SEAGATE CRYSTAL REPORTS 8：希捷水晶报表8

1、seagate crystal reports 8new features introduction seagate crystal reports 8.4legal notices & disclaimer.4new features at a glance.4significant performance improvement.4enhanced web-based reporting.4boosted reporting power .5ui & usability enhancements .6developers tools.7detailed description.8real-

2、time reporting.8version 7 compatibility.8save as crystal reports 7 format.8export to crystal reports 7 format.9text object formatting compatibility.9international formatting support.10text rotation.10line indentation.12line and character spacing.13import for text objects.14interpreting data pre-form

3、atted in html & rtf.14conditional fonts.15new shapes.15fractional point font support.16date formatting for japanese .16user interface enhancements.18welcome dialog box.18new report gallery.19creating reports with the data explorer.19open & save to personalized folders.23displaying preview on opening

4、 report .24displaying properties on opening report.26tool bars.26group name formula .27displaying tables by name or description.31displaying tables & database fields alphabetically .31field explorer .32moving and resizing objects.34selecting multiple objects.35other usability enhancements.36accounti

5、ng conventions.36automatic driver conversion for set location.38autosave reports.38default report directory .39enhanced browsing .39enhanced field formatting.39help for report experts.43improved design tab of multi-column report.43inserting running total.43more image formats.43seagate software suppo

6、rt on the web.43string search.44formula language.45summaries.46inserting subtotal, summary, grand total.47percentage summary fields.47add-ins for access and excel.50access add-in.50excel add-in.51printing.57wysiwyg vs non-wysiwyg output.57exporting.57subreports.58on-demand subreports on creation.58l

7、inking subreports.58hyperlinks.60linking to a web site or e-mail address.60linking to another crystal report .62charts.63zoom in / out.63format charts.66detailed tool tips .73legend enhancements .73multiple curve types for a series.74enhanced charting on olap grids.75miscellaneous improvements .75ma

8、ps.77detailed tool tips .77data mismatch resolved .77map navigator .80mapping on olap grids.82non-polygon map.84miscellaneous improvements .84olap grids / cross-tabs.85sample grid styles.85grid formatting.86conditional cell formatting .90page & filter dimensions.93olap labels.99synchronized set loca

9、tion for relational database and olap cube.101sql databases.101select distinct records.101browse distinct records.102sql query update.103smarter visual linking expert .103enterprise resource planning.105hierarchical grouping.105web viewing.107crystal report viewer for html .107crystal report viewer

10、for java.108crystal report viewer for activex.108developers tools.110report integration controls for visual interdev.110installation.110adding reports to the current project.110report source.110report viewer.112crystal report print engine api.114launch seagate analysis.114seagate crystal reports 8 e

11、nhancements.114report designer component.115unbound fields.115report creation.116data environment support for adding database.116more events.116report variables .117set ole object location.117show object names for fields .117miscellaneous enhancements .117appendix a: seagate crystal reports 8 formul

12、a language.125introduction.125what is basic syntax?.125how does basic syntax differ from crystal syntax?.125new functions .130new operators .151new control structures.153end select.154optimization of constant and parametersubexpressions in formulas.155appendix b: changes to crystal report print engi

13、ne api (crpe api).156new error codes.156report options.157report options.157pegroupoptions new member variables.158pegetnsectionsinarea new function call.159pesectionoptions - new members .160pesubreportinfo new options & members .161pefontcolorinfo.162peget/setgraphtextdefaultoption new calls.163pe

14、graphoptioninfo legend layout changes.164pegraphaxisinfo autoscale options added .165documentation changes for parameter fields calls .166print window options .167pefreedevmode new call for printing.168report summary info.169new events hyperlink and launch seagate analysis.170crpe preview window cur

15、sors .171formula syntax new feature .172the key design goal for seagate crystal reports 8 is to make it easy to use and make it accessible to many users simultaneously. this document describes the major features that have been added to seagate crystal reports 8. the first section, “new features in a

16、 glance”, is an outline of the major features from the end users benefits point of view. the second section is a detailed description of each of the features, categorized by component within seagate crystal reports. following is a developers tools section that describes the enhancements in the repor

17、t integration controls for visual interdev, the crystal report print engine api and the report designer component. there are two appendices: appendix a is on the formula language of seagate crystal reports 8, which includes a comparison between the new basic syntax and the crystal syntax, and a deta

18、iled description of the new functions, operators and control structures added to the formula language. appendix b is a detailed description of the changes and enhancements in the crystal report print engine api.microsoft, visual interdev, activex, windows, windows nt, office 2000, windows 2000 and v

19、isual basic are either registered trademarks or trademarks of microsoft corporation in the united states and/or other countries.java is either a registered trademark or trademark of sun microsystems inc. in the united states and/or other countries.adobe and acrobat are trademarks of adobe systems in

20、corporated.netscape is a registered trademark of netscape communications corporation in the united states and other countries.the following outlines the major features of seagate crystal reports 8:this release of seagate crystal reports has the capacity to handle larger data sets much more efficient

21、ly. you will notice major improvements to report performance in all areas of processing from opening and refreshing to formatting and saving your reports. for example, opening reports with saved data is significantly faster; you can begin viewing the first page of a report even before the entire rep

22、ort has been loaded. other areas such as formatting (e.g., when going to the last page), refreshing and saving reports are also faster. this is attributed by more efficient sql expressions, less redundant data returned from the database server, and data decompression. with a new file format in seaga

23、te crystal reports 8, report files and temporary files are now much lighter weight. for backward compatibility, you may also choose to save a report in version 7 format.this version of seagate crystal reports enhances its reporting capability on the web. a few of these enhancements include:real-time

24、 reportingviewing reports on the web emphasizes performance in real time. multithreading in the crystal report viewer for activex, for instance, improves response time when viewing large reports.introduction seagate crystal reports 8 legal notices & disclaimernew features at a glancesignificant perf

25、ormance improvementenhanced web-based reportingimproved printingwith the new netscape plugin for microsoft activex, you can now use the crystal report viewer for activex on a netscape browser and achieve close to wysiwyg quality when printing.report integration controlsthe report integration control

26、s for microsoft visual interdev 6.0 is a major overhaul from its predecessor design time control for visual interdev. you can now develop web applications that host crystal reports and allow end-users to view, print and export these reports in a crystal report viewer for java or activex.web foldersi

27、f you are running microsoft windows 9x or windows nt with microsoft office 2000, or if you are running windows 2000, you may store, open, update and save reports directly to a web folder on a web server. you no longer have to download reports, edit them locally and upload them to the web server. rep

28、orting capability has been boosted with measures included below:formula language augmentationthe formula language has been augmented with a new syntax, basic syntax, which is a microsoft visual basic script-like language. if you are new to seagate crystal reports and are familiar with visual basic,

29、you will find this new syntax very easy to learn. if you have been using crystal syntax, you will also be able to benefit from the many useful new functions, operators and control structures that have been added to both crystal and basic syntaxes.olap and cross-tab enhancementscreating and formattin

30、g olap grids and cross-tabs is more robust with conditional formatting and grouping with page dimensions, and is easier with the addition of new grid formatting options and sample grid styles that you can apply as templates.charting and mappingenhancements have been applied to both charts and maps.

31、you may now create charts and maps based on running totals and olap grids. charts and maps are easier to read with detailed tool tips.in addition, there are chart-formatting options to show amounts in chart legends, and to move and re-size various chart items. you may also chart on all records, zoom

32、 in bar and line charts, and drill down in chart legends.maps are now easier to use since there are a new map navigator to show relative location, and non-polygon maps that show points (e.g., cities) with graduated symbols. you can now resolve differences in geographical names between a map and the

33、data, and can map on specified order grouping and running totals. maps are loaded faster than before too.access and excel add-insusing the access add-in and excel add-in, you may now create reports from an access database and excel worksheet respectively, and when the data is changed, you can refres

34、h the reports and have them updated.hierarchical groupingyou may now use hierarchical grouping to arrange data in a report to show hierarchical relationships in your data. in essence, you still have all the elements in the hierarchy in boosted reporting powerthe same table, but the relationships in

35、the hierarchy are now also displayed. this is useful, for instance, in reporting off a human resources database to show the hierarchy within a company.subreportsvarious enhancements to subreport linking have made subreports more versatile. you may now create in a report a hyperlink to another crysta

36、l report, which is essentially an on-demand subreport. data refresh for an on-demand subreport is efficiently managed such that data is only retrieved from the server on drilling down of the subreport. other improvements include that when you create a subreport, you can specify it as an on-demand su

37、breport. you also have the option to update a subreport upon loading of the main report. this will be convenient when the same report is inserted as a subreport in a number of different reports, as any changes to the former can be reflected in each of the latter upon loading of the corresponding mai

38、n report.exportyou may now export a report to adobe acrobat portable document format (pdf).support for rtf and html datayou may now include rtf or html data in string or memo fields in your reports, and these fields will be interpreted and displayed appropriately with respect to specifications for t

39、he font, size, style, color and paragraph. there are a number of features that improve immensely the usability of the crystal report designer. among them is a range of features that support formatting text for the international market. the more prominent new features are outlined below.international

40、 formattingthis set of enhancements applies to all languages supported by seagate crystal reports including english, but is in particular geared toward the japanese market. you may now format text vertically, use fractional point font size, use different fonts conditionally, indent lines, control li

41、ne and character spacing, format dates in a way typical to japanese, and insert new shapes into reports conventionally used in japanese for specific purposes.accounting conventionsyou now have an option to format number and currency fields using common accounting conventions, regarding the display o

42、f the negative symbol, currency symbol, zero value and reversing the sign of numbers (for debits and credits).data explorerwhen you create a report or do a set location, you now use the new data explorer to manage your database connections. the data explorer provides an integrated tree view of all d

43、ata sources available to you. within the data explorer, there are also current connections, favorite and history data sources that make connecting to a commonly used data source more convenient.field explorerthe new field explorer provides a unified interface to insert, modify and delete all types o

44、f fields (including database, formula, sql expression, parameter, group name, special and running total fields) in a report. in particular for database fields, it provides a clear tree view of displaying tables and database fields that are available to the report.ui & usability enhancementsdisplayin

45、g names of tables and database fieldsyou may now display table names alphabetically by name, description or both. you may also choose to display database fields alphabetically.select distinct and browse distinctyou now have an option to select only unique records from a table, and browse a larger se

46、t of unique records as well.group name formulayou may now choose to use a database field or a group name formula to name a group. this name should be able to better identify a grouping and will appear in the group tree and in the group header. opening and saving reports to personalized foldersyou ma

47、y now open and save reports to the desktop and personalized folders that your operating system supports: history, personal, favorites and web folders.displaying preview and properties on file openwhen opening a report, you may now have the option to preview the first page of a report and view its pr

48、operties in the file open dialog box.autosaving reportsyou now have an option to have your report saved automatically after a specified interval of time.more image formatsmore types of formats are supported for blob fields, including jpeg, png and tiff.string searchin both the design and preview tab

49、s, you may now search for strings in text objects, field objects, subreports, cross-tabs and olap grids.selecting and formatting multiple objectsyou may now select more than one object at a time and carry out operations like move, align, size, cut, copy and paste. (some conditions apply. please see

50、section “selecting multiple objects” below for more details.)developers tools such as the report integration controls for visual interdev, report designer component and crystal report print engine api have been enhanced to complement upgrades to the crystal report designer. in addition, there are ne

51、w features to the report designer component that include: unbound fields that are inserted into a report at design time and bound to a database field at runtime, thus allowing more customization at runtime,ability to create a report based on a command in a microsoft visual basic data environment, an

52、dreport variables that can manage the status of a field that changes upon repeated firing of certain events.developers toolsthe following section describes the new features in detail, categorized by component. real-time reporting allows you to process and view reports immediately. this is particular

53、ly important in web scenarios. to be able to load the first page of a report quickly, improvements have been made in record processing, page generation and report loading. more record processing and grouping is offloaded to the server. these measures reduce the time and the volume of selected data t

54、o return from the server.there is support for the sql clause, select distinct, that allows you to select unique records from a database more efficiently. for more information on select distinct, please refer to the section “sql databases” below.most reports with summaries, charts, maps and olap grid

55、s are now generated with one pass of all the records. opening reports with large group trees, images or high total page counts is also significantly faster.ad-hoc changes such as formatting text, editing group tree, re-selecting and re-sorting records can be completed more quickly.several measures h

56、ave been implemented to speed up report loading, including loading and decompressing records in batches, and loading drivers on-demand. consequently, a user can begin viewing as soon as that portion of the data has been loadedas the format of saved data has been changed in seagate crystal reports 8,

57、 you now have the option to keep version 7 reports with data in version 7 format, or save them in the current seagate crystal reports 8 format. you can also export reports to version 7 format.saving report in crystal reports 7 format is accessible via the file | save as menu item. the save as dialog

58、 box provides choices of saving a report as “crystal reports” format (i.e., current seagate crystal reports 8 format), or “crystal reports (version 7.0)” format.detailed descriptionreal-time reportingrecord processingpage generationreport loadingversion 7 compatibilitysave as crystal reports 7 forma

59、tnote that when you save a version 8 report in version 7 format, or when you modify and save a report of any other version in version 7 format, features that are not available in version 7 will no longer be supported.you now have an option to export a report to crystal reports 7 format. note that th

60、is export option is only available when exporting from the main report. it is not available when exporting from a subreport.to be consistent with this change in the crystal report designer, the report designer component and the crystal report print engine (crpe) api have also been enhanced to suppor