Enterprise-level reporting platform on the WEB-Crystal Enterprise 9 Technical white Paper

Enterprise|web Overview

Information provides each enterprise with the raw material needed to develop and implement a successful business strategy. To take advantage of the benefits of enterprise information assets, each application requires an extensible, reliable, web-based solution for reporting, analyzing, and delivering mission-critical information to relevant people to ensure business success.
Crystal Enterprise provides a globally scalable, multi-layer, fault-tolerant architecture built to meet the most demanding business environments. It provides flexible solutions for building or integrating with intranet, extranet, and Enterprise Portal applications to meet the requirements of providing information to a wide range of audiences, based on security levels.
Crystal Enterprise integrates the Crystal Reports Professional and Crystal analysis professional--two powerful reports and analytics tools-ensuring the ability to quickly generate comprehensive, Information that can be used to guide actions.


Directory

Information-driven business
CRYSTAL Enterprise Introduction
Content Management and delivery
Customized Services
Management Services
Reporting Services
Analysis Services
Extended Services
Structure Services
CRYSTAL REPORTS
CRYSTAL Analysis
Value of the standard
The most experienced brand in the reporting industry


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Information-driven business

Information provides each enterprise with the raw material needed to develop and implement a successful business strategy. So companies invest millions of dollars in mission-critical information assets, such as ERP (Enterprise resource Planning), CRM (Customer relationship Management), and SCM (supply chain Management) to capture, process, and store valuable data related to markets, customers, competitors, and business processes.

However, these systems are only part of the solution needed to achieve success. While these systems can efficiently collect information about the operations of the enterprise, they often do not target different information consumers, such as employees, customers, and vendors, to provide the ability to analyze, browse, and process the information and make the right decisions.

To take advantage of the benefits of enterprise information assets, each application requires an extensible, reliable, web-based solution for reporting, analyzing, and delivering mission-critical information to relevant people to ensure business success.


Crystal Enterprise Introduction

Crystal Enterprise, a web-based, integrated reporting, analysis, and delivery solution, provides each enterprise with the power needed to understand enterprise information. Crystal Enterprise delivers a fully customizable solution for any data source and application, providing employees, customers, and vendors with secure access to interoperable, operational information. Crystal Enterprise helps people understand the decision information that can drive business development.

Crystal Enterprise brings together more than eight years of experience in developing and delivering scalable, reliable information delivery systems designed specifically for web and mission-critical enterprise standards, providing an intranet, Cost-saving solutions for reporting integration and analysis in extranet and Enterprise Portal applications, and the ability to extend information to hundreds of users.

Crystal Enterprise integrates seamlessly with the world's high-performance reporting tools for relational data Crystal Reports Professional, and integrates representatives from any OLAP data source to build interactive reporting technologies Crystal Analysis Professional, and has the function of delivering information to any equipment such as computer, PDA and mobile phone, so that users can get the necessary operational information at any time and promote the business development.

Content Management and delivery

Managing and delivering highly interoperable, operable content for end users is not an easy task. There are many impediments that affect the quality of the end-user experience, the ability to deliver, maintain, and extend the system. Key criteria include:

Scope of content delivery options
The speed of the system-including both the real-time and cached content generation speed
Capacity for system expansion and availability Assurance
The capacity of the security infrastructure
Crystal Enterprise is based on more than 1500 people-years of research and development and works closely with customers to build an efficient content management and delivery platform. We have gradually optimized and information delivery technology through 8 versions and built Crystal Enterprise from the basics to meet the management and delivery needs of users for reporting and analysis over the web.

Crystal Enterprise is a cross-platform, web-based architecture designed to seamlessly integrate with existing Web applications and provides a unified infrastructure for multiple reporting, analysis, and information delivery projects.

Figure 1:crystal Enterprise Architecture. Crystal Enterprise is built on an enterprise-class, multi-server architecture that integrates with your existing technology infrastructure, providing powerful information delivery technologies and the best reporting and analysis techniques.


Customized Services
For any information-driven enterprise, the integration of distribution information into existing structures and applications is the key to an enterprise's success. Enterprises either build or purchase a range of enterprise application systems (such as their own development applications, Peoplesoft,siebel, etc.), network applications (such as using BEA WebLogic or other types of platforms) and enterprise portals (such as Plumtree, Viador). Its purpose is to provide an easy-to-use and efficient portal for the enterprise's existing business information and systems.

Customized services provide a flexible portal solution for information-driven enterprises. Crystal Enterprise supports standard network environments, such as DHTML, Java, COM, and XML, to meet the needs of enterprise content generation and integration.

Distribution/Interaction
Content distribution is the primary key factor in designing an enterprise integrated information distribution system. This requires the end user to provide dynamic content, graphical information assistants-to meet the customer arbitrary drilling information and information customization needs.

Crystal Enterprise can provide fast dynamic content distribution through any device to any user, whether inside or outside the firewall. With 0 client-side distribution capabilities, Crystal Enterprise also offers extensive interactive and personalized functionality to full
Foot users from a variety of reports, analysis resources to extract more valuable information needs.


Interactive DHTML Browsing
DHTML has many functions for browsing and interacting with web content. Unlike pluggable technologies, DHTML does not need to download software or make other special configurations when browsing content, making it an ideal choice for delivering through a firewall without sacrificing security requirements.

Figure 2:crystal DHTML Browser: Through a Web browser, Crystal DHTML browser can transmit a wide range of interactive information.

Crystal Enterprise can distribute multiple reports and analysis content to any browser that uses pure DHTML.

Its embedded 0 Client report Browser has flexible interactive functions and drill-down capabilities in 0 client environments. These features include various forms of presentation functions (reports, charts, maps), Drill-down capabilities, query functions, and report output capabilities.
Browsers for profiling content also use pure DHTML to support analysis of OLAP data. High-quality form browsing, charting, drag-and-drop features and comprehensive cut/cut features are also available in this interface.
Alarm
The alarm notification function emphasizes the presence of critical information by sending an email directly to the user about the alert information (which needs to be started). Administrators can make personal or distribution lists, and configure alert notifications, provide link addresses for linked back reports, and some records in the report.


Output form
There are various standard forms of Web site content output, such as printing, browsing, and in-depth analysis-which is very important for information transmission systems.

Crystal Enterprise supports popular output software, such as Adobe Acrobat (PDF), Microsoft Excel, and Word (RTF), in addition to Crystal Enterprise also has its own output form--crystal Reports. All of these output forms are able to generate reports quickly, thus ensuring high fidelity of the output process.


Intelligent Report Technology
The Smart Reporting technology technology for Crystal Enterprise mixes web-based information delivery, instant-style information, report manipulation, and modification functions. Users can browse a predefined report and change and maintain formatting and content from the same interface to provide more detailed business questions and more accurate answers.

This approach represents a combination of the efficient distribution patterns provided by the same predefined reports and the powerful functionality that the instant tools provide to end users. In addition to the combination of these two powerful features, you can break down the functionality provided by a typical instant tool (such as filtering, filtering, grouping, and so on) and provide a combination of different features based on the user's definition and requirements.

Figure 3: The interactive Viewer using the smart Reporting technology. A variety of report modification features are available in a more advanced browser, an example of how to use Crystal Enterprise to deliver an instant report.

IT staff can now control the opening of instant reports for end users with unprecedented power. The application interface and security restrictions can be seamlessly combined to meet the requirements of different users without adding to the complexity of the work. Report modification queues can be shortened by providing different end users with varying permissions to modify. Furthermore, a powerful developer interface and pure DHTML delivery can deliver intuitive delivery and reduce training requirements.

Figure 4:crystal Instant Application. These 10 client applications enable end users to quickly build reports on data sources in Crystal Enterprise systems. This report is actually created on the server side and is saved to the Crystal Enterprise folder for later use.

Smart reporting is a seamless addition to Crystal Enterprise processing, built on the same powerful server-side technology and flexible user interface model as Crystal Enterprise. Like Crystal Enterprise, all of its content and functionality is delivered in pure DHTML form.


Wap-ready
At present, wireless devices (such as WAP mobile phones, PDAs, two-way pagers, etc.) as real-time information transmission tools have been more and more widely used. However, using these devices will also represent the problem of how to meet the requirements of these different functions, different forms and different screen sizes.

Automatically generate specific portions of a report with a 0-client, server-side browser-controlled mechanism, regardless of the user interface or size limitations of the standard DHTML report browser. This enables developers to easily integrate Crystal Enterprise content into reports, enterprise portals, or wireless applications to senior staff.

Crystal Enterprise through custom XML, it is able to transfer content to all WAP based devices and support Active Scripting. Developers can create custom XML workflows and use JavaScript or VBScript to swap these XML workflows for WML or any other standard language.


Integration
How to integrate with existing enterprise applications, Web applications and enterprise portals is also critical in the design of information transmission systems. For users, the level and depth of integration can affect the use of the product. Therefore, developers must take full advantage of the flexibility of the industry-standard programming language and scripting language to establish a friendly information transfer application.

Crystal Enterprise can seamlessly integrate with any Internet, intranet, and extranet applications. In addition, because of its strong customer capabilities and the ability to fully support standard scripting languages (JavaScript and VBScript), users can quickly establish network applications.

Figure 5:crystal Enterprise Portal integration. With the Crystal Enterprise SDK, developers can integrate with the interaction of any network application.


Crystal Enterprise Software Developer ' s Kit (SDK)
Network interfaces for enterprise applications are usually related to the customization of content and query templates for other applications of the network interface. In order for the content in the application to be connected to content in the corporate Internet, intranet, or extranet, the developer's work is often limited to modifying the icons, colors, and font styles in the template. And the result is the limitations of integration.

This problem can be solved by using a web-based API. Developers by using JavaScript,. NET or VBScript to establish a complete customer interface, you can integrate the other applications and content of the enterprise tightly.

Crystal Enterprise is fully oriented to Java. NET and COM object patterns to meet this important, tightly integrated approach. These object models bring together all the invocation information needed to extract a list of content from the system, control the processing and distribution of content, view content, interact with the content, and manage the system. All of the sample applications included in the product media use the same object model with detailed document records. Smart reporting also extends this object model through other report manipulation controls, allowing users to create and modify reports on the Web.


Application Server Integration
The wide application of Web application server and related middleware platform helps enterprises improve the efficiency of application development, delivery and integration process. Many companies use Application server technologies from BEA, IBM, and Microsoft to make legacy applications available to the Web, integrate decentralized applications, and provide a highly functional application interface for end users.

Crystal Enterprise provides tight integration with these powerful mainstream platforms with its own COM and Java SDK. These SDKs are provided in a complete set of robust builds, sample applications, and documentation and can be installed directly above Bea WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, or Ms IIS. Provides a high level API to control each aspect of Crystal Enterprise by using mainstream scripting languages such as VBScript and JavaScript, or with your own Java code.


Comprehensive XML support
As a very effective protocol for data exchange and information structure for different systems, XML has developed very quickly. As a middleware technology, the report supports the business logic of the original data stream, and can generate and output many valuable information.

If the report system supports the business logic in an existing data source, and can provide network users with accurate output data or for other devices, applications or systems to provide XML data flow (where the XML data flow can be standard, can be customized), then the report system is a very powerful transmission platform.

Crystal Enterprise has the function of accessing XML data source and outputting XML data stream. If the standard XML language is met, the developer can personalize it according to different ranges of customer requirements. Of course, if we use our customized XML (http://www.seagatesoftware.com/xm./schema.xsd), we can easily extract and transform the contents of Crystal Reports 8.5.

Management Services

Enterprise-class information transmission system should have the following functions: efficient content storage and content organization, access to special content users management.
Crystal Enterprise provides a powerful security system and a dedicated server layer for system management. This server layer can be integrated with critical applications and provide security support for the module layer.


Figure 6:the Crystal Management Console. The Management console is the complete 0 Client management interface for the Crystal Enterprise system.

Security
Security is a key factor in the success of information transmission system integration. Enterprises need not only to strictly control the work of all the modules in the system, but also to use certain tools to establish a security architecture as simple as possible. This requires that the system has the following functions: Supporting Third-party authentication, grouping user collections, and configuring the user base.

To manage the distribution of content to internal and external users, Crystal Enterprise integrates a reliable security system. The Crystal enterprise not only supports folder-level and file-level applications, but also supports all legacy systems, based on the structure of the security module hierarchy. In addition, the system provides integration capabilities with Third-party security systems, including LDAP and NT.


Change control
In a mission-critical system, the development process and test environment must be separated from the real production environment. This usually requires a strict change control process and report preparation of a separate database. Crystal Enterprise enables system administrators to dynamically change the data source of a report without having to open or modify the underlying definition configuration.

In addition, the change control process can also benefit from implementing the new Crystal Repository. This allows common report builds to be stored and reused across multiple reports, implementing a quick and easy mechanism for building updates in selected reports. Shared builds can be text or pictures, such as corporate identities, legal notices, common calculation formulas and functions for data conversion, and SQL commands that define datasets used in reports.


customizing content Integration
The execution of scheduled report requirements is the best solution for repeating reports and the best scenario for running a specific report at a particular window at a specific time.

The Crystal enterprise contains a time based predetermined system that meets the ability to run reports and run duplicate reports at specific times. The scheduled function is located on a cluster-supported server component, so it is possible to ensure that the scheduled system is functioning properly in the event of a hardware system problem.


Automated management
Conventional management and change management is one of the most complex aspects of maintaining an enterprise's software system. Management is often repetitive and involves a number of steps, consuming a lot of time and generating many user errors.

Crystal Enterprise contains a comprehensive object model to control the system management in a programmatic way. This enables organizations to build customized processes to automate common or complex administrative tasks, or to assign these tasks to administrators, helpdesk, etc. in different fields. Programmatic management also enables organizations to automate complex customization processes.


Third-party Certification
Strict security controls are a critical part of any enterprise-class IT infrastructure, and many organizations use a central security repository or directory service to help address user account management issues across multiple applications.

Crystal Enterprise (in addition to its Crystal security features) also supports Windows NT and LDAP two authentication modes. This enables enterprises to use these security assets and infrastructure to authenticate users of Crystal Enterprise. The information for users and groups is not replicated in Crystal Enterprise, but is pointed to users and groups of users in Third-party directories by creating aliases.


Granularity of security
Many companies have highly customizable, complex security patterns that reflect different access rights for each user within an enterprise. This is important not only to control which users can control which applications, but also to control which types of applications they can access, what actions they perform, and whether some sensitive data can only be seen by specific users, and so on. These challenges are more complex for applications that serve internal and external users, such as extranets.

Crystal Enterprise provides a granular security control set that enables administrators to define exactly what applications a user can access, what they can do with the content of those applications (such as browsing for previously generated content, refreshing data within a report, and so on). Administrators can also create custom roles to summarize permissions for specific users or groups of users.


Security at the time of browsing
In terms of system security, enterprises often need to implement this control to the data level. That is, depending on the user's role in the enterprise, some users can see only a small portion of the data, while others can see more data. The challenge is to face different users, how to do not click on the production database under the conditions of the same browsing interface, but according to different user rights to filter the data.

Crystal Enterprise introduces a powerful feature that allows administrators to book reports so that they can filter data when they are browsed by the user (if needed or defined as filtering at user's scheduled time) to provide each user with the information they need within their purview. This security mechanism enables a report (and a click on a database) to serve different user needs. Unlike other security mechanisms that require special report design considerations, crystal solutions can be used for any type of report and support external rights databases. See the "Process Extensions" section for more information.


Disaster recovery
An important set-up for mission-critical enterprise application architectures is the built-in support for fault tolerance. This includes ensuring the uptime of the system together with the key components of the system cluster and the fault-tolerant component in the case of hardware problems. This functionality can be achieved by adopting a third-party product, which, of course, is best integrated in view of the special needs of the information transmission system.

Crystal Enterprise integrates cluster and fault-tolerant components into the system management layer. This means that the system can increase the response time of the cluster and optimize the load balance of the users by adding the physical machine method. If one of the machines in the cluster fails, the other machines in the cluster automatically balance the load and keep the system running properly.

Reporting Services

Efficient report transfer is another key factor in the design of information transmission systems. In a distribution system based on server systems and multiple server configurations, high performance is the most basic requirement. With minimal utilization of system resources, the ability to extract information from any one of the hardware and software in the information transmission system enables the enterprise to have the fastest customer experience.

Crystal Enterprise is designed for fast, efficient, real-time content transfer. Because of its state-of-the-art technology, Crystal Enterprise is the ideal product for quickly delivering interactive content on a Web browser.

Report Design Support
Crystal Enterprise provides extensive support for the Crystal Reports 9 design features, enabling organizations to build very complex reports that contain rich data. Supports all key Crystal Reports production features in Crystal Enterprise, including reuse of report builds and centralized updating of crystal Repository, the customization of complex, reusable business logic across multiple reports, SQL commands for the format of query tuning and multiple data sources, and so on.

When the report is published or manually updated on the standard management console, the contents of the Crystal reports can be updated from the Crystal repository.


Report Flow
It is common to wait a few hours or days to get the report you want. With the development of Internet technology and the application of Web Reporting system, this time-consuming wait will no longer exist. Decision makers need real-time information response and feedback with network speed.

In our latest architecture, we have developed new standards through the industry-leading web-based report processing technology--reporting streaming report flow. The report stream is designed to deliver real-time reports quickly, and it works by dividing the transport operations into small, fast-executing parts, and then sending the entire transmission to the client's browser in workflow mode. In a sense, the user gets a bit like HTML: the first to deliver the simplest data, followed by relatively complex calculations, graphs, maps, and graphical files, until the first page is fully delivered to the customer, and the remaining parts of the report run on the server. All browsers come with this functionality, including a 0-client DHTML report Browser.

The benefit of reporting flow to customers is that the visual and dynamic content of the entire transport operation is transmitted to the customer before the entire report is complete. Report flow technology can also be useful for patch and scheduled reports that transmit narrow lines.


Report Interaction
Initially, network reports are transmitted to end users in the form of static HTML "data snapshots". For IT staff, the release of static reports inevitably leads to such requirements as a large number of very similar browsing requests, simple information requirements, requirements for different reports, and so on. Due to the use of many complex tools and special technology to meet these needs, it will inevitably lead to a rise in the number of report storage.

Crystal Enterprise's server-side technology for creating, personalizing, and customizing reports on the Web breaks this pattern. This technology is widely supported, including direct parameterized reports, complex filtering, filtering, summarizing, and tabulation. This functionality is demonstrated through a COM or java-based object model that enables custom development in JavaScript or VBScript, as well as integration with the Crystal Enterprise security model.

Crystal decisions also provides a variety of applications that have been supported and tested for development source code to expedite delivery of end-user instant reports. These are included on the product's CD, and are provided directly by Crystal (see the previous management of the screenshot in the Instant report section to understand these applications).


Processing of scheduled reports
The second part of report processing is the processing of scheduled reports, which is the best way to handle repetitive reports, which are reports or large reports that need to run at a specific time.

The Crystal enterprise includes a server component that deals specifically with scheduled reports. This server component, such as the component in the Reporting service layer, is designed to maximize batch processing over a given period of time. It is highly scalable and can be installed in different hardware systems.


Multi-server support
Multiprocessor machines can perform very high performance when dealing with multi-threaded applications. Different processors can perform different functions separately, so they can optimize productivity and achieve load balancing purposes.

Crystal Enterprise fully considered how to optimize the performance of the system by taking full advantage of the multiprocessor advantages in design. As a result, all the major components of the system are multi-threaded and can balance the load with each other.

Analysis Services

Analysis Services further optimizes the value and utilization of integrated information transmission systems. Supports the release of ad hoc and overview information, Crystal Enterprise Analytics enables analysts and end users not only to browse information from relational reports, but also to get information from hidden trends in reports.

With Crystal Enterprise, you can publish interactive analysis information on the Web, so users can be very flexible in browsing OLAP data information abstracts, and users can learn from these OLAP business data that are highly generalized from existing and historical data.

Efficient near-real-time access to multidimensional data
Multidimensional Analysis, by its very nature, is an interactive process that requires a fast and stable connection to the data. Most enterprise-class OLAP systems provide a variety of technologies and processes to optimize near-real-time access to data. The use of these built-in features can provide users with maximum productivity and performance.

The Analysis Services in Crystal Enterpise are designed to push as many processes as possible to the underlying OLAP server, where data operations can be optimized to the maximum. The SQL statements that are sent to the bottom can be modified to support complex operations or special processing situations.
Powerful analysis and formatting capabilities
Most users want to simplify the operation, while the static browsing of OLAP data HTML does not have interactive or analytical functionality. So the user needs the system to be able to provide powerful formatting and analysis capabilities to meet the need for deeper drilling of the data.

For more experienced users, Crystal analysis provides a wide range of analytics capabilities for network users through simple DHTML. These include powerful formatting features such as highlighting, formulas and computational functionality, and data visualization features such as charts. Use the Content menu to activate all of these features (right click), and the user's permissions are administrator-controlled.

Figure 7:crystal Analysisprofessional. Crystal analysis creates the functionality of reports and OLAP browsing assistants through a DHTML environment.

Extended Services
The extension of the function of the information transmission system is an embodiment of the scalability of the whole application, and it is also the key factor to meet the future technology system and business process of the system.

The Crystal Enterprise has a strong scalability. Its unique modular architecture has the function of seamless upgrade and target module, and can extend the user's system function.

Module design
The open, component-based system is more maintainable and scalable when the old systems are integrated. For software vendors, it can be very easy to upgrade and add additional functionality to existing systems without the need for complex programming efforts. For users, the use of component-based architecture enables seamless upgrades and functionality additions to the system.

Crystal Enterprise is built in an open, component-based architecture that includes the main system functions in its platform architecture. All server components and structures follow this standard, and can build a module that extends content management and security performance accordingly.


Crystal Enterprise Software Developer ' s Kit (SDK)
Many packaged applications provide a simple C application Language interface (API) to increase system functionality or integrate with existing systems and structures. Although these C language APIs are highly flexible, users cannot maintain a fragmented code base through them.

Using Crystal Enterprise, modules that are personalized and integrated based on COM or java-based interfaces can also extend the functionality of the system. This SDK contains a number of high-level features that can meet the requirements of the developer for the control system. All the core applications of the system can be quickly developed and integrated through these modules. In addition, developers are able to maintain a network-based code base by using the same modules. This includes the SDK for management and the Client SDK.


Admin SDK
Manage the rich services provided by the SDK for maximizing or assigning management tasks. Organizations can build customized applications, automate processes that include multiple steps (such as adding new users), or provide a subset of management functions for specific users (such as password-changing applications for Helpdesk resources). The SDK for Management provides access to all system management features, including: Creating/Configuring Users and user groups, adding reports, creating folders, setting permissions and parameters, setting predetermined mechanisms, and so on.


Client SDK
The Client SDK provides an ideal environment for building and customizing the end-user interface, providing the rich object model and the process query language needed to extract content from the system and integrate it into any Web application. The Client SDK also provides access to all client-facing features, including: viewing services, repository browsing services, scheduled services, user parameters, and alarms.


Processing extensions
While browsing and scheduling parameters relatively simplifies the end-user's personalization of report content, many enterprises also need to control the personalization process at the back end without user intervention. This requirement is usually generated when the enterprise needs to minimize end-user complexity or if the report contains sensitive information that needs to be filtered by some users.

Crystal Enterprise provides a powerful technology called the quot process extension "to meet this requirement." Report requests can be interpreted automatically before or after processing, and modified to security at the data level, filtering information, or modifying other parameters in the reporting process.

One of the key uses of processing extensions is to provide a robust browsing security system. By using a centralized database of permissions, such as Enterprise-class LDAP storage, report requests can be modified at browse or scheduled times to provide information that matches the permissions of the user in the permissions database.

Structure Services
Information Transmission system is one of the key components of enterprise IT system, and also the main decision support system of enterprise. This requires that the system be highly available and efficient, capable of handling, managing, and transporting critical reports for a wide range of users.

Crystal Enterprise is built on a complex n-tier structure and can provide scalability for critical decisions. The architecture service also provides a powerful architecture with high scalability and high stability.

Multi-server
The ability to support multiple server systems is a key issue in an extensible system. The ability to spread multiple server components across multiple machines enables enterprises to selectively add hardware based on the use of hardware resources and maximize the results.

Crystal Enterprise is built on the structure of such a component that can be distributed. This means that a single system component can be loaded onto a different machine during the single application implementation process. As a result, each feature on the backend is dispersed across components such as scheduled report processing, system management, caching, or real-time report processing and network distribution.


Fault tolerance/no single point failure
The normal running time is a key index to measure the cost of enterprise system, and it also affects the user's view on system value and quality. To truly implement the enterprise infrastructure, a system must be able to provide comprehensive fault-tolerant features, including support for disaster recovery, and the ability to create redundant hardware and software services.

Crystal Enterprise provides disaster recovery functionality at the system Management level (which manages scheduled, secure, external authentication and serves as the name server for other builds in the system). The system also provides support for all server build replication. When a hardware failure or a wait time limit is exceeded, the redundant component can automatically take over the workload of the system load.


Load Balancing
Intelligent load balancing algorithm not only overcomes the possible bottleneck, but also can make full use of hardware resources. In a multiple-server environment, the load balancing of multiple machines greatly increases the scalability of the system and shortens the corresponding time for end users. Complex equalization also makes full use of hardware resources and minimizes bottlenecks in the system. Therefore, how to give full play to the system load balance becomes very important.

Crystal Enterprise includes a built-in load balancing mechanism that spans all system and report processing functions. We use the combination of active and passive methods to maximize the availability of each server, minimizing the corresponding time of the system.


Cache
Using caching is an effective way to increase the response speed of an information transmission system. The file system in the cache stores previously accessed reports, so that the next time you use them, you will be able to transfer them to the appropriate users without having to access them.

The information transfer system includes a server component that is specifically used as a report cache. To speed up the transfer of frequently accessed reports, you can place this server component on a specific machine.


Cross-platform delivery
Providing support for a variety of operating system platforms is critical for any large enterprise-class system. While it is common to do business in support of homogeneous delivery (all systems are delivered with the same operating system), in more enterprise infrastructure topologies, a system delivery needs to span a number of different operating system platforms, such as Java for UNIX platforms, However, some system databases need to be run on Windows NT SQL Server.

Crystal Enterprise provides support for Cross-platform delivery and enables the running of system components on multiple standard operating systems, including Windows 2000/nt,sun SOLARIS,IBM AIX and Linux. This allows the enterprise to easily deliver crystal Enterprise on its existing IT infrastructure.


Content creation and analysis
Distributing High-value content is the ultimate goal of the information delivery system, and is one of the criteria by which end users and business decision-makers measure the effectiveness of the system. There are three key elements to creating structured content on an enterprise data source:
----the speed and simplicity of creating content for business people, IT staff, and developers
----The range of content that can be created
----The overall quality of content provided to end users

These are the criteria that must be considered for any tool to create structured content, and the best tools to meet these three criteria can be described as the best tool for creating enterprise content.

Crystal Reports

Provides: A connection to virtually any enterprise data source, rich functionality for building business logic, comprehensive formatting and appearance control, web-oriented and print high-fidelity output.

One design, arbitrary delivery
The key to creating structure content is to design a single content that meets the needs of a variety of different users. Therefore, it is necessary to connect with a wide range of data resources of the enterprise (usually to put data from different resources into a single report), and provide users with an overview of the information on a secondary basis. At the same time, the creation of business logic, complex formatting controls, and the creation of personalized content for different users also requires a variety of flexible tools.

Crystal reports has a wide range of data-connection tools and formulaic languages that provide the complex business logic needed to create complex reports. In addition, Crystal reports has interactivity, personalization, parameters, Drill-down, and indexing techniques that allow the created content to be distributed to any user according to the criteria established by the user. Also, any report can be output in our standard XML format or custom format based on different output devices (XML can be customized to other standard formats).
World standards
The value of a standard tool is that it reinforces the availability of the product itself. These standards include any value-added applications related to industrial standards: a large amount of resources, extensive knowledge reserves, cooperation and integration with other enterprise-class software vendors, Easy-to-use consulting and training, third party book materials and documents, etc. Standard tools play a big role in the success of enterprise applications, especially in the areas of technical support and services.

The Crystal report has been selected by more than 300 software vendors as a reporting design tool, including Microsoft Visual Studio, SAP BW 3.0,peoplesoft, and Hyperion, so for Crystal Reports, Your company already has a certain user base and knowledge base.
Easy to use, fast design
The time and maintenance of product entering market is the key factor of how it enterprises reduce cost, increase productivity and better meet market demand. Report design tools must be rich in functionality, ease of use, the rapid production of reports to achieve the above purposes.

Crystal reports can meet the needs of IT companies to reduce market time and reduce maintenance costs. 8 different versions and customized tools make Crystal Reports the most accurate and efficient report design tool. Its more than 240 professional features (including the most complex inventory turnover and cash flow vs. Current debt) have the feature of password-free design in a graphical environment.

Crystal reports's leading ease of use also provides a wide range of report design capabilities for users at different levels of the enterprise. Unlike the previous report design team that established a Commissioner, using Crystal Reports, you can distribute report designers across various departments of your organization, so you can better meet the needs of your reporting users.

Figure 8:crystal Reports 8.5. With Crystal Reports, designers can connect to any data source in the enterprise and can quickly build complex business logic and formats.


For web Design
Creating a report and distributing it to different users of different devices requires reports to be output accurately in different network, print, and data interchange formats.

The Crystal reports is designed to generate high-definition DHTML and PDF reports for web browsing and printing. Rich-Text output can convert integrated content into MS Word files. standard XML output forms and Excel output formats that support other devices and business processes can meet user desktop analysis requirements for report results.


Alarm
The alert module is the last component of content personalization. Typically, alerts are automatically turned on when the report is first run, so you can notify users when problems occur during report runs. The alert module automatically provides instant alert alerts when the user browses to the report for a different problem.

Crystal reports prefabricated alarm modules are based on the formula language and therefore can support any domain and algorithm alerts. The alert module is controlled by designers and can also be run in Crystal Enterprise.

Crystal Analysis

Crystal Analysis provides analysts with powerful tools for mining multidimensional data and building interactive reports for end users. It provides connectivity to a variety of multidimensional data sources, extensive analysis capabilities, data-based formatting and emphasis, and flexible controls that connect multiple viewing perspectives together in a summary table.

Structured multidimensional reports
Many multidimensional analysis tools attempt to meet the requirements of business users by removing some powerful analysis capabilities from the tools. The result is that such tools are not sufficient to provide the comprehensive and powerful analysis required by experienced analysts (the main users of multidimensional tools).

Crystal analysis refers to a clear distinction between report designers (analysts who require a wide range of functions for complex analysis) and the report's users (those who need to understand the analysis process and derive from the business people who are instrumental in making business decision information). Designers can build complex, comprehensive reports, lock down viewing perspectives and controls, and publish them to the web for business people to browse.

Figure 9:crystal Analysis Professional designer. The Crystal Analysis Designer can achieve fast, drag-and-drop creation of analytical content.

Crystal analysis enables designers to create applications that can guide users through the process of navigating and mining OLAP data. By connecting many different perspectives, designers can lead users to view different database slices, regenerate different perspectives, present trend information and variables, and provide graphs for better data visualization. End users can easily use these applications by emphasizing the display of data and clicking the Switch button.


Comprehensive analysis and formatting capabilities
By distinguishing the tasks of the designer and the user, an analytic reporting tool should provide a variety of powerful analytics capabilities. This includes a wide range of computing functions, granular emphasis on display control, and graphical use of configuration control that directs users to switch between different viewing angles of the data.

Crystal Analysis provides a comprehensive visual, drag-and-drop design environment that enables designers to quickly summarize rich reports. Powerful computing, charting, and highlighting features are built directly into the tool. Crystal analysis also comes with a configurable control analysis button that allows designers to connect multidimensional data to different viewing angles and generate a summary table. These controls can also be saved before and after a user views the different tables, such as whether a user is viewing a report of a product, moving to another perspective, or displaying data about the product, see the chart below for more information.

Figure 10:analysis Buttons. The example above shows a simple, wizard-based analysis that investigates the sales of products in supermarkets. Identify the cause and impact of the problem by leading the user through three simple analysis steps.


For web Design
One of the main challenges in presenting multidimensional analysis reports to a large number of users is the use of tool installation and learning, and the complexity of identifying and connecting to the corresponding data source. The web provides the perfect way to process the entire access process and provide information from multiple multidimensional data sources.

Crystal analysis solves this problem by presenting a rich-functionality DHTML component in a standard Web browser. The web enables multiple analysis functions, as well as dynamic, near-real-time access to data, ensuring that users can perform a variety of profiling operations to obtain the latest data.

Value of the standard

By introducing these features, it is easy to understand why end users can install and use crystal products after training, and that is why they can meet the needs of many projects with minimal IT resources.

Crystal Enterprise provides a standard solution for your business. Crystal Enterprise is designed specifically for accessing and integrating any data source, and can use relational and OLAP data to create interactive reports, so companies can enhance their reporting, sharing, and messaging applications through flexible standards. And this is a 0-client, web-based solution, so training and upgrades to the system can be done through the server, which can reduce costs. The result of this solution is that not only can the enterprise IT staff and it investment be fully effective, but also the enterprise can carry out several related projects at the same time.


The most experienced brand in the reporting industry

In the past 20 years, Crystal decisions has provided the application of enterprise-level data reports to various enterprises, which has benefited many enterprise decision-makers. And Crystal Reports also naturally become the world's standard of reporting. Crystal Info, released in 1995, also became the most widely used multi-layer information transmission solution.

We have the enterprise-level report creation, management, and transfer technologies that are leading in the industry. At present, we not only have more than tens of thousands of users worldwide, but we also sell more than 12 million of the information transfer software. These are the Crystal Enterprise leading technology embodiment.
In addition, Crystal decisions through our partners all over the world, can fully meet the needs of professional services and training. In addition, we also provide 24x7 technical support on a global scale.

In summary, Crystal decisions provides you with the most complete, web-based reporting, analysis, and transport solutions available today. These solutions can increase the value of enterprise information because we know that our solutions can meet your needs well.