This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

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

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 2 Ratings

Should've come in the software package - 2009-02-05
Reviewer Rating:
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.

Too basic - 2009-08-21
Reviewer Rating:
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.

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