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Chapter 17: The Crystal Programming Forest
Overview
Welcome to the forest! In this section we will be looking at Crystal Reports from a completely different point of view. So far we have been using Crystal Reports as an application to write reports. In some ways it is similar to Microsoft Word or Excel, standalone programs you use to build your documents or spreadsheets; in Crystal Reports, you build reports. Crystal Reports has another side to it; you can use Crystal Reports as a component in application development. For example, if you were building an application such as an airline travel system, you would need reporting as part of the application. Instead of doing all the report programming from scratch, you can use Crystal Reports to provide the reporting capabilities and embed Crystal Reports in your application.
Business Question: I want to add reports to my business application. How can Crystal Reports fit in?
In this chapter you will get a bird’s-eye view of the various development environments and options where Crystal Reports can be used. Crystal Reports has been around since 1992. Crystal Reports gained popularity in 1993 when it was bundled with Visual Basic, and since then programmers have used Crystal Reports in their applications. In the decade that Crystal has been around, the computer industry has gone through many changes, and Crystal Reports has followed along. In this chapter we will examine the various environments that Crystal Reports works in. This will help you understand how Crystal fits in and what its capabilities are and how you can use it in your environment. Often the number of choices is confusing because Crystal Reports supports many different environments. The following chapters will examine in detail how to program Crystal Reports in those environments.Featured in this chapter:
Exploring the various Crystal Reports development environments
Seeing how Crystal Reports fits in with .NET development
Using Crystal Reports in your web applications
Discovering web services and how Crystal Reports fits in
Looking at the skills required to develop in the various environments
