Talk:Crystal Reports

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[edit] Crystal report & Pivot Table

Please tell me in what way is my article [1] opportunistic and how to make it non-opportunistic?

Articles about how to not use the product such as replacements, competitors, different approaches, etc, are un-encyclopedic. And oh, I read your article. It is a good article, but and I really don't think you have enough grounds to say you could substitute CR by using your method. --Pinnecco 16:57, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Crystal Reports & BI

Please, explain why Crystal Reports is not related to Business Intelligence? Being a former employee of Crystal Decisions/Business Objects, I believe I have enough knowledge about such application to give a brief description about it. Crystal Reports is used to gather data and generate reports - this is what Business Intelligence is all about. --Pinnecco

Let's first note analysis as being separate from reporting. It's analysis that exhibits levels of intelligence. While the product provides comprehensive reporting capabilities, the same cannot be said for its data analysis capabilities, which are relatively limited (and probably rightly so). It therefore provides a very basic level of intelligence, compared to all that is possible in the field of business intelligence, such as by data mining. While reporting may be used as a means of communicating (presenting) intelligence, it is certainly not what business intelligence is all about. --Amit 02:32, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. According to Wikipedia's own article about business intelligence, it says that business intelligence software "aims to help people make "better" business decisions by making accurate, current, and relevant information available to them when they need it". This is exactly what Crystal Reports does. I am not disputing your understanding of Business Intelligence, but I am arguing about your understanding of Crystal Reports. --Pinnecco 15:08, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
CR can be used for BI, but any complex BI analysis using CR would probably require lots of intensive algorithm/formula development and code writing, which isn't worthwhile, as there are other products available by Business Objects and also other vendors, specifically geared towards BI - with additional built-in analytical formulas. There are degrees of complexity in the relevant info that can be provided using BI. In any case, basic BI seems clichéd and overrated. --Amit 23:47, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
That's what Crystal Analisys is for, but this doesn't mean that CR isn't a BI product. :-) --Pinnecco 10:39, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Amit, Pinnecco, strictly speaking Crystal Reports is a 'Report Writer' and not a business intelligence tool, search for 'Crystal' in this press release [2] and also [3]. (I am aso a former employee (core development 1996-2003)). (hint) this is the only true BI tool Crystal Decisions ever owned [4]
Beep! Wrong. By creating a CR report and publishing it on a delivery platform. I can get dynamic reports which could, say, give me the latest sales numbers based on geographic location, or top selling products. Perhaps I would like to drill down into the report and get information about demographics such as age and gender of my customers. This is what BI is all about. And quoting the article Business Intelligence:
[...] Therefore, in this sense, business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data for the purpose of helping enterprise users make better business decisions.

[edit] Company Name

Please Reffer to Crystal Decisions for the company name.

"Seagate software has relaunched itself under the moniker of Crystal Decisions and released version 8.5 of its reporting software, Crystal Reports, and the next generation of Seagate Info, which it has renamed Crystal Enterprise." --Pinnecco 20:28, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Origins

The product was originally created by Seagate Software ...

The above statement in the article is false as Seagate Software did not originally create Crystal Reports. My memory is a little hazy but from what I can remember; Seagate bought Crystal which was already producing Crystal Reports.

As per [5], Crystal Decisions, formerly known as Seagate Software, was an information infrastructure company founded in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1984. Assuming this is true, the article is correct. I will later see if I can get any secondary confirmation. --Amit 00:33, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
As a former eployee of Crystal Decisions / Business Objects, I can confirm that Amit is right. --Pinnecco 10:37, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
The following is from page 3 of the book "Crystal Reports XI: The Complete Reference (2005)" by George Peck:
In 1984, a Canadian shipping company wanted to produce custom reports from its accounting system. When the vendor said "We can't help you," the company created Quick Reports, the precursor to Crystal Reports. Crystal Reports' first "bundle" was with that vendor's next version of its accounting software.
The above info would probably benefit from being incorporated into the article. Also look at Holos#Company for some interesting info. --Amit 02:10, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
As also a former eployee of the company (1996-2003) I can confirm Amit, Pinnecco & George Peck are very mistaken. As I originally stated when I started this thread Seagate did not 'originally create' Crystal reports [6]. Seagate bought the company 'Crystal' which already produced Crystal Reports, to this Seagate added a company called 'Holistic Systems' see [7] & [8] forming 'Seagate Software IMG' this was later re-branded as 'Crystal Decisions' and then finally sold to 'Business Objects'. Those were the days :)
Here is a site for exchanging old software: [9], and they credit "Crystal Services" with Versions 1.1 to 3.0 and Seagate Software with versions 4.0 to 8.5.
DBMS Magazine 1995 lists: Crystal Reports (Crystal Services, a Seagate company), which adds support for the unsigned comment above. -- RayGates 21:27, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
Further confirmation from The Ablaze Group that Crystal Services originated Crystal Reports. -- RayGates 21:37, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I have reversed the change by an anonymous user of Crystal Services Inc. to Jeffry Cabrera as the originator, pending supporting evidence. If Jeffry owned or worked for Crystal Service Inc. or created the product and sold it to them, please specify and provide a source for this information. RayGates 01:27, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Band model relation to physics?

Could a footnote be added that shows that the band model is related to solid state physics? Eg the energy bands in crystals.

[edit] Thinking of using Crystal?

Save yourself massive headaches. Use SQL Server Reporting Services or the appropriate vendor-specific tools. Crystal can do simple reports but it's an incredible hack to do anything further. It's terrible to install, too. Just a tip 194.70.193.179 09:37, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Your rant above simply shows that you don't know jack about Crystal Reports, or Wikipedia. This is NOT a forum. --Pinnecco 10:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi Pennecco, former Crystal employee :). Thought I'd drop by this page again. Crystal IS terrible. I feel like writing an essay about it or something. Here's a handful: it crashes frequently. When I change an SQL Field formula, it queries the entire datasource (in this case 6 million rows). You can't duplicate subreport links. Having the user specify which fields they want to see is a pain (you use Switch statements). It can't do 'horizontal' reports. If it encounters a NULL, the default is to throw an exception and ignore a row. Positioning elements is buggy and painful. I know alot about Crystal. I was the fool who made the decision to use it, and now I have to live with it. 194.70.193.179 16:48, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Then go write a blog about it. --Pinnecco 10:22, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Why would I even need to bother? :) 86.133.10.104 23:39, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Two Reports

Hi,

I have a situation where i have to create a crystal report file which would have two pages. The first page would be a letter and then the annexure which might be many pages. This annexure is another report which i have created. So now if i ececute this new report, the letter followed by the other report should be executed. Can anybody help me on this?? -- Anon

Not here. This page is for discussion on how to improve the Crystal Reports article; not for tutorials on how to use the product. Ask your question on a forum for Crystal Reports questions and answers and you are far more likely to get useful help. -- Derek Ross | Talk 00:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
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