SAP Crystal Reports 2011 is one of the new versions of Crystal Reports that is releasing in the next couple of months. The objective for this short post is to introduce the two new features that were added to this release. For more information on the other, more feature rich version of Crystal Reports that is releasing at the same time, please read SAP Crystal Reports in BI 4.0 and check out this video.
The first new feature that was added to SAP Crystal Reports 2011 is the ability to export your reports to a read-only report format. This allows report creators to protect the intellectual property that is contained within their reports. For example, if you are a software developer that has embedded Crystal Reports content in order to provide a piece of core functionality, you would potentially have the need to protect that content if you have leveraged advanced logic in the report that would expose the structure of your application or data. In addition, if you have created reports that have beautiful and complex formatting applied, you may want to prevent your competitors from simply opening those reports and quickly modifying them as their own. The new read-only report format ensures that your reports cannot be opened inside the SAP Crystal Reports designer.
It is possible to export a report (.rpt) to a read-only report (.rptr) from the designer. The SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 viewers can only export to RPTR if the user is already viewing an RPTR. The SAP Crystal Reports for Eclipse viewers do not allow for exporting to RPTR.
In order to export to RPTR from the designer, you will need to use the Export dialogue: File > Export > Export Report. From the Export dialogue, you can choose the second option in the list to export to RPTR.
Once the RPTR has been saved, you will notice that the filel can no longer be opened in the Designer. It can only be opened via one of the Crystal Reports Viewers.
The second new feature that was added is the support of Office 2007 Excel format (XLSX). It is now possible to both export a report to XLSX format and create a report based on an XLSX spreadsheet.
In order to export from the designer you must select the "Microsoft Excel Workbook Data-only" export option.
After clicking on the "OK" button, you will be able to choose whether you want to preserve your formatting options or not.
You can even choose to leverage some custom formatting options when performing the export by clicking on the "Options" button.
As mentioned above, it is also possible to create reports based on an XLSX spreadsheet as a data source. This is done by choosing "OLE DB (ADO)" as your data connection type and then selecting the "Microsoft Office 12.0 Access Database Engine OLE DB Provider."
After choosing the provider, click on "Next" so that you can choose your XLSX file to use as your data source.
From here, you can choose your XLSX file and set your Office Database Type to Excel. Upon clicking on "Finish", you will be taken to the Database Expert to choose which worksheets and fields you want to include in your report.
In addition to the two new features that we have added, we are supporting new platforms. You can find details in the new Product Availability Matrix for SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0.
More information about SAP Crystal Reports 2011 can be found in either the user guide or by watching one of the numerous videos available on SDN.
Thanks for reading.
Coy
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