Crystal and GP Report menu

[Rexxx]

I create a Great Plain report in Crystal how do I add the report to the Great Plain report menu? In other words, the report file must be stored then called by report menu item .. what is the most efficent way to do this?

 

[bradth]

I found that the easiest way to do this is to create a whole new print button on the GP form, that when clicked will bring up the crystal report.

Brad

 

[winthropdc]

There are also third party integration tools available, for example:

Crystal Integration from

http://www.rocktonsoftware.com

Crystallizer from

http://www.synergistix.net

Reporting Extensions from

http://www.parity.co.za

David Musgrave [MSFT]
Senior Development Consultant
Escalation Engineer
MBS Support - Asia Pacific

Microsoft Business Solutions

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions

Any views contained within are my personal views and
not necessarily Microsoft Business Solutions policy.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties,
and confers no rights.

 

[Rexxx]

What third party tool (for including Crystal Reports as a GP report menu item) would you recommend and what is the cost of it for unlimited GP users? My main concern is menu security (i.e., I can't have the GP world run a crystal payroll report).

 

[bradth]

If you create a customization, such as a button on a form that when clicked will print a crystal report, you can set the permissions to who will access custom form. As well the only way a user can use the custom form is if it is installed on there PC. That way you can restrict who uses the report to whoever you install the customization for and through the advanced security.

Brad

 

[Rexxx]

Well I don't have a problem working with VBA (I have experience doing that in other applications). I'm helping out a GP client with reports so I'm not able to signon with admininstative rights although I can request the rights as long as I know what I need. Can I setup this button with my logon then add it to the other users that need it? If so, what customization rights do I need to do this?

 

[bradth]

All you need to do is have access to VBA and GP Report Modifier. What you need to do is using the GP Report Modifier, add the button to the form of your choice. Then using VBA, call the crystal report when the button is clicked into a crystal report viewer window. After you have your code and form working, go to Customization Maintenance. Export out the GP form that you had been working on and made the customization too. Then go to the users machine and using Customization Maintenance again, import the form. Then have someone with administrative rights go into the advanced security and set the form you imported in to 'modified' rather than the original GP button (there is a radio button that will let you select the modified form or the original GP). Then give the user or class access to use the modified form. To make sure that this form is working, there should be a '.' in front and behind the name of the form when you open it. For example if you made the customization on the Sales Trx Entry window, it would come up '.Sales Trx Entry.' This should hopefully get you on the right track.

Brad

 

[Rexxx]

Bradth

In the GP menu, selecting Tools then Customize, there are two options Visual Basic Editor and Modifier. I see these items and I believe I'll need to use both to create the menu (is this correct?) but they are greyed out. I approached the GP administrator to provide access rights to use these menu items but the admin tells me that these are GP modules (addons ... whatever) that would need to be purchased to use.

 

[bradth]

Ya, your going to need the VB Editor and the Modifier to edit any of the forms and place/call buttons and custom reports. I'm not sure if there is any other way to go about adding a custom report to GP without those two programs. I believe though that the Visual Basic Editor should come with the full version of GP. I may be wrong but I thought that GP included VB. You might want to check on Microsoft's website about that though. However your gonna need VB to do any sort of customizations. Let me know how it goes.

Brad