Advanced Report Design Version 8 (PDF - 17 KB)

Overview
This two-day course is designed to increase report design skills and discover the advanced reporting power of Seagate Crystal Reports. Along with hands-on practice, the course covers parameters, advanced formula creation, subreports, queries, and Web reporting.

Who should attend
The Information Professional or "power user" who wants to investigate the full power and functionality of Seagate Crystal Reports.

Prerequisites
Students must have completed the Introductory Report Design course and/or have a proven working knowledge of Seagate Crystal Reports features including record selection, sorting, grouping and summarizing, and formulas before attending the Advanced course. The prerequisite assignment for this course is to complete the prerequisite exercise below.

Report Creation Review

• Reviewing Report Creation
• Reviewing Linking
• Reviewing Record Selection
• Reviewing Grouping Options
• Reviewing Conditional Reporting
• Reviewing Geographical Mapping

Sections

• Using sections
• Formatting sections

Advanced Formulas

• Understanding formula language and syntax
• Understanding multi-pass reporting
• Using functions
• Understanding UFLs
• Using variables
• Understanding arrays
• Using control structures

Parameters

• Defining Parameter Fields
• Creating Parameter Fields
• Using Parameter Fields

Subreports

• Defining Subreports
• Creating an unlinked subreport
• Creating a linked subreport
• Creating an On-demand subreport
• Passing information from a subreport to the main report

Cross-Tabs

• Defining Cross-Tab Objects
• Creating Cross-Tabs
• Formatting Cross-Tabs
• Charting on a Cross-Tab summary field
• Mapping on a Cross-Tab summary field

Report Design and SQL

• Using Seagate Crystal Reports and SQL
• Defining the SQL Query
• Editing the SQL Query
• Using SQL Expressions
• Applying SQL Options

Web Publishing

• Understanding Web publishing
• Exporting reports to HTML format
• Distributing reports in RPT format
• Implementing the Web Component Server
• Using Web Component Server commands
• Administering the Web Component Server

Seagate Analysis

• Setting up Seagate Analysis
• Creating a query
• Formatting the query as a report
• Building and analyzing a cube
• Using the advanced features on Seagate Analysis
• Working with an existing report
• Printing and exporting

Prerequisite Exercise

This exercise is designed to ensure that you are at the level of experience required for the Advanced Report Design Course. Please complete the following exercise and check that you are familiar with the Pre Course Topics listed below. If you find the exercise difficult or are not familiar with the concepts listed, we recommend that you attend our Seagate Crystal Reports Introductory Report Design course before attempting the Advanced Report Design course. If you are not familiar with version 8, but have experience with a previous version of Seagate Crystal Reports, please review the version 8 Pre Course Topics listed below.

Please take a moment to carefully read the entire activity and get organized before creating your report.

Report Overview

You have been asked to create a U.S. sales report. You want to present the report broken down (grouped) by sales territory.

You will create the report from the Customer table in the Xtreme.mdb sample database (C:\Program Files\Seagate Software\Crystal Reports\Samples\Databases\Xtreme.mdb). The report should include customers from the U.S. only.

Include the following data on your report:

• Customer.Customer Name
• Customer.City
• Customer.Last Year’s Sales
• Sales Forecast (forecast for the current year’s increasing Last Year’s Sales by 25%)

Group the report by region. You want to see a West Sales Territory and and East Sales Territory. The West Sales Territory will consist of California (CA), Texas (TX) and Oregon (OR). The East Sales Territory will consist of Florida (FL), Massachusetts (MA) and Pennsylvania (PA).

To ensure your report is "presentation quality" you also want to ensure the following features are on your report:

• Column Headings
• Report Title
• Print Date
• Page X of Y field
• Subtotals for Last Year’s Sales and Sales Forecast for each territory
• Grand Totals for Last Year’s Sales and Sales Forecast
• Also make sure each territory prints on a separate page
• Display the Last Year’s Sales figures in red if they are less than $30,000 and in blue if they are greater than $30,000. Do the same for the Sale Forecast field.
• Add the Xtreme company logo as a picture to the Report Header (located in C:\Program Files\Seagate Software\Crystal Reports\Samples\Databases\Xtreme.bmp). Format it to Hyperlink to www.seagatesoftware.com.
• Export the report to HTML 4.0 (DHTML) and view it in your web browser.

Pre Course Topics

Please review the following topics prior to attending the course:

• Creating a basic report
• Record Selection
• Sorting, Grouping, and Totaling
• Formula Basics

If your experience is not with version 8, but with a version 7 or earlier of Seagate Crystal Reports, please review the following Seagate Crystal Reports 8 material prior to attending the Advanced course:

• User Guide, Chapter 6 - Introduction to Reporting
• User Guide, Chapter 11 - Formatting
• User Guide, Chapter 17 - Distributing and Viewing Reports

Thank you for taking the time to prepare for your course.