Crystal And Elliott

Edward M. Kwang

President

Crystal Version

• Standard - $145

• Professional - $350

• Developer - $450

Professional vs. Standard

• No real advantage as far as Elliott concern

– Professional allow access to Microsoft SQL or Oracle database natively

Developer vs. Standard

• Developer allow Crystal Reports to interact with VB

• In only few circumstance, you need to use VB to produce the Crystal Report with Elliott

– I.e. Print Item Image (from link) on The Crystal Report

Demo

• Using Visual Basic to Print A Crystal Report for Item with Image

Two Data Access Methods

• Database File – Using Btrieve

– Can’t Enforce Security

– No View - Need to Join Table Manually

– May be slower

• ODBC – Using SQL

– Can Enforce Security

– With Views – Ease of Use

– Can be a lot faster than Database File Method

Demo

• Using Crystal with Database Files– Manually Join, CPINVLIN, CPINVHDR, IMITMFIL

– Choose m:\macola\data\file.ddf

– Report Export, Cross Tab, Inv_slm_no_1, item_prod_cat, Ext_amt

– Range: 20020101 - 20020131

• Using Crystal with ODBC– Choose CPINVLIN_VIEW

• Summary– Using View Is Easy

– Using View Produce Better Performance

Performance – Client Server• ODBC can be significantly faster than

Database File method. This depend on multiple factors:– Server and Network Speed

– Is The Key Used for Selection Criteria?• ODBC is faster if selection criteria is not a key

– Size of the selected dataset of the whole file• ODBC is faster if the the selected dataset is

small

– Data File Join• If multiple table need to join, using View with

ODBC is faster because this force the join on the server side

Numeric Field Issue

• When you use ODBC, the Numeric Field is displayed with Comma and Decimal. Field like “INV_NO”, “ORD_NO” does not look good on the report.

• Solution: Right click on the field and choose “Format Field” and change the style.

Date Field Issue

• All Date Fields in Elliott are defined as 8-digit Numeric Fields.– The display doesn’t look good

– ODBC is even worse (comma and decimal were used)

• Download U2LTDATE.DLL from ELLIOTT.COM support area. Copy to Crystal Report Directory

• Use NumberToDate Custom Function

Use NumberToDate Function

• Create a formula field, say ‘InvDate’ as

– NumberToDate({INV_DATE})

• Place InvDate on your report

• Use InvDate as Selection Criteria may slow down report. Use INV_DATE instead. Why?

Demo Date Handling• Create a Crystal Report like Invoice Summary

Edit List from CPINVHDR. DSN PrimaData

• Select Inv_Date range 20020101 to 20020107.

• Create InvDate Formula by using NumberToDate Function

• Place InvDate on where Inv_Date use to be

• Run the Report

• Change Selection Criteria base on InvDate

• What Happen? NumberToDate function not available on server side, so all data has to be processed on the client side.

Using Views

• Views Not Available Through Database File method

• Views Is Only Available Through ODBC method

• Using View Prevent Manually Join The Table

• Using View Ensure the Joining of Tables Are On The Server Side – Better Performance

Demo CPHSTTRX_VIEW

• The favorite Sales Analysis Data Source

– No Formula To Worry

• Link CPHSTTRX to

– ARCUSFIL

– CPINVHDR

– IMITMFIL

Demo APOPNFIL_CHK_VIEW

• The difference between using this view vs. APOPNFIL_CHK table.

– Vendor Info Available

– No Need to filter out Voucher Record

Use Excel

• From Microsoft Excel Menu, choose Data, Import External Data, New Database Query.

• If you have setup the ODBC DSN, then you should see it in the list. Choose it and then choose the tables.

• This feature (Microsoft Query) by default is not installed with Microsoft Office 2000.

Enable Security with PSQL 2000

• Use Pervasive Control Center, Identify the server, expand the database folder, then highlight the database and right click.

• Choose Properties.

• Choose “Security” Tab

• Enter the password.

• Once security is created. A user “Master” is created with the password you just type in.

Create User and Group• User “Master” has all the rights, you might want

to create Users and Group that has limited rights only.

• Expand the Database node and highlight Users node

• Right click on the right hand pane to create Users or Groups

• Use the GRANT statement to tailor security.

• Use \elliott7\ddf40\grant.sql as an base to tailor you needs.

• Save your scripts because you will need to use it again when we give you a new set of DDF.

Grant Access to User and Group

• Setup Users and Groups

• Setup User Belong to Group– Each user can only belong to one group

– If a user need to belong to multiple group, you will assign this user to one group first, then grant right for other tables individually to that user.

• Setup Tables to Be Access by Users and Groups

• Determine the Select, Update and Delete rights for each Table.

Demo• Show SQL Data Manager

– Update a record

– Delete a record

– Mass Update

• Enable Security in PCC

• Review \ELLIOTT7\DDF40\GRANT.SQL

• Run GRANT.SQL

• Access Password Protected Data in PCC

• Access from Crystal

• Access from Excel

Considerations for Views

• Rights is granted to a table and can’t be granted to a view.

• User must at least have the “SELECT” right on all the tables in the view to Select that view, otherwise will receive error message.

• If you only need data from one table, don’t use views. (Performance Consideration)

Security Back Door

• User can remove the DDF files and replace with a new set of DDF that does not have security turned on.

• If you put DDF in the DATA directory, then by default user have full access right to the DDF file.

• Separate DDF40 from Data directory. Apply security to DDF40 directory. Do Not Apply Security to DDF directory.

• Create Separate DDF directory if the user right need to be different by company.

Conclusion

• Using ODBC Instead of Database File

– Performance Improvement

– Ease of Use with Views

– Security

• Put DDF in a different directory from DATA

• Impose Netware or NTFS security on DDF