Professional Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET

What is this book about?

Virtually all applications need to present data to users, but any work beyond basic formatting - charts or conditional formatting, for example - can be very complex to program manually. Crystal Reports is one of the world''s leading software packages for creating interactive reports, and it provides developers with an array of tools for creating rich reports that can be published on the Web or integrated within applications. Versions of Crystal Reports have been included with Visual Studio since 1993 but the latest version, Crystal Reports .NET, is now integrated more closely than ever before with Visual Studio .NET.

This book provides a detailed guide to the functionality provided with Crystal Reports .NET and shows you how to integrate reports into your .NET applications. The examples are in VB.NET, but Crystal Reports .NET itself is largely operated by a clear language-neutral user interface in the main, allowing reports to be created and manipulated in practically every .NET language supported by Visual Studio.

What does this book cover?

Here is just a sampling of what you''ll find covered in this book:

• Crystal Reports .NET overview
• Report integration for Windows and Web-based applications
• Creating XML report web services
• Working with .NET data, formulas, and logic
• The reports engine
• Distributing your application

Who is this book for?

This book is aimed mainly at readers who have some experience with Crystal Reports and want a comprehensive guide to the functionality included with Crystal Reports .NET, but it will also be valuable to programmers who are getting their first taste of Crystal Reports through the Visual Studio .NET development environment.

Crystal Reports is one of the world’s leading software packages for creating interactive reports. It provides developers with an array of tools for developing rich reports that can be published on the Web or integrated within Windows applications. This book provides a detailed guide to the functionality provided with Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET and shows you how to integrate reports into your .NET applications.

Who is this book for?

This book is for programmers who want a comprehensive guide to the functionality included with Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET. This book is mainly aimed at readers who have some experience with Crystal Reports. However, the book will also prove valuable to readers who are new to Crystal Reports, and want a guide to this reporting tool that is included within Visual Studio .NET.

This book will teach you how to:

• Create reports with the assistance of the Expert
• Integrate reports into Windows® and web-based applications
• Create XML Report Web Services
• Work with ADO.NET
• Use formulas and logic in reports
• Develop distributed reporting applications
• Deploy reporting applications

David McAmis is a Crystal Certified Consultant and Trainer, living and working in Sydney, Australia as a partner in Avantis Information Systems. As a consultant for Avantis, and on behalf of Crystal Decisions, David creates Windows, web, and mobile applications incorporating Crystal technology across a wide number of platforms, databases and ERP systems to deliver innovate solutions for common business problems.
In his varied career, he has held the roles of consultant, technical trainer, university lecturer, and consulting services manager, and has served as vice-president of a software and services company in the US. David holds a B.S. degree in Management Information Systems and is a Microsoft Certified Professional, as well as a certified trainer and consultant for numerous software products.