Crystal Reports User Function Libraries Bruce Ferguson Chelsea Technologies Ltd A Presentation to the Auckland Visual Basic User Group, 28 April, 1999

Chelsea Technologies Ltd Crystal Reports training Crystal Reports development Crystal Reports consulting VB development

Visual Basic and Crystal Reports CR 4 distributed with VB Can design/modify reports –database, ODBC, ADO, ACT, Outlook, servers License to distribute run time DLL’s CRYSTL32.OCX object –200+ properties and methods (usually use < 6) Crystal API

Versions of Crystal Reports Crystal Reports 5 –Sub reports, variables, crosstab objects, UFL Crystal Reports 6 –More functions, Group tree, Web integration Crystal Reports 7 –Running Totals, Maps, Parameters, Web services

Crystal Formula Fields Calculations based on DB fields Extensive list of built in functions –Numeric, string, date, time, boolean, ranges, arrays, summary, etc.

Demonstration: Simple Crystal Report

But what if you want more...

Complex Report Development Sub Reports –Reports inside a report (linked/unlinked) –Separate DB, formulas, format Variables –Temporary storage –Complex If…then…else –Multi line formulas –Can control evaluation time

Crystal Reports Limitations Based around Database fields –plus some special fields –(print date, page number, page count, author, report filename, etc.) No loops, for.. next, do… while, etc. No case statement Local to each report/sub report

User Function Libraries You can write your own functions –VB, Delphi, C++ Special formatting/data conversion Information not in the database –Registry –Disk volume information –Text/Data files Other things - any suggestions?

Why use UFL? Available to all reports/versions More efficient processing More powerful Can be placed in any section Customise your reports

Writing a UFL Create a new VB project (ActiveX DLL) Create a new class Create a public function –(numeric, date, string, etc.) Compile the DLL Register the DLL

Naming the UFL Project file Name CRUFLxxx.DLL Project Name: CRUFLnnn Class Name: ccc Public Function Name: fff UFL: nnncccfff

Demonstration

Processing the UFL Report Header/Footer Page Header/Footer Group Header/Footer Details Sub Report

Conclusion UFL are very powerful and easy to develop Available to all reports/versions More efficient/consistent processing More powerful Can be placed in any section of the report Customise your reports Any questions?