

Introduction

This FAQ will give you a quick start for two report giant's crystal and r
If you find this article useful or you think I need improvements please
I will definitely consider your suggestions for better improvements.

To view Crystal and Reporting Services Interview Questions -

We have two IIS application 'Reports' and 'Reportse

When you install reporting services there are two virtual directories cr

The 'Reports' virtual directory is like an admin. If you browse to

have numbered the below figure. 1 à We can browse reports and see
report builder link we build new reports. 4 à Using the properties we c
subscribe to the reports. 6 à Site settings help us to decide how many
logging, scheduling, manage jobs and security settings.

The second virtual directory is the 'ReportServer' this helps us to use

tohttp://yourpcname/reportserver/ you can easily figure out what thi

Can you explain Report definition language (RDL) fil

RDL is an XML description of a report in reporting services. So basical

'Snip of RDL file' shows a simple snippet of a RDL file.
 What is the basic process of making a report in reporting services?
Here are the basic steps which will help you in creating reports in repo
. Open Visual studio 2005 à File à New project à Select 'Business Inte
. When the project is created in the solution explorer you will see two
'Reports'. Right click the 'Reports' folder and click add new reports.
. You need to give credentials in the wizard. Once done it pops up a q
. Wizard then helps you to select the report type and some other feat
. Click on the view menu and select tool box and you should be able t
. Till now we are only in the design mode of report. As said previously
report's meta-data gets saved in database we need to publish the rep
. To publish the report we need to specify the IIS report path. So righ

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. Once we have specified the 'TargetServerURL' property we need to d

. You can now view your report using http://localhost/Reports/Pages/

How can we consume reports in ASP.NET?

There are three famous ways of calling reporting services report in AS
. Using URL way to access reports.
. Using reporting web service to programmatically access reports.
. Using report viewer control.

URL way
This is the most basic way of accessing reports. We specify the URL a
display a report using the URL methodology. 1 à This is the IIS report
is the report name. 4 à This is the command to the reporting service o

If we want to get the report in PDF format we need to use the 'Forma

If we want to pass parameters to the report we can do something as

'Category' parameter.

Consuming reporting services web serv

If you look at the architecture of reporting service all reports are expo
http://localhost/ReportServer/ReportService2005.asmx. In localhost y
web service.
Step 1 à First add the web service using http://localhost/ReportServe
Step 2 à We need to consume the web service and use it. Below is the
service references to 'reportservice2005.asmx'. 2 à We have the nam
to create object of 'ReportingService2005' class. 4 à We need to set th
reporting server database. So we use the 'ListChildren' method to get
display the reports present in the reporting service.

The above example is a sample of how to use the reporting web servi
use'GetReportParameters' method, if we want to display the report
discussed to keep the chapter simple and to the point. Please experim

Reportviewer control
ASP.NET 2.0 comes with crystal report viewer control. You can drag a
'ReportviewerControl' looks like and how we can set the properties to
Can you explain the difference between private and

Private data source is used by single report only while shared data so
want to change anything you need to change only on one data source

How does reports caching in reporting services work

As said previously reporting services has two main databases 'ReportS

works in reporting services. Client first sends a request to the reportin
the 'reportserver' database. Both these elements are then used to cre
intermediate format is for a particular user and for a session. So if the
then there are different cached versions of report for every parameter
deleted or redeployed.
In order to set the caching properties browse to a particular report us
'Caching options' shows different conditions on which you can define c
What are the major differences between Crystal and

Ease of hosting reports: - Using the URL technology in RS we can h

Supporting platforms: - Crystal can run on windows, IBM and sun w

Client tools: - In reporting services we have Business intelligence ( B

Caching: - This achieved in crystal by using cache server while in rep

Export formats:- In crystal we have HTML,PDF,Excel,XML,Word , PD

capability to extend custom reporting formats.

Data sources:- Crystal support more data sources while RS only sup
Exchange, NT, Xbase, JDBC, File system and Paradox. RS supports on
not exists in crystal reports.

Version issues: - One of the main issues faced in crystal is it have d

version issue.

Web server support: - Crystal can run on IIS 5/6, Apache, lotu

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Introduction
This Interview Questions will give you a quick start for two report giant's crystal and
reporting services.
How do we access crystal reports in .NET?
Crystal reports comes with Visual studio setup itself. Right click the solution explorer a
add new item and you can see a crystal report template as shown in figure "Crystal report
template". You can add an ".rpt" file using this template.

Figure 1:- Crystal report template

What are the various components in crystal reports?

There are four major components in crystal reports Report designer, Reports engine, Repor
 Become a
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Report designer gives a graphical interface to create and modify reports. To view the design
you should see the report designer as shown in figure "Report designer".
Resources

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User Groups Figure 2 :- Report designer

Reports engine does the formatting and conversion part of crystal reports. It helps convert
Our other formats. Report viewers are controls which you can see on the visual studio tool box;
Network page or windows application to view reports made using crystal. Object models help us man
.NET Heaven time.
C# Corner What basic steps are needed to display a simple report in crystal?
DbTalks
To
Interview Corner understand this sample let display a simple report using crystal.
Longhorn Corner
Mindcracker
Step1:- Create a web application project.
VB.NET Heaven
Step2:- Add new item and select crystal report from the template. This adds a new RPT file

Step3 :- Double click on the RPT file click on Crystal reports a Field explorer as shown in fig
Figure 3:- Field explorer toolbar

Step 4 a Right click on "Database fields" on the field explorer a then click on database expe
ADO a Select Microsoft OLEDB provider for SQL Server ( this depends on what kind of data
Click finish and done.

Step5 a Right click on "Database fields" on the field explorer a then click on database exper
which you want to add to the report. Below figure "Table added in reports" shows the right
Figure 4 :- Table added in reports

Step 6 a Expand database fields a table ( in this case it is "FactCurrencyRate" table). Now y

Figure 5 : - Drag fields on the report

Step 7 a We now need to display the report on the ASPX page. For that we need the â€Ë
the crystal reports section of the toolbar and drag the component on the ASPX page
Figure 6 : - "Crystalreportviewer" control

Step 8:- Now we need to go to code behind and specify the report source. That's it now com
in action.

Figure 7 : - Specify the crystal report source

Can crystal reports be published as a web service?

Right click on the "RPT" file and click "Publish as web service" as shown in figure "Publish cr
Figure 8 : - Publish Crystal as web service

How do we invoke the crystal report web service?

We can consume the web service as a normal web service in .NET. The easiest way is by us
ASMX URL in the report source property.
How do we add formulas using crystal reports?
To add any formula in crystal report is a three step procedure. Below figure "Add formula in
format. Step 1 a Go to field explorer and right click and click new formula. Step 2 a Give an
Step 3 a You will be presented with UI which has all the formulas and function.
Figure 9 : - Add formula in crystal report

How do we pass parameters to crystal reports?

Some times we want to accept input parameter and the report works according to the para
go to parameter fields , right click , create parameter and you should be popped with a dial
name to the parameter , type and that's it you are in action.
Figure 10 :- Parameter fields

How do we export from crystal reports?

There are two way of using the export option one is when we display a report using crystal
figure "Export" below. You can the select in which format you want to export.
Figure 11 : - Export

Second option is through coding. Below is a simple code snippet which shows how we can e
and call the "ExportToDisk" method specifying in which format you want to export.
Dim Report as New CrystalReport1
Report.ExportToDisk(CrystalDecisions.Shared.ExportFormatType.WordForWindow
How do we print to printer using crystal?
In print we have two ways by which we can print one is when you display the report using c
second is by code. Below is a simple code snippet which shows how we have created a obje
printer name , paper size and then called the "PrintToPrinter" method.
Report.PrintOptions.PrinterName = "MyPrinter"
Report.PrintOptions.PaperSize = CrystalDecisions.Shared.PaperSize.PaperA4
Report.PrintOptions.PaperOrientation = CrystalDecisions.Shared.PaperOrientation
Report.PrintToPrinter(1, True, 1, 3)
How do we generate cross tab reports?
When we go for creating a new report you can see the cross tab option.

Figure 12 : - Cross tab reports

How can we do grouping in crystal?
For grouping in crystal you need to use the group expert wizard.
Can you explain three-pass reporting which crystal report uses?
Crystal report uses the three pass method for parsing reports. Before we understand what
process used by crystal reports to read and manipulate data as per the report format. Below
happens. Let's understand the same step by step. In Pre-Pass1 crystal report engine evalua
1 does two important things get data from the database and sort records with given conditi
to pre-pass2 for further parsing and manipulation. Pre-pass2 is all about grouping and sorti
crystal report. Pass 2 formats a report, applies condition and groups them. Pass 3 is the fin
reports.

Figure 13 :- Three pass method

Can you explain reporting services architecture?
Reporting services is mainly used to generate reports. Below are the main components of r
Services Architecture". Reporting services has four major components Client, Web services,
database. Let's understand all the major components and the sub components of the same
Figure 14 : - Reporting Services Architecture

Client: - These are the consumers of reporting services functionality. It can be the report m
and manager in more details further) or ASPX and windows application.

Reporting Web service: - Microsoft chose XML to expose the functionality of reporting ser
services. One of the most important gains for a web service is that it can be platform indep

Report server / manager: - Report server and manager forms the core engine of reportin
"Report processor" and the other is

"Scheduling and Delivery processor". Reporting processor is the main driver to deliver
process the report and send it to the end client. Figure "Report Processor" shows how the fl
us understand in more detail how the report processor works. Step 1 a Any client like ASPX
service for reports. Step 2 and 3 a Web service will forward the request to the report proce
server DB.Step 4 a Reporting services uses the security extensions to authenticate the e
queries the application database to get data. With data processing extension we can connec
Oracle etc. You can also extend the data processing extension to adapt it to some custom d
extension then renders the report applies format and sends the same to the end client. Us
Excel, PDF, HTML, CSV and XML. You can also extend the rendering extension to deliver in

Figure 15 : - Report Processor

The second system is "Scheduling and Delivery processor". Delivery extensions

an output target like file, email, FTP etc. Scheduling and delivery processor does two impor
same to a output like FTP,Email etc. Schedule and delivery processor using delivery extensi
can subscribe to the reports and depending on these subscriptions the delivery is done by s
this one is the subscription process and the other is deliver process. Lets first try to underst
basically:-

Step 1 a First is the requests a subscription to the report.

Step 2a This subscription is then stored in the report server DB.

Step 3 a A new SQL Server agent is created for this subscription. So we have completed the
Figure 16 : - Subscription process

Now that the subscription is created lets see how the delivery process works. Here are five
event occurs SQL Server agent makes an entry in the report server DB. Step 2 and 3 a RS
events. If a event has occurred it gets the event from the database and sends a message to
The report is then processed by the report processor and sent to the delivery extension who
address, folder, FTP or any other kind of output.
Figure 17 : - Delivery process

Reporting Services Database:- When you install reporting services you will see two data
"ReportServerTempDB"."ReportServer" database contains report definitions, schedule, subs
"ReportServerTempDB" stores temporary information like session state about reports which
information. Please note snapshots are stored in reportserver and not in tempDB.

Figure 18 :- Databases of reporting services

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Excellent Article by Basu On July 2, 2009

Thanks Mr. Shivprasad K...
Its a Excellent Article about Crystal Report...
Keep Updating other concepts ..
Really Its a nice...

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