Suggestions please for a data dictionary

[Mike Lewis]

Crystal Reports 8.5 had a Data Dictionary feature, which was dropped in 9.0.

Has anyone got any suggestions for a suitable replacement? At several of my clients, non-technical end-users need to create reports, and I'd like to give them some easy way of seeing their database, without exposing them to raw field names or the need to understand joins.

The databases in question are typically Visual FoxPor or SQL Server, but might be others as well.

I know you can download the original Data Dictionary from the BO site, but I wonder if that's the best solution for CR 10.0 and XI. Or are there any third-party products to consider?

Thanks in advance.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)

 

[synapsevampire]

CR Data Dictionaries aren't a good idea as they're proprietary, and are no longer supported. Currently Crystal suggests Business Views, which are again proprietary, and might bite ya later again.

If possible try to construct Views on the database that denormalize and flatten the data for the users. Then you can use standard ERD tools to map and document the Views, and you can use these across all applications that use the database.

Otherwise you'll be heading for rewrites at upgrade times.

-k

 

[Mike Lewis]

K,

Thanks for those tips. I had already thought about using views, but I wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing a better way of solving the problem.

I wasn't aware of Business Views. I'll investigate that, although I take your point about relying on a proprietary solution.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My sites:
Visual FoxPro (www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk)
Crystal Reports (www.ml-crystal.com)