Advanced Crystal Reporting Database Linking, Subreports and Historical Tables. Millie Ferrare, QA Director April 2017

Transcription

1 Advanced Crystal Reporting Database Linking, Subreports and Historical Tables Millie Ferrare, QA Director April 2017

2 Crystal Tips and Best Practices How to Insert a Subreport in Crystal 1. Bring up the report to be modified 2. Select Insert Subreport 2

3 3. We recommend that you select the Choose an existing report option. Make sure the subreport you re going to introduce works on its own before introducing it into the main report. 3

4 4. Click on the Link tab and add the same links that exist in the original report. 4

5 5. Sometimes when you bring in subreports, it creates a blank header and footer, remove these as well. 6. Right click on the subreport and select Format Subreport, go to the Border tab and select None for each of the 4 line styles. 5

6 7. Click on the Subreport tab and choose Suppress Blank Subreport. This will ensure that the spacing the subreport will take will be eliminated if there is no data to print. 6

7 8. Go to Database->Set DataSource Location... a. In the top area (Current Data Source), click on the first database that is not your actual RADB database name. b. In the bottom area (Replace with) of the Set Datasource Location screen, click on your RADB database. c. Press the Update button (it may ask you for the database password). d. Repeat the same process until the main report and the subreports point to your RADB database. e. When finished, press Close. 7

8 9. Save your report. 8

9 Cheat Sheet

10 Tables, Fields & Linking Included Tables Special Tables Database Tables Report Database Fields Report Unique Identifiers Database fields in these tables are already associated with an existing Crystal report used in Relius Administration. If information from these tables is desired, it may be easier to use and/or modify an existing Relius Administration report. The group of tables designed to gather information from Relius Administration in preparation for running a Crystal Report from the Relius front-end. Also called the RPT tables. Reports with these tables must be run from within Relius Administration. An existing Relius Administration report listing all database tables alphabetically and displaying all database fields contained in that table. (This report can be found under the file name, DBTable.rpt.) An existing Relius Administration report listing all database fields alphabetically and crossreferencing every database table that contains each field. (This report can be found under the file name, DBField.rpt.) Database fields that are used to link the tables. Also called Primary Keys or Key Identifiers. Examples include: SSNUM ERID PLANID ADMINID ACCTID YRENDDATE FUNDID RPTNAM 10

11 Field Explorer The Field Explorer is used to insert, modify or delete fields on the Design and Preview tabs of Crystal Reports. You'll see the Field Explorer after you have: Selected a data source for a new report Clicked View/Field Explorer button on the Standard toolbar The Field Explorer displays a tree view of database fields and special fields that you can add to your report. It also shows formula fields, SQL expression fields, parameter fields, group name fields, and running total fields that you have defined for use in your report. Fields that have already been added to the report, or fields that have been used by other fields (such as formula fields, groups, running total fields, summaries, and so on) have a check mark in front of them. 11

12 Running Total Parameter Running totals are a flexible and powerful way to create specialized summaries and continually incrementing totals. These summaries can also be designed to re-start for a new group, employer, plan or participant. A special kind of field that prompts the user for a value. You can use parameter fields for report titles, record selection, sorting, and a variety of other uses. Using parameter fields enables selection criteria to become variable changing with every request rather than absolute. 12

13 Section Expert This expert appears when you choose the Section command from the Format menu. Use the Section Expert to make formatting changes that affect entire sections of your report. 13

14 ReportWriter Front-End Using a display tree format, all versions of all ReportWriter reports in Relius Administration can be accessed here. Also, this is where custom reports are selected and/or added to the list of available choices. 14

15 Default Choice The pre-selected choice for every type of report in the ReportWriter front-end. Any available version of a report can be selected as the default choice, but the assignment is workstation specific. Output Naming Convention Options chosen by each user to designate how files will be named when printing ReportWriter reports to a file. 15

16 Toolbars

17 Standard Toolbar 17

18 Standard Toolbar cont. 18

19 Standard Toolbar cont. 19

20 Insert Toolbar 20

21 Navigation Toolbar 21

22 Formatting Toolbar 22

23 Formatting Toolbar cont. 23

24 Formatting Toolbar cont. 24

25 Expert Toolbar 25

26 Expert Toolbar cont. 26

27 Thank You Millie Ferrare