Crystal Reports Training 

This course starts right at the beginning, and so is good for absolute beginners, but would also be useful for you if you have previously used it, perhaps viewing reports or making basic reports, and would like to improve your skills.

Crystal Reports is the ultimate business intelligence application. Used to design and generate reports, Crystal Reports can work with a range of data sources, including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Oracle databases, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access databases, Business Objects Enterprise, and Local file system information.

VALUE OF LEARNING CRYSTAL REPORTS

Crystal Reports’ design interface allows users to construct reports with the support of visual-based data. It helps transform data into meaningful information and increase an organization’s competitiveness, because it helps identify and reduce operational costs, and puts focus on specific performance measures. Its dynamic and interactive content helps users make better decisions every day.

Crystal Reports software is supported over the Web, in a Windows environment, and on mobile devices. This makes Crystal Reports a flexible solution for organizations and developers who need to support a range of information delivery options.

Crystal Reports training and certification provides a strong knowledge base for the following careers:

  • Crystal Reports Developer
  • Database Developer
  • Crystal Reports Writer
  • Business Analyst

Overview

SAP Crystal Reports 2013

Audience Profile

  • Application Consultant
  • Business Analyst
  • Business Process Owner / Team Lead / Power User

Prerequisities

Essential

  • Standard Windows conventions
  • Basic computer skills and database concepts

At Course Completion

  • Participants will gain skills in designing reports
  • Participants will gain a portion of the knowledge required for associate-level certification in Crystal Reports

What Will I Learn?

  • Have a good knowledge of Crystal Reports, having installed it on your laptop.
  • Know about the different types of data sources, and how to create a report from scratch, including grouping, sorting and filtering/selecting.
  • Be able to format dates, numbers, text and other fields, insert and format graphics and other objects, and know when and why to insert additional sections.
  • Find out why hard-coded figures do not give the best interaction to the end-user, and use parameters to overcome this problem.
  • Add all manner of graphs, from bar charts to pie charts, radar charts and more.
  • Create subreports and drill-down reports, including using Cross-tab (PivotTables) in these reports.
  • Know what types of formulas are available, and how they can be used.

Course Outline

  • Overview of Crystal Reports
  • Formatting and summarizing data
  • Filtering, sorting and grouping data
  • Customizing reports with business logic
  • Connecting to SQL Server, Oracle and Access databases
  • The Crystal Report Writer

Writing a basic report

  • Selecting a format
  • Adding text and fields
  • Connecting to remote data sources
  • Configuring the reporting environment

Formatting and styling

  • Tailoring sections within a report
  • Designing fields for quality presentations
  • Highlighting data with Highlight Expert
  • Linking Crystal Reports to Data

Connecting to popular data sources

  • SQL Server
  • Oracle
  • Access
  • Web logs
  • XML
  • Reporting from stored procedures and views

Establishing data connections

  • Creating a connectivity checklist
  • Configuring ODBC and OLE DB
  • Integrating SQL commands in a report
  • Interpreting Structures and Retrieving Data

Navigating complex data

  • Deciphering data structures
  • Identifying data relationships

Gathering the right data

  • Merging data from multiple tables
  • Building business queries
  • Combining Powerful Report Techniques

Organizing and summarizing reports

  • Sorting user sort control and grouping
  • Summary and Rolling Total fields

Building advanced reports

  • Embedding linked and unlinked subreports into reports
  • Creating crosstab and drill-down reports
  • Designing dynamic and cascading prompts
  • Hyperlinking Reports and Multilingual Reports
  • Achieving reusability with templates

Visualizing complex data

  • Simplifying data with charts and graphs
  • Organizing fields into sections
  • Adding, merging, suppressing sections
  • Programming Data Functionality

Coding in formula language

  • Working with variables and operators
  • Deciphering formula syntax
  • Adding and modifying formulas
  • Calling and working with functions

Writing effective formulas

  • Building if/then/else statements
  • Converting and comparing data
  • Debugging the code
  • Employing the Formula Workshop

Converting to Basic Syntax

  • Writing formulas with Basic Syntax
  • Laying a foundation for complex reporting logic
  • Deploying Reports to the Internet, Visual Basic and .NET

Deploying Crystal Reports

  • Deciding among Push, Pull, Static and Dynamic reports
  • Migrating to production by switching databases

Publishing reports to a website and integrating into custom applications

  • Exploring development options
  • Exporting reports to PDF, Excel, Word and HTML
  • Adding Crystal Reports to a .NET application