Problems w/ CR compared to Access report writer

[SouthwestNut]

I have been hunting for some answers to these questions for some time. When I use CR (compared to Access) there are a few maddening gliches which hopefully someone can convince me that its a "feature".

1) Switching the source of the controls.

In Access, I can easily switch a control source thru a pulldown. In CR, if I want to change a control source I must drop it and reinsert it to a report. (Very similar to the old days when I had to drop Oracle tables just to add a new field). This becomes annoying as when I reinsert, I must also reformat and relayout. Is there anyway to change a control source without doing all this relayout?

2) Dumping all report properties in a table. I have written some sophisticated programs that "explode" any Access report and can add write all report and control properties out to a table. Is there anyway to do this in CR?

I am using CR version 9.

Answers to these questions will make my day.

 

[IdoMillet]

1. I assume this refers to cases where the table structure has changed after the report was designed. To deal with such a case, simply go to the menu option of:
Database, Verify Database...

2. One of the export formats if "Report Definition". There are also various 3rd-party report documentation utilities (see list at:

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html).

- Ido

Visual CUT & DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[SouthwestNut]

The answer to #2 would be using the Crystal Reports object model. The best answer I found on how to use it was following this link.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=924334

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
One comment about your statement:
Very similar to the old days when I had to drop Oracle tables just to add a new field

As far back as I can remember ( back to Oracle 6, at least)
adding a field ( column) to a table never required dropping the table being modified..

A simple
'Alter table add new_col_name varchar2(12)' worked fine..
Dropping a column, however, was a later addition to what could be done to an existing table..








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