Web viewer exporting to Excel

[kenhamady]

This is a branch of a discussion on why exports to Excel might only show the first page (in a web viewer).

I just opened Crystal Reports version 6.0 and exported a 4 page report to MS Excel. All pages made it.

I am not exactly sure what you are experiencing in the web viewers, but I know that CR itself doesn't have this limitation. Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guide to using Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

tek@kenhamady.com

 

[CFDude]

Sorry -- what I meant by not exporting past the first page is that it will not export all of the data that you can drill down on. Only the first grouping that is displayed automatically is exported -- nothing beyond that.

 

[kenhamady]

Sorry, I don't follow. Do you mind walking me through it? You preview a summary report, drill down on a group that has 2 pages of detail and try to export the drill-down and that is only exporting the first page? Is that it? Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guide to using Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

tek@kenhamady.com

 

[CFDude]

For the sake of clarity -- lets say I have 3 groups and each group is only a single page long. The export only exports the first group -- once you drill down into a second group, the export becomes unavailable. I'm referring to ALL groups, regardless of the number of pages each group may have.

All of my users (about 400) require using the web viewer, so exporting via the webviewer is extremely important.

Crystal acknowledges the issue:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/library/kbase/articles/c2007866.asp

The "workaround" is pretty useless.

I cannot get crystal to export the entire report in one export.

I just started evaluating version 9 and they have eliminated the activex viewer and from what I have seen, the export seems to be a little better, but I haven't paced it through. Since they got rid of the activex viewer, the printing is handled by exporting the report the .pdf -- the user has to download the report and make sure they have acrobat installed -- launch acrobat and print it from there. The browser handles most of it, but it now is a confusing process and takes twice as long to get something to print.

Version 9 is not looking to be a very compelling upgrade to say the least.

 

[kenhamady]

Sorry to be so dense, but the article is talking about a problem exporting from a drill down pages.

If you don't do ANY drill-downs, but have a detailed report of 3 groups over 3 pages, it should all export fine.

Are you drilling down before your export fails? Are you three groups a full page in drill-down or before? Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guide to using Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

tek@kenhamady.com

 

[synapsevampire]

That's true, exporting the main data does not send the drill down data.

They should be able to export the drill downs separately, though I'm not sure what version of CR you're using.

Since your report is only 3 pages long, you might take a different tact:

Create a parameter that prompts whether the user wants to use drill downs, and then use 2 reports (either one main or 2 subreports, the latter requiring some data to be returned in the main) in conditionally suppressed sections based on the parm to either provide all data or use the Hide<->drill down report.

Not elegant, but it's effective.

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com

 

[CFDude]

Ken,
Sure, if I didn't have any drill downs, then it would all export fine, but the fact is, I DO have drill downs that are not getting exported. In the web viewer, once you drill down, the export button becomes unavailable -- it is only available on the first page.

Even if the export button was available in the drill downs, the export functionality is dumb -- I would have to run a separate export for every grouping I have. I need a single export that will take ALL the report data, including all the groups down to the detail level.

I believe that crystal does not regard unviewed data to be part of the report -- in other words, if you do not literally view it on the screen, then it is not part of the report and will not export, print, etc. For my users, a report is ALL the data, so an export should export it all.

I don't see that changing anytime soon, and I have worked around it by creating my own export utility that does the job.

 

[kenhamady]

If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you would want to see a summary report in preview, but you want to hit the export button and have Crystal automatically export the details for all groups, in the form that you would see them in a drill-down? Yes, I am afraid CR doesn't do that.

So when you said that CR only exports the &quot;first page&quot;, you really meant that it only exports all of the pages of the primary preview window BEFORE you drill down. Is that it? Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guide to using Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

tek@kenhamady.com

 

[CFDude]

I believe we have different definitions of what a report is. The first &quot;page&quot; is just the first grouping -- A top level grouping of all the data underneath it. I wouldn't call that a &quot;summary report&quot; -- just the first view and that is the only thing that crystal will export. I don't want it to export the totals of each group. -- I really only want it to export all the details that end up comprising all the groups. An example: I have it grouped by State, City and Zip code -- so lets say I have 20 states, and each state has 10 cities and each city with 5 zip codes. Providing I only have one record for each zip, that would come out to 1000 records to export (20 x10 x 5).

You have it right now -- it only exports the primary or first window before you drill down. With the web viewer that is the only thing you can export -- it won't even allow you to export beyond that.

 

[manoma]

Hi CFDude,

Would u pls. tell me how you solved the problem of exporting drill down reports.

Thanks