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Forum to discuss reports for SalesLogix including Crystal, SQL Reports, etc. View the code of conduct for posting guidelines.
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How to create custom Crystal Reports
Posted: 28 Sep 07 10:48 AM
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Hi,
I am now being thrown into supporting SLX and now they want make some custom reports or even tweak the current ones so they don't have to rely on our business partners.
Can you anyone point me on where to start with this? And what skills if anyone would be preferrable, I'm mainly desktop/server support and don't really deal with this type of work.
Sorry if this was mentioned before.
Thanks,
Harvey
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Re: How to create custom Crystal Reports
Posted: 02 Oct 07 9:16 AM
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First thing to do would be to install the Crystal Report product from the SalesLogix install DVD then install the Administrative workstation and SLX client.
When installing Crystal Reports (CR), respond NO to the question asking if the application should automatically update itself from the web. The reason for this is SLX supports the out-of-box version, so if you have updates applied to your CR and there are report issues the first thing they are going to do as ask that you reinstall the original CR version from the SLX DVD. I know this from experience with CR 8.5.
As for getting acquainted with CR, there are a couple good books out there. To get started right away I would recommend reading the User Guide which can be found here
http://support.businessobjects.com/library/docfiles/cps10/downloads/en/crxi_UserGde_en.pdf
As for books. One is from Business Objects Press and is called "Crystal Reports XI Official Guide." The other is the book I have, "Crystal Reports XI: The Complete Reference." Either are a good starting point and reference. You can also utilize the online help. from the startup window for Crystal there is information on getting started.
For creating new SalesLogix reports you will always be using the SLX OLE-DB provider for data access. This is a must because the SLX provider manages data access security and date/time conversions (SLX stores all date/time fields using GMT). When you create a new report in CR using the new report wizard (alway my starting point) it will ask for the data connection type. This is where you will select "Create New Connection" and then double-click the "OLE DB (ADO)" folder from the list. A dialog will appear asking what provider to use. Select the "SalesLogix OLE DB Provider" from the list and click next.
The next screen is where you will fill out the connection information. Enter the SalesLogix server name for the datasource. For the user ID and password enter the SLX admin and password. Click the drop-down for the database field, you should see a list of available databases from the data source. If you entered the correct data source, user name and password a list of available database will appear. Select the SalesLogix database you want to create the report for then click finish.
From this point on you will be stepped through the process of selecting the tables to report on and other various topics like grouping and sorting.
Always keep in mind that no report created through the wizard will look anything like you were looking for. But it is an excellent interface to getting everything needed for a report.
Good luck!
John G.
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Re: How to create custom Crystal Reports
Posted: 25 Nov 08 6:47 AM
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The old Saleslogix reports used a ODBC connection (which Salesogix automatically created) to connect to the server. since we have multiple Saleslogix servers, no matter which server the client connected to the ODBC connection pointed to the right server.
We have just upgraded to 7.5 and now I need to reset the datasource of all our custom reports. This presents a tiny problem, since do not want all reports pointing to one server. And I really do not wish to create custom reports for each server.
Anyone got a suggestion?
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Re: How to create custom Crystal Reports
Posted: 26 Nov 08 7:43 PM
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Al, multiple SalesLogix servers are not required. We have thousands of users all using the same server without issue. The SalesLogix server is not heavy enough to warrant multiple instances. In fact, I dont believe it is supported.
Honestly, you dont need more than one.
Timmus |
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Re: How to create custom Crystal Reports
Posted: 26 Nov 08 10:25 PM
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Timmus - is that true? Thousands of concurrent users for a single SLX database on a single server?
In such a set-up, where are the biggest bottlenecks?
Sorry to go off-topic a bit 
Phil |
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Re: How to create custom Crystal Reports
Posted: 01 Dec 08 2:06 PM
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Anyone who is running 6.x or higher can only use one SalesLogix server. So yes, it is true
My experience is that the biggest performance issues are caused by (in no particular order):
- client machines lacking resources. 256 MB RAM is not enough to run XP, Office, and SalesLogix
- inefficient groups and/or too many groups
- poor customizations
- querying the database via external apps. For example using Access as a reporting tool. No insult intended but users dont understand that pulling back the entire history table locks the database
- overriding the Crystal report sql statement. This causes record selection criteria to be applied client side. The result is that ALL the records are pulled across the wire
- SpeedSearch - not positive on this one but I think the Speedsearch implementation causes huge databases/logs as well as impacts transaction performance
- bad default mainviews and groups. You should not load the All Accounts group on startup.
- activity/calendar bloat. A user should not have thousands of activities that continually roll over. Purge them or complete them
- history bloat. There is no reason to have 10 years of history in the history table, especially database changes. I am not suggesting deleting the data, but I do suggest moving into an archive. Furthermore, I would not put this in a SalesLogix sync aware table. Remotes dont need the data.
- thousands of contacts for a single account. SalesLogix is B2B - accept this fact or suffer problems with system usability. It is much better to have an account for each contact in the case of B2C than to try to outsmart the system and have a single master account.
- real time aggregation/calculation - I suspect all of us has built a group that lists all contacts that dont have a history record in the past xxx days. This is inefficient and if there is a strong business case for the data I suggest running nightly or weekly batch jobs that materialize the data in the contact table. You will also find that users can now use the data themselves without needing a developer to help with the nasty query.
Timmus |
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