Mastering Crystal Reports 9

Overview

The Crystal Repository is a major new feature of Crystal Reports 9. It adds to the product the ability to extract report elements for reuse in other reports. The potential for reusable code in the Crystal environment increases further when the repository is combined with another new Crystal Reports 9 feature, custom functions, introduced in Chapter 4, “Adding Business Logic with the Formula Workshop.” Imagine being able to reuse a complex formula in multiple reports, and if you change the formula, propagate the change automatically to all reports that use the formula. This is exactly what the repository can do.

Featured in this chapter:

• Using the Repository Explorer

• Managing repository objects

• Working with custom functions in the repository

• Deploying reports that use the repository

• Understanding the structure of the repository

• Creating and linking to a repository