Crystal Reports 9 review

However, structuring and formatting a report in the first place is still awkward. For example, there's no option to automatically adjust a report's layout when new elements such as formula fields or text objects are added. As a result, getting layouts correct is still time-consuming and fiddly, making the new template reuse features all the more welcome.

A Template Expert manages completed templates. It includes a browse function for finding and applying Crystal Reports templates stored anywhere on a local drive or network. There's also a set of ten default templates included with the product, although few of these are genuinely usable. Existing reports can also be saved as templates, including files from earlier versions of Crystal Reports.

Crystal Reports 9 is one of the few applications to have embraced the Smart Tags functionality included in Microsoft's Office XP. Smart Tags enable you to link to an external application from within Word, Excel or Outlook, then pass data between that application and the Office XP document. In the case of Crystal Reports 9, this allows you to display elements of a database report within a word processor or spreadsheet document, then link directly to the original report. For reports where data is being extracted from multiple sources, this provides a quick and easy way of getting complex information into a shareable and editable format. By clicking on the Smart Tag, Word or Excel users can access the appropriate place in the original report using a separate browser window.

Features for web-based reporting include a Report Application Server, which requires Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) to be installed. The Report Application Server provides a selection of features for creating reports in HTML, Word and Excel, which can then be accessed without the need for a locally installed version of the product through a standard browser.

After all the efforts to improve usability, Crystal Reports 9 is still best suited to developers with a strong understanding of SQL and database construction. Still, the interface's familiarity, in some parts, to the hierarchical folders used in Windows Explorer certainly simplifies the process of managing items within a repository. Plus, each report has a Design and a Preview mode, making it easy to monitor how the final document will appear during development.

Most of the features discussed are available across the whole product range. The Standard Edition includes all of the command and function-building features, as well as template controls, but it omits the important repository and web-based reporting controls. Professional adds web reporting and repository building. However, if you're interested in viewing or building reports using Java, .NET or COM, you'll need either the Developer or the Advanced Edition.

Most of Crystal Reports' competitors tend to be integrated into a wider set of business intelligence tools such as Cognos or MicroStrategy. As a result, it doesn't have a lot of opposition as a standalone tool for report building. However, if you're only working with a single data type, you'll probably find that the Standard Edition doesn't offer any compelling features over the reporting tools already accompanying your desktop database.

Although the new repository tools mean that less experienced users don't have to understand SQL or functions to create reports, this is still a complex product from a developer's perspective. However, improved features for managing both completed reports and reusable objects benefit productivity and make Crystal Reports more accessible. Also, new formatting and distribution features make the output from Crystal Reports 9 much more easily integrated with other applications. Output is now more flexible too, with the addition of Report Parts and web-based tools. These add up to some significant improvements for which you'll pay dearly, but it's still not for the faint-hearted.

Author: Maggie Williams