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What is Crystal Reports?
In simplest terms, Crystal Reports is a report design tool that allows you to create reports that can retrieve and format a result set from a database or other data source. In addition to simply reading data from a data source, Crystal Reports has its own formula language for creating calculations and a number of features that can be used to turn raw data into presentation-quality reports, with graphs, charts, running totals, and so on.If we were to look at all of the different types of reports that could be created using Crystal Reports, you would find that they are as varied as the developer or end user who created them.
You can create reports that range from a simple list with only a few columns to a complex management report that shows multiple graphs, tables, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The flexibility of the report designer itself means that it can be used for many different types of reports and output, depending on your needs.In addition to a powerful toolset for actually creating reports, Crystal Reports also features a number of APIs and tools specifically created for developers to allow them to integrate these reports into their own applications. To help understand these features and how they are used, we are going to have a brief look at the history of the products leading up to this release of Crystal Reports.NET
A Brief History
In the beginning, a small company in Vancouver called Crystal Services developed a DOS-based reporting add-on for ACCPAC accounting in 1988. A few years later, in 1992, the company released Crystal Reports, touting it as the "world's first Windows report writer" and it wasn't too long after that Microsoft standardized on Crystal Reports as the reporting engine for Visual Basic and the rest is history.Within a year of that historic partnership between Crystal Services and Microsoft, over a million licenses of Crystal Reports were shipped, giving it a foothold within the developer community and ensuring long-term success. Since that time, Crystal Reports has evolved alongside the available platforms and development tools, moving from floppy distribution to CDs, from 16 to 32-bit, and from a .DLL print engine to ActiveX control to Automation Engine to .NET Classes.Over the years, the user interface for creating reports hasn't changed much - the basic features are still the same, even though the look and feel of the icons and menu bars may change depending on the UI design standards of the day. What has really changed over the years and releases of Crystal Reports is the functions and features that have been developed, culminating in a product that can easily hold its own with just about every other report writer on the market. To have a look at some of those features, we are going to delve in to just exactly what you can do with Crystal Reports.NET.
