How to start with the SDK for crystal?

[beltmanjr]

Hi all,
I need to start using the Crystal SDK and am looking forward to mastering it, but I dont know where to start!

The idea is to program some extra functionality to be used when running reports using infoview. BO tells me this is certainly possible, but didn't tell me much more.

From their site I see Java and .net SDK, but which one to use so I can do some things for reports being run via infoview?

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Infoview is a pretty closed environment ( with many.,many include files and mostly precompiled) and it would be hard even for an experienced .NET ( or Java, depending on which you are running BOE under) programmer to modify its behavior by adding new or editing existing code.
In my opinion,
you should try developing your own User Interface ( In .NET or whatever) and not try making Infoview do what you want..it will be far easier ( altho' not a simple task if not pretty experience in programming .NET or Java apps)





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[beltmanjr]

Oh my, this sounds terribly scary!
I have never worked in the SDK and found the BO documents user unfriendly for a starter. They kind of assume you got your whole development enviroment set up already etc.

Any good places to start learning the SDK programming? Some tutorials that do show you how to start? Some book which are a real must have?

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
There are tutorials in the help files but they do assume a working .NET or Java environment..

The samples here may help:

http://support.businessobjects.com/downloads/samples.asp

Look in your Help directory for the compiled help files ( assuming they were installed with BOE. If not, they can be added from the CD)







To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[cmmrfrds]

What kind of "extra functionality" are you looking to perform?
Is .Net coding syntax similiar to VB?

http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/

This site has a forum on the SDK and has been helpful to me in the past.

 

[beltmanjr]

Well,
the idea is to run a report like a budget report and display the actual spend for last year. (simple crystal).

Then! Behind each row in the report they want to put an estimate for the coming year and save this to the database.
Like:

Category Spend Fill out estimate new budget
Hardware $40000 $64000
Software $75000 $_____
etc
SAVE THIS DATA

BO once made a proof of concept but that is long lost (so they told me)

The reports are run and shown to the user using infoview.

 

[cmmrfrds]

Why use Crystal for this since it is designed for reporting not updating databases? This seems like a simple application where you would do a query of the database and then provide an input Form for the users to enter their estimates. If it is just invoking a Crystal Report from an application then check with the folks on the busobj Forum.

 

[beltmanjr]

Well, crystal is used as BO sold it to these people of being capable of doing this and now they want it done. BO still claims it is possible and on me to figure it out...

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If CR ( and/or BOE) was sold on that premise, they were victims of an overzealous sales rep...I imagine that code could be developed that takes the values from a Report , creates a dataset from that and saves it to a database ( but entering the estimate would be a challenge, since CR is not an entry form or tool)...

If you want to sell someone a hammer, you define all objects as nails...


Use a standard .NET app to display the data as it is and to allow input of estimates and updating of the databse..






To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[AndrewBaines]

The demo with the database updating was done IIRC, using a url in the report that called something else to update the database. It's a really bad idea!

There was some work done to add HTML forms etc to Crystal but I don't think it got beyond internal beta.

Andrew Baines

http://www.pursuittechnology.co.uk

 

[beltmanjr]

Oh my, this thread makes me soooo happy

Well, I'm officially starting my research next week to figure out the best method of fixing this issue and make true what BO let the customer to believe