Crystal Reports 2008 ready for release 1

[kenhamady]

Business Objects has a new version of Crystal Reports ready for release called Crystal Reports 2008. They are planning on announcing it at the Insight Americas conference in mid - October. So far there is no public mention of this product that I can find except for one page that I am sure is only public by accident. But, that probably explains why they are allowing upgrades to XI for $99 through the end of September. They also recently began selling full developer copies of XI for only $395 till 9/28.

Anyone else in on the secret?

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides to Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, Cross-tabs, VB, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[kenhamady]

Found 3 of the new features in Crystal Reports 2008 and mentioned them in my BLOG a few days ago. Thought I would share them here as well.

1. On-Report Filtering (interactive filters for pulling subsets of data without a refresh)
2. On-Report Sorting (single click to change the sort field and order without a refresh)
3. Xcelsius content embedded in reports

I am sure there are other changes but these are the ones BO seems to consider primary.

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides to Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, Cross-tabs, VB, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[MJRBIM]

Will all of this functionality for CR-2008 be supported on the Business Objects Enterprise XI (R2) infrastructure "as is" - or will there be new patches, releases (maybe even services) that need to be deployed...?

 

[Ruune]

BO Enterprise XI R3 was slated to be released at the same time as CR 2008. However, they've pushed it back to Q1.

That said, I'm doubting if CR2008 will work with BOEXI R2 SP2. The aforementioned features might impact enterprise, in that the Xcelsius content probably wont work with the XIR2 viewer. However, this may just be the web elements component thats been available on the diamond site for some time now. Still, those only work under IIS. So, for those of us rnning apache or apache under websphere, OAS, etc, hopefully they'll have it implemented across the board.

Other than that, I remember upgrading from XI to XI R2, the two versions of crystal didnt get along with conflicting versions of enterprise.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.
He can go about his business.

 

[kenhamady]

Do you know if they have pushed BOTH back or just Enterprise? I was looking for the new version announcement, but I haven't seen anything yet.

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides to Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, Cross-tabs, VB, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[IdoMillet]

Reporting from the BO Conference, some of the nice new features of Crystal 2008:
- Mixed page layouts
- more powerful CrossTabs (and hence CrossTab charts)
- Optional parameters
- Interactive parameter panel (on the left)
- More poerful XML exports (coupled with XSLT)
- Flash integration
- Interactive sorting
- Built-in barcode support

Cheers,
- Ido

view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[rhinok]

Also, reporting from Insight. I had a chance to participate in the beta. I personally consider this to be the best release of Crystal Reports ever. There is a broad spectrum of improvements/enhancements, many of which Ido listed.

FYI - there will only be one edition of CR2008. No more guessing which edition you really.

~Kurt

http://www.acuityreporting.com

 

[bdreed35]

http://www.businessobjects.com/product/catalog/crystalreports/?intcmp=corp07q4_start_CR2008

~Brian

 

[kenhamady]

I just downloaded the EULA. Looks like they have added the restrictions on Consulting and Training that were in the enterprise license to the new CR 2008 license. That means there is NO independent consulting allowed on Crystal Reports 2008. Here is the link. Read restrictions in point 7 here (pdf).


Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides to Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, Cross-tabs, VB, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[befine]

So, will this put all us long-time CR/BO Trainers and Consultants out of work? (-:

Can we somehow outsource ourselves and still get the job done?:-D

 

[rhinok]

use the Software to provide or operate Application Service Provider (ASP), service bureau, marketing, training, outsourcing services, or consulting services

I don't interpret it that way, Ken, at least in regards to consulting. I think it prevents us from purchasing copies of Crystal Reports and then using that those copies to consult for clients, but it doesn't prevent us from doing work on a client's existing license. For example, I couldn't use my personal copy of CR or Crystal Reports Server to generate and distribute reports on a client's behalf. I could, however, develop reports on the client's machine using the client's copy of CR (which is what I do today).

Basically, Business Objects wants to ensure that the people using the reports are the ones who paid for the licenses.

Regarding training services, the license doesn't prohibit training, but it does prohibit using the product to generate training materials. So, you can train using a client's existing license, but you can't create your own materials to do so? I don't care for that, personally.

~Kurt

http://www.acuityreporting.com

 

[kenhamady]

Not so sure it matters whose software it is. CR is named user license. So even if the customer buys the consultant a named user license then the consultant is "using the software" to provide consulting services".

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides to Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, Cross-tabs, VB, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[MJRBIM]

Also from the conference....

- Mixed page layouts

So you can have different sections in different layouts (eg. GH1 and Detail in Portrait, and GF1 in a stand-alone Landscape page).

This doesn't allow different paper-sizes though, so you can only do Portrait/Landscape toggle within one (1) paper-size.

You can't do GH1 and Detail in Portrait-Letter, and GF1 in a standalone Landscape-Legal page.

Other than that, some very cool additions. Everything I am hearing is that you will need to upgrade your Crystal Report/Job/Page/Cache servers to RELEASE 3 in mid-2008 in order to be able to support the new Crystal features/viewers on BOE-XI infrastructure.

 

[BOBJProduct]

Hi Ken,

I see the clause there in the EULA and agree it's language is not as clear as it should be. We're updating the EULA with the first service pack and will address both the training and the consulting services items at that time to make it absolutely clear that Business Objects wants the broader Crystal ecosystem to consult and train on the product.

Regards,
Blair Wheadon
Crystal Reports Product Management

 

[dgillz]

My opinion on these types of restricted licensing clauses: Ignore them.

I am all for licensing in the sense that I do not support bootleg copies of software. The bottom line for me is there is no way BO can tell me how or for what purposes I can or cannot use the software that I purchased.

So I guess I'll just sit back and wait for the lawsuit

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?

 

[jambu]

Will this install beside v10 developer? I'd like to take a look at the beta but I don't want to mess up a clients install.

 

[kenhamady]

Blair,

Would you mind contacting me off-line to discuss this further?

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guides to Formulas, Parameters, Subreports, Cross-tabs, VB, Tips and Tricks

http://www.kenhamady.com/

 

[dgillz]

Does anyone know if they brought back the ability to return the the report expert multiple times within the same report instead of only once? I have been missing that feature ever since 9 came out.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?

 

[BOBJProduct]

Yes, Jambu it is side-by-side compatible with v10.

Thanks, Blair

 

[Harki06]

Have you'll noted -

1. Some of the new features will not be available with the ActiveX viewer such as interactive sorting, parameter panel or embedded Flash.
2. Ennterprise version will come later and they are still not promising to include 5 named user licenses.

FYI..