Crystal Reports(R) 9: The Complete Reference [Paperback]

George Peck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2002 | ISBN-10: 007222519X | ISBN-13: 978-0072225198 | Edition: 1

Create winning presentations and reports using the most powerful data analysis tool and this comprehensive guide. This book explains how to use the software to analyze and format data, generate reports, perform advanced interactive reporting from the Web, and much more, making it the ultimate one-stop Crystal Reports resource.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Your Definitive Resource on Crystal Reports 9!

Covers upgraded GUI, custom functions, repository, Report Application Server, and more

Create eye-popping, presentation-quality reports and complex, interactive analysis documents both on and off the Web with help from this one-stop reference. Learn to use the latest version of this powerful reporting tool to develop and design reports, draw information from databases, make tables and charts, integrate with Visual Basic and Visual Studio .NET applications, and much more. This helpful resource provides comprehensive coverage of core basics for new Crystal Reports users, and plenty of review--as well as clarity on what's new--for those who have experience with previous versions. Get the information, advice, and tools you'll need to conquer the learning curve and produce winning reports and report-based applications.

• Develop, design, and build business, corporate, and personal reports
• Learn essentials such as mapping, formatting, grouping, design, and exporting
• Share formula logic and report objects within your organization using the new repository and custom functions
• Utilize templates, complex formulas, charts, report wizards, and more
• Integrate Crystal Reports into Visual Studio .NET Windows and Web applications
• Implement state-of-the-art Web reporting with the new Report Application Server
• Customize Crystal Enterprise for efficient and speedy Web delivery
• Integrate Crystal Reports with Visual Basic and Active Server Pages using Crystal Reports' Report Designer Component
• Maximize report performance with your SQL database

About the Author

George Peck is a software trainer, consultant, and developer with more than 20 years in the computer industry. Peck is certified by Crystal Decisions as both a trainer and consultant for Crystal Reports 8.5, Crystal Enterprise, and Seagate Info. He is a recipient of the Crystal Decisions Training Partner of the Year award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 880 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (November 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007222519X
• ISBN-13: 978-0072225198
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,024,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

George Peck is a software trainer, consultant, and developer with more than 20 years of experience in the computer industry. He purchased his first PC (a Radio Shack TRS-80) in 1978 and taught himself to program in one of the earliest versions of Microsoft BASIC. Later, when Microsoft shipped Visual Basic 1.0, George drove to the shipper's warehouse to pick it up, rather than waiting the extra day for delivery.

After more than 10 years as an internal consultant and trainer in a large corporation, George founded his own consulting and training firm in 1994. He has since trained, consulted, and developed custom software for large and small clients throughout the United States and Canada.

George is certified by Seagate Software as both a trainer and consultant for both Seagate Crystal Reports 7 and Seagate Info 7. He was awarded "Training Partner of the Year" by Seagate for 1998-1999.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars the incomplete reference, February 20, 2003

By 

J. Mecina (NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Reports(R) 9: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

to start, I am a crystal developer who is responsible for putting reports on our sales intranet, and I bought this book thinking it could help me with the new version of Crystal. To be fair, the book does a good job of showing you how to create simple reports. Unfortunately, it never moves far beyond that and is not really deserving of the title "complete reference".

Once you get through the basic material on report design, the chapters on distributing reports through the web, ASP, etc. are weak and the sections on other languages are worse-- the code examples are similiar to the projects that come with the product itself. And probably the worst part of it all, is a MAJOR chunk of the book refers to the previous versions of the product (including Crystal Enterprise 8.5, NOT 9) and outdated features with a disclaimer of "this hasn't been released yet, so here is the old stuff". Why would I buy a book with "version 9" on the cover, when it uses filler material from the previous version? It is a sad attempt to bulk up the page count and make you think you were getting something you are not. So in total, if I could rip the book in half, I would keep the first section and throw out the other half. It is still a good reference for report design, but not much else.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Developers beware., August 6, 2003

By 

S. Reid (Michigan, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Reports(R) 9: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

I read the review from "J. Mecina from NM" entitled, "the incomplete reference, February 20, 2003" before buying this book. I think his review is on the mark. Unfortunately, this was the best book I could find that covers the CRD (Crystal Reports Designer) control for Visual Basic.
I'm a VB developer with several years of experience and have written many Crystal Reports from simple to moderately complex. So when looking for a good book on the subject, I'm looking for advanced topics. And as was said, unfortunately, this book was not everything that I'd hoped it was. But it still seems to be the best one that I could find. And I spent a good deal of time searching. So... Buyer beware. And good luck.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Has some good reference material, hard to locate., March 15, 2005

By 

A. Boyd "alicia1703" (Livermore, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crystal Reports(R) 9: The Complete Reference (Paperback)

I was fairly new to Crystal when I bought this book and I found it to have some good material for the intermediate user of Crystal, but the index is the most incomplete I have ever seen in a reference book. Every time I try to look up something that I KNOW I have previously read in the darn thing, it inevitably is not listed in the index and I have to go thumbing through the book to try to locate it. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes the help screens are much much better.