Crystal Reports 2008 Official Guide (Paperback)

~ Neil Fitzgerald (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

CRYSTAL REPORTS® 2008

OFFICIAL GUIDE

Whether you’re a DBA, data warehousing or business intelligence professional,
reporting specialist, or developer, this book has the answers you need. Through
hands-on examples, you’ll systematically master Crystal Reports and Xcelsius
2008’s most powerful features for creating, distributing, and delivering content.
One step at a time, long-time Crystal Reports insiders take you from the basics
through advanced content creation and delivery using Xcelsius, Crystal Reports
Server, crystalreports.com, and the offline Crystal Reports Viewer.

Every significant enhancement introduced in Crystal Reports 2008 is covered, including its new visualization options and more robust Web services capabilities. The book concludes by showing how to use Crystal Reports’ powerful .NET and Java SDKs to customize and extend enterprise reporting in virtually unlimited ways.

 

• Learn hands-on, through step-by-step examples and exercises–and discover tips and tricks proven in real-world enterprise environments

  •   Master new Crystal Reports 2008 features, including interactive report viewing, Xcelsius dashboarding, Flex, and Flash integration, Report Designer improvements, report bursting, and more

  •   Publish professional-quality reports against virtually any data source, including relational and OLAP databases, Universes, SAP, PeopleSoft, JavaBeans, .NET/COM objects, XML, and more

  •   Discover advanced visualization techniques using Xcelsius, charts, and maps

  •   Learn methods for distributing reports and integrating content into other applications

            •           Learn about the latest reporting addition to the Business Objects family–Xcelsius and begin creating dynamic and interactive dashboards

 

NEIL FITZGERALD has spent several years working at Business Objects and with one of Business Objects’ largest providers of custom BI and enterprise reporting solutions.

BOB COATES currently works as a Sales Consultant for Business Objects, an SAP company, where he has been employed for more than eleven years.

 

RYAN GOODMAN is the founder of Centigon Solutions, Inc., and remains one of the top Xcelsius experts and evangelists in the world.

 

MICHAEL VOLOSHKO is a senior presales consultant for the financial services team at Business Objects.

 

ON THE WEB

Find all this and more at informit.com/sams:

     •    Java and .NET sample reports and code samples for all examples in the book

     •    Bonus chapters, tips, tricks, and links to great reporting resources

 

CATEGORY: Database

COVERS: Crystal Reports 2008, Crystal Reports Server 2008,

Crystal Reports Viewer, crystalreports.com, Xcelsius 2008

USER LEVEL: Beginning–Intermediate

 

 

informit.com/sams

 

About the Author

About the Lead Author

Neil FitzGerald is an entrepreneur who has successfully started or contributed to multiple consulting companies in the IT consulting domain. Neil combined his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada and his MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario with his more than 8 years of experience at Business Objects in a variety of senior roles to help provide information solutions to Fortune 500 companies across North America. He has spent more than 13 years in the information delivery domain and is available for onsite or remote consulting to companies large and small. Neil can be contacted at [e-mail].

 

About the Contributing Authors

Bob Coates has worked for Business Objects, an SAP company (through the Crystal Decisions and Business Objects acquisitions), for more than 11 years. While there he worked in technical support, global services, and sales consulting. Presently Bob is a principal sales consultant working on the SAP Synergy Team–a branch of the Strategic Technology Group focused on the top 100 SAP customers. Bob would like to thank his wife Amanda for her infinite patience and support.

 

Ryan Goodman is the founder of Centigon Solutions Inc. As a previous technical evangelist and sales consultant at Infommersion and then Business Objects, Ryan has implemented hundreds of Xcelsius projects spanning more than 4 years. His interactive data visualization and design background coupled with his business insight and technical aptitude have made him one of the top Xcelsius experts in the world. Ryan continues to push the envelope and evangelize Xcelsius on his blog: www.ryangoodman.net/blog.

 

Michael Voloshko is a principal solutions architect for the financial services vertical at Business Objects, an SAP company.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 2nd Revised edition edition (October 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672329891
• ISBN-13: 978-0672329890
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #275,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should've come in the software package, February 5, 2009

By	Clark B. Timmins "q-25" (West Jordan, UT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ten or fifteen years ago, this book would have been in the shrinkwrapped software package as the included reference manual. Now that the software box is more-or-less empty, you have to buy this reference manual separately. The book is a standard reference-type manual designed to provide an overview of every feature within the product including the newest features. Besides the standard overview type stuff, it includes some basic tutorials on often-confusing topics such as report integration; you won't become an expert using these tutorials, however. The book also includes a lot of information on how Crystal Reports integrates with Business Objects' larger software platforms (which will probably be useless for 90% of users).

Beginning users will find the manual easy to use and full of information. Intermediate users will find a few suggestions here and there. Advanced users will probably only give it a flip-through. All in all a solid offering in a fairly crowded field, but one that is authoritative and complete. I might mention that it doesn't include much that isn't in the on-line documentation that installs with the software--but it is easier to use. However, I just can't shake the feeling that the manual should have come in the box.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too basic, August 20, 2009

By	PSVerona (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

As a new user who has completed three online Crystal Reports 2008 SAP training courses I was looking for a good reference volume to assist me with syntax and intermediate to advanced topics. This isn't it. I found most of the coverage to be cursory and the index to be sorely lacking and of little value.