Crystal Reports is a business intelligence app, which is currently marketed to small businesses by SAP SE. It is used to design and generate reports from various data sources.
Video Crystal Reports
History
Terry Cunningham and Cunningham Group started the software in 1991. Crystal Services Inc. market the product (originally called "Quick Report") when they can not find the appropriate commercial report writer for their accounting software. After producing versions 1.0 to 3.0, Crystal Services was acquired by Seagate Technology in 1994. Crystal Services combined with Holistic Systems to form the Information Management Group of Seagate Software, later renamed to Crystal Decisions and produced versions 4.0 through 9.0. Crystal's decision was acquired in December 2003 by BusinessObjects, which produced versions 10, 11 (XI) and version 12 (2008). SAP acquired BusinessObjects on October 8, 2007 and released Crystal Reports 2011 (version 14) on May 3, 2011.
Several other applications, including Microsoft Visual Studio versions 2003 through 2008, and Borland Delphi, at one time bundled OEM versions of Crystal Reports as general purpose reporting tools. Microsoft stopped this practice and then released their own competitive reporting tool, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
Maps Crystal Reports
Versions and editions
- A = Advanced Developers, D = Developer, P = Professional, S = Standard
Features
Report designer
Crystal Reports allows users to graphically design data connections and report layouts. In Database Specialists , users can select and link tables from multiple data sources, including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Oracle databases, Microsoft SQL Server database, Microsoft Access database, BusinessObjects Enterprise business view, and local system information files. The report designer can place fields from these sources on the surface of the report design, and can also apply them in custom formulas (using the BASIC or Crystal syntax itself), which is then placed on the design surface. The formulas can be evaluated at several phases during report generation as determined by the developer.
Both fields and formulas have a variety of formatting options available, which designers can apply in absolute or conditional terms. The data can be grouped into bands, each of which can be further subdivided and pressed conditionally as needed. Crystal Reports also supports a limited number of subreports, graphics, and GIS functions.
Central Management Server
The Central Management Server (CMS, formerly " Crystal Management Server ") operates as the primary server for BusinessObjects XI.
Supported data sources
- databases such as PostgreSQL, Sybase, IBM DB2, Ingres, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, InterBase, Btrieve, Informix, Oracle, and Salesforce.
- spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel
- text file
- XML file
- groupware apps as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise
- APIs like ODBC and OLE DB
- SAP: BW, Collection Info, Table, and Universe BusinessObjects
Target audience
Crystal Reports integrates with versions of Visual Studio before 2010. Crystal Reports competes with several products in the Microsoft market, such as SQL Server Reporting Service, XtraReports, ActiveReports, and Sign Up & amp; Label. Users can also access Crystal Reports from outside the Microsoft environment; this allows (for example) Java developers to create applications with Crystal Reports components.
See also
- Business Software Applications and Services
- BusinessObjects
- Dashboard (business)
References
Bibliography
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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