Best Practices and Real-World Advice

for Designing, Formatting, and

Delivering Presentation-Ready
Enterprise Reports with Crystal Reports
from Business Objects, an
SAP company

Jenny Shah
Inforte
© 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.
What We’ll Cover …
• Developing presentation-ready reports: Overview
• Detailed look at key Crystal Reports capabilities
• Deploying your reports
• Wrap-up

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Defining Formatted Reporting
• Formatted reports are also called presentation-ready, print-
quality, presentation-quality, operational, and production reports
• Formatted reporting is more than just a pretty picture. Consider all
of the following:
 Pixel-perfect presentation
 Aligns reporting elements to the nearest pixel
 Query results are usually displayed in a tabular format
 Appropriate for formula-based reporting needs
 Ability to use multiple data sources (SAP and non-SAP)
 Useful for form-based reporting
 Graphing capabilities
 Easy report printing functionality
 Various output format options
 PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, Word
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Defining Formatted Reporting (cont.)
• Formatted reports are primarily static reports for the
information consumer
 Usually limited to just drilldown

 Lose the ability to slice and dice

 Swap and insert columns in your report

 Filter

 Sort

 Inability to create user-defined elements, such as user-defined

exceptions and conditions
 Unable to pivot columns and rows

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Comparison of Reporting Tools
• Which front-end tool best fits your formatting and analysis needs?
 All reporting tools have formatting capabilities to a
certain extent
 Ultimate goal is to present data in an easy-to-read and
understandable format to make better decisions
• We will look at the strengths and limitations of the following tools
in regard to formatting:
 Business Explorer (BEx)

 BEx Report Designer

 Crystal Reports

 BusinessObjects Web Intelligence (WebI)

 BusinessObjects Voyager

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 Tool Decision Matrix: Presentation Quality Reporting
Report
BEx Suite Designer Crystal WebI Voyager
 Highly interactive  SAP NetWeaver® BI  Legacy tool for  Web based tool with  Highly interactive
with navigation and 7 Option for formatted reporting interactive and visual
slice and dice formatted reporting  Primarily static capabilities, but  Numerous charting
capabilities  Tabular reports reporting limited compared to capabilities
 Leverage Excel possible  Can access non- BEx  Tabular reports
capabilities  Not easily integrated SAP and SAP data  Leverage Universe possible but limited
Formatting Features and Functionalities

 Tabular reports with non-SAP data directly through concept  Limited formatting
possible but limited  Works well with native drivers  Excel based format, capabilities
(tabular mode only different levels of  Tabular reports limited formatting  Easily able to
available in 3.x) granularity possible capabilities integrate multiple
 Limited formatting  Calculation  Useful for form-  Easily able to OLAP data sources
capabilities functionalities based integrate with SAP in a single
 Not easily integrated  Graphing options  Advanced data and non-SAP workspace
with non-SAP data formatting and data  Exclusively works
 Usability can be
 Works well with calculation  Usually works better with OLAP data
complex
different levels of capabilities with aggregated sources
 Friendly for  Enhanced graphing data
granularity printing  Slider and advanced
 Advanced and mapping  Advanced calculations
 Still in first version capability calculation
calculation functionalities
functionalities  Output option  Robust printing functionalities
includes pdf format  Graphing options
 Robust graphing capabilities and  Robust graphing
various output  User friendly and
options options highly intuitive
format options  Simple usability
 Usability can be  Printing capabilities
complex  Works well with all  Exports to PDF and
aggregated and for Excel and PDF
 May not be friendly Excel
granular data
for 8x10 printing

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The Bottom Line
• Crystal Reports is the recommended tool:
 For highly formatted reports requiring both SAP and non-SAP
data integration
 For form-based and static reporting with limited analytic
features
• BEx Report Designer is an option for presentation-quality
reporting if data source is only SAP
• BEx, WebI, and Voyager all provide advanced analytical features
to the end user
 Slicing and dicing

 Performing calculations on the fly

 Drilldown

• BEx is recommended for reporting on SAP data

6
The Bottom Line (cont.)
• Voyager is a powerful analytics tool for numerous OLAP
data sources
 Great for historical and trend analysis

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What We’ll Cover …
• Developing presentation-ready reports: Overview
• Detailed look at key Crystal Reports capabilities
• Deploying your reports
• Wrap-up

8
A Bit About Crystal Reports
• Key Crystal Reports components
 Crystal Reports Designer

 Tool used to develop formatted reports

 Crystal Reports Server

 Stores published Crystal Reports in report format

 Provides delivery mechanism to distribute reports

 Crystal Enterprise

 Web-based tool that allows users to access published

Crystal Reports
 Crystal Reports Server and Crystal Enterprise are primarily
used by small to midsize companies

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A Bit About Crystal Reports (cont.)
• Other tools that provide access to Crystal Reports include:
 BusinessObjects Enterprise (BOE)

 BOE server stores all BusinessObjects reports

 SAP NetWeaver® Portal

• Crystal Integration with SAP ERP or SAP NetWeaver BI

 SAP Integration Kit (Add-On) is required

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Crystal Users
• Crystal content designers are usually technically savvy business
users who understand business processes and data sources
for reporting
• Crystal users are primarily information consumers
 They use reports for daily activities with very limited slicing
and dicing

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Steps to Building a Crystal Report – Overview
• Step 1: Create a new document (several Wizard options)
• Step 2: Select a data source
 Use the Database Wizard to select data source
 Ability to connect to many different data sources, including
Microsoft Access/Excel (DAO), database files, ODBC (RDO),
OLAP, and OLE DB (ADO)
• Step 3: Insert necessary fields using Field Explorer
 Use the Design tab to insert fields and format your report
• Step 4: Format
 Resize fields, create sections, groups, charts, conditional
formatting
 We’ll discuss this in greater detail in the following slides
• Step 5: Preview
 Use the preview tab to run your query and view the results
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 Getting Started in Crystal
• When you launch Crystal Reports, the Start page
appears
• The Start Page includes the links to recent reports
you've opened, report creation methods, the help
system, a search functionality, sample reports, and an
update service

All Rights Reserved. 13

Selecting your Data sources
• In order to build a report you first need to connect to a data source
• Each wizard allows you to choose your DataSource and connect to
tables/queries/OLAP cubes

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 Linking Data sources
• If your report contains data from two or more database tables, you will
need to link the tables when creating your reports
• Linking requires that you use a field that is common to both tables
• By double-clicking on the join you can choose the type of join
between the tables

15
 Crystal Reports Designer Layout
• Design and Preview tabs
 Use the Design tab to design the initial report layout
 You work with data representations, but not the data itself
 Report layout is divided into sections in this view
 Use the Preview tab to work with live data
 Access through View  Preview
 Presents report in a
WYSIWYG style

To abbreviate your section Design and

descriptions: Preview tabs
1. Go to File  Options
2. Go the Layout tab
3. Select “Short Section Names” Report sections
4. Click OK

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Crystal Reports Designer Layout – Field Explorer
• The Field Explorer displays all the fields
from your data source
 Use it to create the layout of your
report
 Access it through View  Field
Explorer
 Select the fields you want to
display in your report
 Develop calculations and other
operations
Use the Field Explorer to:
1. Select the fields you want to
display in your report
2. Create formulas using Formula
Workshop Editor
3. Design Parameter Fields
4. Develop Running Totals
5. Access Special Fields
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Formatting Options
• Crystal Reports Designer has many formatting features; many of
them being basic formatting capabilities that are similar to that of
Microsoft Office
 Drawing lines and boxes, inserting text boxes and logos,
sorting, adding borders and shading, changing font styles,
colors, and size, formatting numerical and time units
• On the next few slides, we’ll examine some additional
presentation capabilities of Crystal Reports Designer

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Record Selection and Grouping
• Record selection
 Set filters to select only a subset of data for your report

 Choose Report  Select Expert to set filters

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Record Selection and Grouping
• Grouping
 Data sorted out into meaningful groups

 Select the field you want to group by

and the sort order by choosing
Report  Group Expert
 Create custom groups

 Develop hierarchical groupings

20
Graphing and Mapping Features
• Crystal offers a wide range of colorful charts
 Includes basic charts (pie, bar, line) as well as more
sophisticated charts (funnel and radar)
 When working with summarized data, you can use a chart for
both presentation and as an analytical tool for drilling down
• Mapping feature provides another way to present your data, based
on geographic regions
 Creating a map is very similar to creating a chart; however,
you must use geographic fields, such as country, state, city,
and region
When deciding which chart or map best fits your
report, consider the type of data you want to
analyze. Don’t get caught up in the glitz and
glamour of what the charts and maps look like.

21
 Understanding Report Alerts
• Custom messages that appear in a report when certain conditions
are met by the data within the report
• Provide awareness on possible action items or exceptions
 Created from formulas that evaluate conditions specified by the
Crystal Reports Designer
 Only triggered at report opening and during a refresh

To create an alert:
1. Choose Report  Alerts  Create
or Modify an Alert
2. Click New
3. Provide a name for the alert
4. Enter a message
5. Click the Condition button
6. Enter a condition in the Formula
Editor
7. Click OK
8. Refresh the report
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Designing Parameter Selections for the Report Viewer
• Parameters are prompt values selected by the report viewer
• Parameters can be referenced within a formula or displayed in
the report
 Data selection formulas

 Conditional formulas

• Prompts can be set as mandatory or optional

 Parameter values can therefore be null

Create a parameter
using Field Explorer –
just right-click on
Parameter Fields.

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Designing Parameter Selections for the Report Viewer

24
Creating Subreports
• Subreports are reports within reports
 Are inserted as objects in a primary report

 Can be placed in any section within the primary report

 A subreport cannot contain another subreport

• Subreports are typically used to:

 Combine unrelated data

 Provide different views of the same data in a single report

• Subreports can be linked or unlinked to the primary report

 Linked subreports contain the same selection parameters as
the primary report
 Subreports can use calculated values to link to the
primary report

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 Creating Subreports

Insert an new or existing report into the

Primary report

Link the sub-report to the primary report or

leave it unlinked

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 Calculating Running Totals
• Running totals can be displayed on a record by record basis
• Can be set up to calculate throughout a list, based on a group, or
a specific condition
 Use the Running Total Expert in the Field Explorer

To create a running total:

1. Select the field you want to
calculate in “Field to summarize”
2. Choose the operation in the Type of
summary drop-down box
3. Select the evaluation method
4. Select the Reset value (when
running total resets to 0)
5. Click OK

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Working with the Formula Workshop Editor
• Use the Formula Workshop Editor to create various types of
formulas
 Create calculated fields for your report

 Assists with conditional formatting

 Concatenating and truncating strings

 Extracting parts of dates

 Custom functions such as currency conversion

 Selection formulas

• Formula Editor contains two types of syntax

 Crystal Syntax – available in all versions of Crystal Reports

 Basic Syntax – for those familiar with Visual Basic and other
versions of Basic language

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 Formula Workshop Editor

Report Fields contain all Functions are pre-built Operations are

fields available in the procedures that the actions that
Workshop Tree database. It also includes perform operations will take place
contains folders for formulas and groups such as average, sum, between two or
each formula type. It already created for the and counts. more values.
also contains report.
formulas already
created through
alerts, highlighting,
and calculations.
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Conditional Formatting
• Formatting that happens under certain conditions
• Conditional formatting can be used throughout a report
 Use it to highlight past due balances, exceptions, and even
page setups
 Your take-home material includes tips and formulas to use for
professional formatting
• Highlighting Expert lets you highlight values of a specific field or
row in a report based on specified conditions without creating
formulas
 You can change the font style, color, background, and border

 To access, go to Format  Highlighting Expert

Highlighting Expert is not as robust as

Formula Edit for conditional formatting
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Using the Section Expert for Conditional Formatting
• Use the Section Expert to modify the layout of your report
 Delete sections  Enable drilldown

 Merge sections  Page formatting for each section

 Conditional formatting based on
 Insert sections
report layout
 Hide and suppress sections  Underlaying objects throughout
sections

Access Section Expert via

the menu bar
Report  Section Expert
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 Adding Interactivity to Your Crystal Reports
• As mentioned earlier, interactivity and analytics features are limited
for most presentation-quality reporting tools
 However, there are some interactive features available in Crystal
Reports for the information consumer
 Drilling down from aggregated data to detail data

 Include Flash animation files in Crystal Reports

 Use them for dynamic charts, graphics, and movies

 Crystal Xcelsius integration in Crystal

 Dashboarding tool that provides rich data visualizations with

which users can interact to analyze data
• To retain interactivity for Flash Objects and drill down, you must
view your report online; Xcelsius interactivity is retained via online
or through export options
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Reminder!
• The preceding slides covered general formatting options available
through Crystal Reports Designer
 Remember these formatting options are only available to the
report author during the initial development of the report
 Report format is static for the report viewer

33
Other Useful Formatting Features
• Crystal also has some unique formatting capabilities that can help
streamline business processes
 Authoring letters

 Allow you to create custom letters using database fields

 Creating mailing labels

 Use database fields to create and print mailing labels with the
guidance of the Mailing Label reports wizard
 Embedding form templates

 Using Crystal Reports, you can embed a pre-printed form

in Crystal and arrange fields exactly how you want them
to appear

34
Other Useful Formatting Features (cont.)
• Crystal also has some unique formatting capabilities that can help
streamline business processes (cont.)
 Designing barcodes

 This feature is new with Crystal Reports 2008

 Allows you to create barcodes based on unique identification

numbers for things like barcode labels

35
What We’ll Cover …
• Developing presentation-ready reports: Overview
• Detailed look at key Crystal Reports capabilities
• Deploying your reports
• Wrap-up

36
 Distributing Crystal Reports to End Users: Key Options
• Data Push method
 Use BOE or Crystal Enterprise server to export to Web folders,
file server, or printers, or send via emails
 Utilize publishing wizard for scheduling reports for batch
delivery or printing
 “Data Push” formats can be categorized as page-based formats
and record-based formats
 Page-based formats emphasize layout and presentation

 PDF, HTML, Crystal Report (.rpt), Excel, Word

 Record-based formats focus on the data

 ODBC, CSV, Text

• Data Pull method

 Access posted reports on BOE Infoview or Crystal Enterprise
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Distributing Crystal Reports to End Users: Key
Options (cont.)
• Via an SAP Enterprise Portal
 Integrate BOE with Knowledge Management

 Create a new iView based on imported BOE iView template

 Actual report stored on BOE server

• Saving Crystal Reports in SAP NetWeaver BI

 BW application server stores Crystal report; end users can
access report through SAP NetWeaver BI directly using the
SAP Easy Access menu
• Distributing reports using SAP Information Broadcasting

SAP Integration Kit must be installed for

all of the options mentioned above.
38
What We’ll Cover …
• Developing presentation-ready reports: Overview
• Detailed look at key Crystal Reports capabilities
• Deploying your reports
• Wrap-up

39
Key Points to Take Home
• Most reporting tools have basic formatting capabilities; however,
strengths may lie elsewhere
• Crystal provides highly advanced formatting abilities through
conditional formatting, subreports, and grouping functionalities
• Crystal has enhanced capabilities such as creating mailing labels
and barcodes, authoring form letters, and embedding pre-printed
forms
• While most presentation-quality reporting is static, Crystal offers
options for interactivity
• To retain interactivity for Flash Objects and drill down, you must
view your report online; Xcelsius interactivity is retained via
online or export options
• Crystal printing and distribution is available through both
Business Objects and SAP applications

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Your Turn!

How to contact me:

Jenny Shah, Inforte
Jenny.Shah@inforte.com
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Disclaimer
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well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All
other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor
controlled by SAP.

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