Method: We evaluated Crystal Reports by having one of our developers watch the introduction/tutorial video, install the demonstration version, and then follow the user guide.
While installation of the Crystal Reports demo is a smooth process overall, it requires the user to download an extremely large 1.05 GB zip file! In addition, once the file is downloaded, no guidance or instruction is offered, leaving the user to guess what he/she is supposed to do next. To learn the development environment, the software comes equipped with a user guide and samples. The User Guide is very comprehensive and does a good job of guiding the user through the process of learning how to develop reports. However, this process is necessarily detailed because Crystal uses an original development environment very unfamiliar to most users. The Quick Start section is also helpful, as it gives the new user confidence and reinforcement in getting started. Another good aspect of the user guide is that key words throughout the document are linked to their appropriate sections, making it much faster and easier to find the information you’re looking for.
However, any Crystal Reports user will quickly discover that the main problem with using reporting software created by Business Objects is that it is inherently complex. While the products are intelligent and capable of great performance, they are also extremely overwhelming and intimidating, partly due to the unfamiliar development environments. Because of this, the learning curve is very high, and it requires new users to invest significant time and effort to learn how to create reports. Even after going through the Quick Start guides and spending hours reading the User Guide, most users still only have the developing ability to design extremely simple reports on their own.
Many users say the high learning curve for Crystal Reports is worth it if the goal is to write most reports without doing any textual coding. However, the complexity of such reports is limited, which means to create more complex reports, the user must learn how to develop formulas – a daunting task.
Once the user has become familiar with the Crystal Reports development environment, it’s time to start designing reports. Crystal Reports’ design base employs a sectioning scheme, requiring the user to place information in pre-defined areas of the report. This seems like it would be a good regulator of appropriate report design but, actually, it can be problematic for new users who are unfamiliar with Crystal Reports. In addition, these layout restrictions are a severe limitation to the functionality and capability of creating reports. Instead of having to follow strict layout parameters based on rules you didn’t set, it is much more intuitive to simply lay things out on the page in the order you want them to appear.
Actually, awkward report design seems to be one of the biggest drawbacks to choosing Crystal Reports. The Cross Tab option for cell-level control is a grid that allows users to return values in the table based on chosen criteria, and is a good example of one such problem. This object looks and sounds spectacular – until the developer tries to use it. In fact, it is so hard to figure out, Business Objects actually made an entire template wizard just for reports that include a Cross Tab object.
When it comes to inserting tags with Crystal Reports, users face more difficulty. For example, in order to simply iterate over a set of records, users have to figure out how to manipulate the Group section and Details section of the development environment. Or, to get the effect of conditional actions (e.g. an “if” scenario), they have to set up tricky Parameter Fields (which create special variables based upon values which determine the appearance and behavior of the final report) as well as Formula Fields (which allow for formula building). Forcing the user to put everything into groups, details, etc. sections definitely limits the functionality of report design. On a happier note, Crystal Reports does provide an extensive (although, perhaps overwhelming) library of predefined functions for convenience in building reports.
As far as data placement goes, Crystal Reports’ Field Explorer allows users to view all tables included from a data source, browse the actual values in the fields (cells in a table), and “drag & drop” placement of field data onto a report. Crystal Reports’ Subreports option lets users insert reports into other reports. This is useful
for combining unrelated reports, presenting different views of the same data, and presenting data that is otherwise difficult to present. Subreports can also provide additional automatic record selection and section formatting.
Another feature to evaluate is Crystal Reports’ Formula Workshop, which allows formula building for selection formulas, formula fields, SQL Expression fields and many more. However, although Formula Workshop offers users a lot of power in constructing whatever formulas they require and allows comparison of nodes, it is loaded with so many buttons and frames that it becomes intimidating to the user.
Without a doubt, Crystal Reports is a powerful reporting tool with a steep learning curve. In fact, the system is so complex that even after studying the manual and learning the functionality, almost nothing other than very simple reports can be accomplished. Unlike many other reporting tools on the market, Crystal Reports requires using a complex system that takes serious time and money commitments to master.
