MS Access - Crystal Reports

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  • Gheaci Maschl
    #1

    MS Access - Crystal Reports

    Hi all!

    I would like to have your opinion about my problem and my proposal how
    to solve it:

    Ingredients:
    - BTriev database
    - Crystal Reports
    - maybe MS Access
    - Liinos6 (small ERP software)


    The problem: I would like to create reports. This Liinos6 has some
    reports, but the input forms cannot be modified and Liinos6 has no API
    to modify their input forms without having their sources.

    So I have to query my data directly from the BTriev database. My idea
    is to create an input form in MS Access, querying the required data
    somehow, writing the data to (maybe another) temporary database,
    launching Crystal Reports and generating a nice report with this
    temporary table.

    Is this a good idea or did I describe the most complicated solution?
    Since I am not so much familiar with Crystal Reports, I have no clue
    about if everything would be possible with Crystal Reports only. But
    as far I figured out until now, it is not.

    Thank you in advance,
    Gheaci
    Tags: None
    • Fletcher Arnold
      #2
      Re: MS Access - Crystal Reports

      "Gheaci Maschl" <g.maschl@gmx.n et> wrote in message
      news:47c3c110.0 402052358.364a2 8e6@posting.goo gle.com...[color=blue]
      > Hi all!
      >
      > I would like to have your opinion about my problem and my proposal how
      > to solve it:
      >
      > Ingredients:
      > - BTriev database
      > - Crystal Reports
      > - maybe MS Access
      > - Liinos6 (small ERP software)
      >
      >
      > The problem: I would like to create reports. This Liinos6 has some
      > reports, but the input forms cannot be modified and Liinos6 has no API
      > to modify their input forms without having their sources.
      >
      > So I have to query my data directly from the BTriev database. My idea
      > is to create an input form in MS Access, querying the required data
      > somehow, writing the data to (maybe another) temporary database,
      > launching Crystal Reports and generating a nice report with this
      > temporary table.
      >
      > Is this a good idea or did I describe the most complicated solution?
      > Since I am not so much familiar with Crystal Reports, I have no clue
      > about if everything would be possible with Crystal Reports only. But
      > as far I figured out until now, it is not.
      >
      > Thank you in advance,
      > Gheaci[/color]


      Do you know about creating linked tables in Access? You should be able to
      do all of your reporting in Access without any need for temporary tables or
      Crystal Reports. Although I haven't used a Btrieve data source directly,
      normally it is just a case of having the right ODBC drivers which can
      usually be downloaded if you don't. From within Access you can simply
      select File>Get External Data>Link Tables and connect to these tables. You
      then create reports based on your linked tables.

      Fletcher


        Comment

        • Tom van Stiphout
          #3
          Re: MS Access - Crystal Reports

          On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 10:35:06 +0000 (UTC), "Fletcher Arnold"
          <fletch@home.co m> wrote:

          Btrieve is a bit special though, because it's not a database manager
          but a record manager. However last time I checked Pervasive was
          selling an ODBC driver.

          -Tom.


          [color=blue]
          >"Gheaci Maschl" <g.maschl@gmx.n et> wrote in message
          >news:47c3c110. 0402052358.364a 28e6@posting.go ogle.com...[color=green]
          >> Hi all!
          >>
          >> I would like to have your opinion about my problem and my proposal how
          >> to solve it:
          >>
          >> Ingredients:
          >> - BTriev database
          >> - Crystal Reports
          >> - maybe MS Access
          >> - Liinos6 (small ERP software)
          >>
          >>
          >> The problem: I would like to create reports. This Liinos6 has some
          >> reports, but the input forms cannot be modified and Liinos6 has no API
          >> to modify their input forms without having their sources.
          >>
          >> So I have to query my data directly from the BTriev database. My idea
          >> is to create an input form in MS Access, querying the required data
          >> somehow, writing the data to (maybe another) temporary database,
          >> launching Crystal Reports and generating a nice report with this
          >> temporary table.
          >>
          >> Is this a good idea or did I describe the most complicated solution?
          >> Since I am not so much familiar with Crystal Reports, I have no clue
          >> about if everything would be possible with Crystal Reports only. But
          >> as far I figured out until now, it is not.
          >>
          >> Thank you in advance,
          >> Gheaci[/color]
          >
          >
          >Do you know about creating linked tables in Access? You should be able to
          >do all of your reporting in Access without any need for temporary tables or
          >Crystal Reports. Although I haven't used a Btrieve data source directly,
          >normally it is just a case of having the right ODBC drivers which can
          >usually be downloaded if you don't. From within Access you can simply
          >select File>Get External Data>Link Tables and connect to these tables. You
          >then create reports based on your linked tables.
          >
          >Fletcher
          >[/color]

            Comment

            • R Baumann
              #4
              Re: MS Access - Crystal Reports


              "Tom van Stiphout" <tom7744@no.spa m.cox.net> wrote in message
              news:1ma720h839 hedp2gj3se2hu90 s9aos3tbh@4ax.c om...[color=blue]
              > On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 10:35:06 +0000 (UTC), "Fletcher Arnold"
              > <fletch@home.co m> wrote:
              >
              > Btrieve is a bit special though, because it's not a database manager
              > but a record manager. However last time I checked Pervasive was
              > selling an ODBC driver.
              >
              > -Tom.
              >
              >
              >[color=green]
              > >"Gheaci Maschl" <g.maschl@gmx.n et> wrote in message
              > >news:47c3c110. 0402052358.364a 28e6@posting.go ogle.com...[color=darkred]
              > >> Hi all!
              > >>
              > >> I would like to have your opinion about my problem and my proposal how
              > >> to solve it:
              > >>
              > >> Ingredients:
              > >> - BTriev database
              > >> - Crystal Reports
              > >> - maybe MS Access
              > >> - Liinos6 (small ERP software)
              > >>
              > >>
              > >> The problem: I would like to create reports. This Liinos6 has some
              > >> reports, but the input forms cannot be modified and Liinos6 has no API
              > >> to modify their input forms without having their sources.
              > >>
              > >> So I have to query my data directly from the BTriev database. My idea
              > >> is to create an input form in MS Access, querying the required data
              > >> somehow, writing the data to (maybe another) temporary database,
              > >> launching Crystal Reports and generating a nice report with this
              > >> temporary table.
              > >>
              > >> Is this a good idea or did I describe the most complicated solution?
              > >> Since I am not so much familiar with Crystal Reports, I have no clue
              > >> about if everything would be possible with Crystal Reports only. But
              > >> as far I figured out until now, it is not.
              > >>
              > >> Thank you in advance,
              > >> Gheaci[/color]
              > >
              > >
              > >Do you know about creating linked tables in Access? You should be able[/color][/color]
              to[color=blue][color=green]
              > >do all of your reporting in Access without any need for temporary tables[/color][/color]
              or[color=blue][color=green]
              > >Crystal Reports. Although I haven't used a Btrieve data source directly,
              > >normally it is just a case of having the right ODBC drivers which can
              > >usually be downloaded if you don't. From within Access you can simply
              > >select File>Get External Data>Link Tables and connect to these tables.[/color][/color]
              You[color=blue][color=green]
              > >then create reports based on your linked tables.
              > >
              > >Fletcher
              > >[/color]
              >[/color]

              1. You should be able to use Crystal Reports directly as long as each PC
              trying to run the reports have the Pervasive Client software loaded.
              There's no need to run it through ODBC unless you just want to. I use
              Crystal in my daily work to create reports, but I think the Access Report
              Writer is MUCH better.

              2. There IS a learning curve in Crystal, but if you've used Access Report
              Writer before, you'll get the hang of it pretty quick. You can also
              generate input screens. Takes a bit of work, they're not fancy, but they
              get the job done. Crystal also gives you a choice of it's own script
              syntax, or lets you use MS VB script to have programmatic control over the
              report(Crystal calls these routines formulas).

              3. If you want to use Access with Pervasive(Btrie ve), you will have to have
              an ODBC driver from Pervasive. Normally this comes on the install disk and
              is loaded during the installation process. Check in Control Panel to see if
              you already have the Pervasive ODBC Engine interface already loaded. Then
              you can create a DSN, link the Btrieve database, and use it within Access.

              4. Pervasive comes with both the old Btrieve file formats, but it also
              conforms to the SQL-92 standard . You could run SQL against the Pervasive
              DB using MS-Access Pass thru queries. Pervasive can be used as a client
              server database, or as a single user desktop database.

              5. Pervasive has a very low TOC(Total Cost of Ownership). Haven't lost any
              data, had any data corruption, it's self tuning, etc., etc. We've been
              running it on Novell 6.0 for 3 years now, and haven't had any downtime. If
              it sounds like I'm sold on it, Yeah, pretty much. It does have it's warts
              though(what software doesn't!).

              6. One more thing, Crystal has a MS-Access Add-in so you can call Crystal
              directly from MS-Access. I DON'T recall if that's provided in the Crystal
              setup or is a separate product. :-)

              For further information see
              Actian Corporation Home Page
              http://www.pervasive.com
              Built for the AI era, the Actian Data Intelligence Platform, powered by knowledge graph technology, gives you complete visibility and control.


              HTH
              Ruben


                Comment

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