Use template reports to improve productivity, Crystal Report 10 template Technology

Templates | Crystal Reports are reused in reports

The most demanding and time-consuming part of the report design process is to format all your reports into a unified look. Many companies require report designers to comply with corporate standards, such as letterhead or certain requirements of the GAAP/SEC specification.

In an ideal world, this requires less work if the Report Designer is allowed to focus on formatting a report and use it as a guide to all other reports that require visualization and presentation of quality. When a report is formatted appropriately, why not apply its content and formatting to other reports? In Crystal Report 10, it is very concise to apply the layout of an existing report to other reports. This is possible by customizing the report template feature.

This white paper is designed to help you learn more about the report template functionality in Crystal Report 10 and how to use it to improve the efficiency and productivity of report design in your organization.


Directory

Reusing in reports
Understanding report Templates
Working with report templates
Use the existing Crystal Report as a template
Why templates are superior to the styles in previous versions (STYLES)
Create a valid report template
Considerations for designing efficient templates
Working with Template Field objects
Use report templates to simplify the amount of report creation
Apply multiple templates
Summarize


Understanding report Templates

A report template can be considered a marriage between data (in the original report) and a layout (template report). Templates contain the basic structure-how to display and format reports when the corresponding fields are added to the report.

A report template is actually a common report file (RPT). This means that you can use virtually any RPT file as a report template. Templates can be applied to other reports, so their formatting and layout can be used as the basis for other reports. Apply the template to other reports, layout, etc. formatting will be applied to the report. This example is a report with four fields in the detail section, and all sections are squeezed together before the quality template is applied. When you apply a template, the position of the field in the template forces the fields in the existing report to extend, and the font is applied.

Working with report templates

Templates can store many types of objects. These objects can be applied to reports when the central data portion of the report design process is completed. Applying an existing template to a report can save hours, or even days, of a common formatting task.

Some of the types of tasks that can be accomplished by applying a template to a report are:

Add identity and other images for an enterprise
Formatted as a consistent page number
Apply font style/color/font to data fields
Format field borders and backgrounds
Resize a field
Formatting groups of eyebrows and groups of feet
Format Rollup fields
Add watermark
Apply other complex formatting
Inserting lines
Insert Box
Working with Repository objects
Add report title
Maintain site links
Format based on the type of data field

There are virtually no restrictions on choosing to use a template.


Why templates are superior to the styles in previous versions (STYLES)

Crystal Report 9 Before the user can use the Crystal Report style (Styles) feature. Style features allow designers to apply a set of formatting styles to a report. The role of report style is rather limited because they cannot be customized. For example, you can't even change the color of a group's name section because there is no way to open the style to make changes.

Report styles are also limited to data and group fields. Does not include any images or static text objects. The style is hard-coded into the Crystal Report Designer, so it is not possible to use any external RPT files.

With the report template of Crystal Report 10, you can use any report object or format as an applicable style at the report object level. In this way, the template incorporates the style features of the previous version and enhances it so that it can be applied to more object types and applications.


Use the existing Crystal Report as a template

A number of report formatting tasks can be accomplished by applying templates. If done by hand, many of these tasks will cost the Report designer several hours. For example, apply the "confidential" sample template from the template subfolder of Crystal Report 10.

Before: After:



By applying a custom template, you can automate the following tasks:

Add powered by Crystal identity from the Crystal repository to the report (along with its tooltips and hyperlinks)
Add an image that displays "confidential" as the substrate for each page report
Modify the font and location of all database fields
Show record selection formula in report
Add a dashed line between all the items in the detail section
Add a corner box around the record selection formula
Use a rounded box to display the start and end of a group
Move the field headings of each data field to the group eyebrow and format them with a double line

One of the most useful features in a template is that even though there are more fields in the detail section of the target report, it still replicates the formatting of the data fields for these additional fields. The templates put them in a separate detail section (usually named "Detail B"), so they will appear together, but they won't overwrite each other. Without worrying about applying the same formatting manually, fields can be moved around.


Create a valid report template

Because any report can be used as the basis for a template, report designers may need to refine a few features or format features to make existing reports more robust and can be used as formal templates.

Considerations for designing efficient templates

As mentioned earlier, when data acquisition is complete, the template is able to complete the formatting task at a faster rate. Because any report can be used as a template, the Report Designer may already have a creative report library.

If each report is linked to a database that is completely different in schema, structure, or content, the layout of the report as a template for other reports may cause problems. However, using the appropriate design, template reports can overcome these problems.

For example, there may be a problem with the formula. Because most formulas require database fields to run, they are closely related to the actual database and data structures in the report. However, using a number of tools can minimize this consequence. Using a custom function instead of a predefined formula can mitigate some data dependencies, such as using a Currentfieldvalue evaluation program as a format formula.

Sometimes, just focusing on headers or footers can greatly benefit the design of efficient report templates. You can improve the productivity of your report design by reducing the amount of repetitive work you need to do to make your page format less common.


Working with Template Field objects

In the process of designing a report template, you may have a requirement to provide some specific formatting for a field, not based on where they are located in the report, but instead, based on the type of the field. For example, a company may require all date/time values to be displayed in a 24-hour format, regardless of the operating system's default settings, "6:02 p.m. On March 31, 2004" must be displayed as "03/31/04 18:02".

These requirements are a common group or industry standard requirement, such as the ISO 9000 standard. When you create a template, the location or number of these fields in the report is unknown. Report designers can leverage template field objects to facilitate this effort.

When a design report is used as a template, the Template Field object replaces the regular database fields in the report and can be placed anywhere. They can even be used as group fields.

A template Field object is a special type of formula field that does not contain data, but allows formatting to be applied on it, like all other data types. The Template Field object has a special dialog box that provides all formatting labels for the format editor, regardless of type. This provides a one-stop service studio that meets all of your formatting requirements, regardless of the data type of the field at the specified location in the report.

Tip: Canceling a template is a useful option provided in a Crystal report. If you don't like the way the application template brings to the report, simply return to the template expert and select Cancel at the bottom of the dialog box. By selecting this option, and then clicking OK, the Crystal Report reverts to the original report before the template was applied. Crystal Report This option is implemented by opening a temporary backup RPT that is saved before the template is applied.


Use report templates to simplify the effort to create reports

Templates can accomplish a number of design-related tasks, including:

Conditional formatting
Highlight Fields
Header/Footer
Chart standard
Line/frame/border
Color Standard
Identity and image
Web site/hyperlink/email Address
Standard Custom Functions
Repository objects
Lock the size or position of an object
Special fields

These are just some of the typical tasks that the application template can do automatically.

Apply multiple templates

Because any report can be used as a template, you can apply multiple templates to a single report.

If these templates are used to do different things, this proves to be very useful. For example, a template can apply standard headers and footers to all reports in a company, but another template can apply colors that vary according to department to a detail section. Because two templates are individually encapsulated, they can be applied separately and will not affect each other; they add value to the report. The resulting report will have an enterprise style (header and footer), and a specific department color (in the detail section).

Tip: A single template cannot be applied to the same report multiple times, even after the initial application of the template, the report adds new fields. As long as you choose to reapply the previous template to the template expert, you can have the template applied to any new fields.


Summarize

Report templates can increase productivity during report design, and designers complete the formatting at once, and then click the buttons to apply these modifications to multiple reports.

Creating templates requires no special knowledge, as they are simply report files. However, template Field objects can be used to improve the standard of creating templates.

With the template expert, a single step can apply the template directly to an existing report. Experts can also give an appearance preview of the final results report-eliminating the guesswork when formatting. By customizing templates, report designers can now focus on getting the right information from the data instead of spending countless hours formatting and reformatting their reports.