Functionality of a Crystal viewer in a proprietory software

[kieso]

Good morning all from cold and windy Massachusetts! )

I’m using Crystal to design reports that will get used by a Crystal reports “viewer” in a specialty software suite called UPS Logistics. This is a fleet management and tracking tool distributed by UPS, the same company that brought us brown clothed couriers, and seems to be as dynamic and flexible as would be predicted by the firms choice of colors ). It includes the software Roadnet, Mobilecast, and Territory Planner.

I have two questions;

1) Is the viewer used in this specialty program something proprietary to UPS logistics, or is this something that Crystal makes available to many software developers. If it is the former, than I’m hoping someone out there knows about writing Crystal for UPS Logistics. If, as I suspect, it is the later, then what program is embedded in UPS and what functionality should I expect to find (unbelievably, the brown clothed folks at UPS tech support can’t tell me!).

2) Assuming that this “viewer” is used by many other programs, than even without a knowledge of UPS some of you may know why I’m having the problem I am. I’ve included the current date function in the record selection area. The idea was that as soon as our dispatcher opened the report in the “viewer” it would always show the information of the current date. This works fine in Crystal, but the viewer shows the information in the date the report was created. All the other canned reports provided with this viewer use a pop-up box that prompts the user with what date or date range should be used. I interpreted this as being a “Parameter Field”, but when I tried to create one for my report in Crystal, the Parameter editor required that I select the dates for which the user should be prompted, that is the dates that are included in the database NOW, on the date that I'm making the report. Quite obviously I want our dispatcher to be able to choose any date in the database on the date that he looks at my report. How do I do that?

Thank you very much in advance for any help you may offer

Rodger

 

[kenhamady]

1) it is probably one of Crystal's generic viewer integrations that has been customized to work with the UPS program. You will have to write reports that work with model they have chosen, which probably means some experimenting.

2) You probably saved the report "with data" which is an option in the file menu. Shut this off, and resave the report. Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Expert's Guide to Formulas / Guide to Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

- tek@kenhamady.com

 

[markajem]

Also Rdoger if I understand what you are asking for you need to set up 2 parameters, one for starting date and one for ending date in the parameter editor and set your values at DATE. Then go to the record selection editor and select the field you want to test on and use drop down menu for GreaterThan or Equal and select the startingdate parameter as {?startingdate} and LessThan or Equal and select the parament {?endingdate} for your dates starting and ending. Mark
Email: markanas333@hotmail.com

 

[thatblondechick]

Hi Rodger
I also use a report viewer that is supplied as part of an application called Protean. I have never struck a problem with the date field being incorrect, but if my reports are too "complicated" ie; lots of formulas and calcs then the viewer displays incorrect data (although it is fine when run directly from Crystal Reports version 9).
I wonder if it is something to with the version of the viewer that the application is using, since I did not notice any problems when I used to design reports in Info Designer 7 - so would suggest you may be able to obtain an updated Viewer from the application distributer? I have found that it is almost as if the Viewer does not support some of the reporting functions available in Crystal.
I have gotten around my problem now by designing database views that do all the complicated stuff, and using the report to display them and it seems to work fine, so that may also be an option. Stored procedures may also work.
Also, for parameters you can just set up one parameter and make it require a "range" value, rather than having to set up a "from" and a "to" parameter - then make your Selection Criteria = this parameter.
Hope this is some help to you!
Cheers
Angela

 

[kieso]

Wow! This forum is really great!

When I started with this firm as an accountant, and was thrown into various ad-hoc programming functions I beat my brains out learning the AS400 on my own, then ADI and ADP on my own, then our warehouse management software again on my own.

If I’d known about these forums then, I think I’d still have some hair!

You guys (and gals, Angela) are great! Thank you! Thank you so much!

The version issue is one suspicion that I myself had last week. UPS tech support makes a real effort to deny having any insight into adding reports to those supplied. The lack of training is probably associated with the fact that UPS will custom make reports for customers (for WAY more money than I’m getting paid, by the way). Never the less, the fellow I spoke to was pretty sure that anything beyond Crystal 8.5 isn’t going to fit very well. He thinks it’s designed for Crystal 7 or Crystal 8.5, whereas I’m currently using 9.0. Hopefully my IT dept will get me an old version this week.

My For Dummies book has a great chapter on Parameters, which I tried. The problem I found was that the (?date) field wasn’t there the only choices were actual dates in the database; Jan 9 2003, Jan 8 2003, etc. Any idea why this wild card isn’t available?

Now I’m afraid I need to test the limits of the expression “there are no stupid questions” with a stupid question for you Angela (See Angela..... Mark and Ken correctly wrote to me as though I was in grade school )

Angela, you said; “I have gotten around my problem now by designing database views that do all the complicated stuff, and using the report to display them”

I’ve looked all through my Crystal For Dummies book, and I can’t find anything on “database views”, Database form view doesn’t look like what you’re talking about. Are you talking about creating automated Queries on the AS400 side that create new tables so the viewer in UPS doesn’t have to do any linking? Angela I’d love it if you could explain this like I’m in Graid Scual )

One again, thanks very much to all of you

Rodger

cyclinginma@hotmail.com

 

[markajem]

I have never used the version of the Viewer supplied (customized) by UPS. This may be somewhat of a factor. Peachtree also distributed for an additional cost a version of Crystal that they made cuts in its functionality. Becuz they do this and the fact that I have not yet used the version of the viewer that UPS supplies with their software it is very difficult for anyone to determine exactly what ability this version does have. Yes, it is possible that some reports created in crystal with Crystal Reports may not work in the version of the viewer supplied by UPS becuz we may not know what funtionality this viewer does have. But a date parameter ability does not seem that all complicated and I would see know reason why this ability would have been removed from their version of crystal viewer except for the plain reason then you would have to go to them to have even the most basic reports written and pay thier high fees to do so. Also I would not find it unusal that their tech support would not be able to answer your questions about Crystal because they may just sub the work out when they do get requests. Some of us found this to be true in Peachtree's version of crystal report writer. Peachtree in MHO lead people to believe that using Crystal would enable them to create custom reports based on the Peachtree database with some ease and at the same time offered at a high fee to create reports for you. Once many people started to experiment using Crystal supplied by Peachtree they found that it was much more complicated than they had thought and regreted paying the cost of Crystal Reports. Peachtree's version of crystal left out many of the functions normally supplied in the true version. Also Peachtree's database was so poorly designed it made pulling the date a real choire. Even some of the data files are not available to use with Crystal.

Rodger you stated : "My For Dummies book has a great chapter on Parameters, which I tried. The problem I found was that the (?date) field wasn’t there the only choices were actual dates in the database; Jan 9 2003, Jan 8 2003, etc. Any idea why this wild card isn’t available?
" You need to create a PARAMETER field and disignate it as a DATE format. Then you place that in your selection formula. After you create the Parameter it will then show up as available in the selection formula area. as {?yourdate} so instead of selecting an actual database date you would select the {?yourdate} field. You can even set it so the date will default to CurrentDate. This should not be a problem unless as I said previousto this UPS as pulled this function out in their version so you will need to go to them for this basic change that takes literally only minutes to do on your end if you had the full version.

Rodger, it is unlikely that Crystal for Dummies would even touch the subject of database "VIEWS" in the book. Views as being stated are usually created with MS Sql Enterprise Manager or something like that. It allows you to take fields from other tables and combine them into one or many of your own which would be created by MS SQL Manager. Then you would point your crystal reports to pull from the VIEW table instead of the actual database table. Creating VIEWS from MS SQL is an advanced approach and I would think that the Dummies book would not cover such an approach, although may be mentioned but not detailed in instruction.

I would not think it would be at all necssary for you to have to create a "VIEW" table in order just to pull the dates you require. Setting up a PARAMETER and inserting it in the selection formula should suit your purposes.









Mark
Email: markanas333@hotmail.com

 

[kieso]

Parameters did infact work great. Led to a new problem that I'll post seperately

Thanks again