Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using Business Objects Crystal Reports XI

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have acquired and am using the current version (XI) of the "Using Crystal Reports" series book and I am impressed. I am a seasoned business-savvy IT professional and this book has helped me create useful reports with some of the advanced product features like sub-reports, variables, formula manipulation, parameter passing, advanced formatting, etc.

The author team has evolved the chapters to stay abreast of new features and Business Objects APIs. They have also clearly spent a good deal of time editing this version as the chapters flow together better than the previous versions and the real-world samples are particularly improved (and useful).

The book is not perfect and is lacking detailed coverage of all of the Business Objects Enterprise, Crystal Reports Server or Crystal Reports RDC APIs but the existing coverage is very insightful and I'm not sure I could carry the book if it had many more pages.

This is a solid book and a worthwhile reference. Unfortunately, the content organization is somewhat confusing--and the sheer size of the book makes it fairly difficult to find what you're looking for.

The contents have so many hints and tips that every programmer will learn something. I've been using Crystal Reports for many years, and reading through the book I would frequently learn little tips or timesaving processes.

I might note, however, that several of the examples are specific to certain database platforms or certain report implementation methods. For example, I didn't have easy access to SQL Server while reading the book, so testing out some of the examples was nearly impossible.

Nevertheless, one of the best Crystal Reports XI references available on the market.

I really like this book. it not only helps answer thing but makes suggestion and gives real world scenerios at end of a chapter. I use it mostly for a reference tool as chapters 1-11 pertain to CR XI report creation part, which is what I need refresh on the most. I do wish there was a good tool book that gave more on crystal syntax if anyone knows please email me, but this book helps get me thinking on the right track.

Book received at excellent condition on time. Am so impressed about this delivery. Content of this book is very helpfull and nicely organized. It is easy to read and best on the series.

I purchased this book with the hope of figuring out how to produce a table of contents. Since database publishing tools are no longer produced I was trying reproduce the effect in Crystal Reports. I have 18 years experience using the Oracle Reporting tools and know how to produce what I need, however Oracle will no longer be supporting it's report toolset. There is an article on the Business Objects knowledge base on how to do this but it is written for SQL Sever and not Oracle. I was hoping that this book would go into this real world situation, it does not. I have also gone to the book's web site and asked for help, but no reply after 2 weeks.
Finally the author implies that including a stored procedure is a matter of selecting the procedure and then providing the parameters, WRONG. For an Oracle stored procedure there much, much more to it than that. The author should research solutions before he puts them in the book. If his solution was for SQL Server then he should be reminded that Oracle holds market share.