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Creating identical print layouts with Crystal Reports 2008
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Now that SAP has acquired Business Objects (Crystal Reports), partners may want to start creating print layouts using Crystal Reports.
A common requirement from clients would be to create print document layouts that are identical / homogenous throughout and entire module (for example, AR Sales).
There's nothing worse then having the AR Sales Order's title off by 0.5 cm when compared to the AR Sales Invoice.
Many clients also use pre-printed forms for the AR Sales Order, AR Delivery Order and AR Invoice.
Quite often then not, the consultant will have to go through a phase of trial and error to make sure the customized layout (within Crystal Reports) prints correctly on to the pre-printed form.
One good way to reduce the guess work from this process is to first scan the pre-printed form, and then include it as an underlay image within the Crystal Reports document layout.
1. Scan the pre-printed form. In the example below, I’ve created one from scratch. It has the Header, Row / Details and the Footer area along with the fields clearly marked out. Cream coloured boxes are to be text fields and blue coloured boxes will be the data field within Crystal reports.
2. Use the “Insert Picture” function to insert the image. In some cases, you can even cut up the original image to fit the Header, Row/Detail and Footer area separately.
3. Make sure the image is currently selected, and click the ‘Selection Expert’ icon.
4. Check the ‘Underlay Following Sections’ checkbox.
5. Start dragging data fields and text fields over the underlain image.
6. Finally, select the underlain image, and delete it.
7. Notice that your data and text fields are now all in neat order, and you can be sure that when you print the layout, it will fit nicely within the pre-printed form.
Davinder Singh Currently the Project Manager/Lead Implementer for usage.com.my, Business One partner
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- Update Print Status
2008-09-25 05:39:02 William Ramalho Business Card [Reply]
It's a great thing , have the crystal reports integrated with SBO. But IŽd like to know, if it's possible to update de "print status field", of the marketing document in SBO, by a crystal report printing.- Update Print Status
2008-09-25 08:50:11 Davinder Singh Business Card [Reply]
At this point in time, no, the Crystal Report (CR) add-on will not amend the print status of any AR / AP document within SAP B1.
I believe the main aim of the CR add-on would be to develop CR based reports to mine / BI out data from within SAP B1.
As of no, the 2 major issues regarding using CR as an alternative to the PLD are (IMO):
1. Amend / update the print status of the form.
2. Print directly via the print icon from the menu bar when the form is active instead of writing a formula within the CR layout to select which recordset you wish to print.
- More Technical Information
2008-07-03 14:05:35 Mohamed Farag Business Card [Reply]
Dear Sir,
I think the integration between SAP and Crystal Report is a great feature in SAP but where where can I found more technical information about this feature and could I make a query on the data from Crystal Report before report printing- More Technical Information
2008-07-13 07:50:41 Davinder Singh Business Card [Reply]
I can recommend you either use MS SQL Server Query Analyzer or you could just use Microsoft Query Editor (it comes with Microsoft Office / Excel).
Once you've built your Query, you can cut and paste it in Crystal Reports as Richard has just mentioned.
- More Technical Information
2008-07-13 07:42:28 Richard Duffy
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[Reply]
Hi Mohamed,
Crystal Reports uses a concept called "commands" which are the equivalent of SQL queries which you can create when you configure your data connection and select the tables you want to report on.
You can even create the SQL required by using the Query Generator in B1 and cutting and pasting the resultant SQL query in to the command.
Once you have created the command you can the browse the data in the underlying fields by right clicking on the field and choosing browse data
Cheers
Richard Duffy
- More Technical Information
2008-07-03 21:54:23 Davinder Singh Business Card [Reply]
From what I can find on creating a query within Crystal Reports 2008:
"You access the Business Objects Query Panel in Crystal Reports through the Database Expert. Once you have selected Universes from the Create New Connection node, you are prompted to log onto BusinessObjects Enterprise, after which you can select a universe and design your query."
It looks like in order to do so, you will have to buy the Enterprise/Server version.
I hope someone from Business Objects can clear this up a little more (for Crystal Reports 2008).
In the older versions that I've worked with (8.5 etc) it came with a separate application called "Data Dictionary / Crystal Dictionary" that would allow you to create a query first and then pass it on to Crystal Reports.
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