Hi all,
First of all, thanks Ken for advertising the availability of CR 2011.
I agree that the features delivered in this release are minor compared to previous releases. The reason is for this is that we are working on the transition to our new Crystal Reports designer and associated servers. Currently called SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, the new designer is initially targeted at those customers that are leveraging the SAP BusinessObjects Suite, want to take advantage of the SAP BusinessObjects Semantic Layer, or want to access SAP BW data.
This new designer is designed to reduce the amount of steps, and subsequently time, that it takes to design and maintain reports.
As mentioned, the target audience of the current release of this new designer is limited. As such, the same features that you are familiar with from CR will not necessarily be available. Of foremost attention is that the current release of CR for Enterprise does not included direct-to-data or APIs. There are a few other features as well.
We are working to close the gaps and we make some great progress towards this with the first minor release (i.e., SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise XI 4.1). This is due out in early 2012.
You can learn more about the XI 4.0 release of SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise by reading the following:
There is also a preview of XI 4.1 for SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise here:
I'll be releasing some new blogs soon covering more about the XI 4.1 release in the coming weeks.
Please let me know if there are any questions.
Coy Yonce
Product Owner - SAP Crystal Reports