Using Crystal Reports 9

This chapter provides an overview of Crystal Reports 9 compatibility issues, Query Access Services (QAS) and discusses how to:

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Crystal Reports 9 Compatibility Issues

When you upgrade to Crystal Reports 9, consider the following compatibility issues :

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding QAS

Query Access Services (QAS) are implemented using the PeopleTools Integration Broker (IB) framework. All the web services exposed by QAS are implemented as synchronous inbound service operation using the IB framework. The Integration Gateway web application receives all the web services requests and forwards them to the Integration Engine (application server) for processing.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPages to Configure QAS

Page Name

Object Name

Navigation

Usage

Query Access Services

PSQASCONFIG

PeopleTools, Query Access Services, Configure

Define the QAS Integration Gateways URL and the QAS results repository URL.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicConfiguring QAS

To configure QAS, access the Query Access Services page.

See The Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 Installation guide for your database platform, Installing and Configuring Software for Crystal Reports, Converting Crystal Reports, Converting pre-PeopleTools 8 Crystal Reports to PeopleTools 8 Crystal Reports

Click to jump to parent topicConfiguring Crystal Reports 9

This section discusses how to:

Note. These configuration options are relevant only if you have installed Crystal Reports 9.

See The Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 Installation guide for your database platform, Installing and Configuring Software for Crystal Reports, Installing Crystal Reports 9.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSpecifying Crystal/Business Interlink/JDeveloper Options

Access the PeopleTools Configuration Manager dialog box by:

  1. Select Start, Programs, PeopleTools 8.4x, Configuration Manager.

  2. Alternatively, go to <PS_HOME>\bin\client\winx86\ and launch pscfg.exe.

Use the Crystal/Bus. Interlink/JDeveloper tab to specify the locations of Crystal Reports executables and the default location for Crystal Reports that are generated through PeopleSoft Query; the latter must be a directory to which the user has write access. This tab also enables you to specify the location of Business Interlink drivers and the JDeveloper Home Directory.

Crystal EXEs Path

If you have Crystal Reports installed locally on the workstation, the Crystal EXEs Path parameter is populated automatically. If you have Crystal Reports installed on a network drive, set the Crystal EXEs Path parameter to reflect the location of the Crystal Reports executables, for example: n:\hr880\bin\client\winx86\crystal.

Default Crystal Reports

This option enables you to specify the default location of your Crystal reports.

Note. If you are creating a Crystal report from PeopleSoft Query and this path is invalid, you will receive an error message. If a path is not specified, PeopleSoft Query tries to write the file to the language directory beneath the directory containing Crystal Reports (CRWRPTPATH).

Use trace during execution

When this option is selected, Crystal writes the trace statements to a log file that you specify in the Trace File field. This file is written to the workstation's %TEMP% directory by default.

Note. When you are tracing Crystal reports through the Process Scheduler, edit the settings in the Crystal section of the psprcs.cfg configuration file. (This file is located in <PS_HOME>/appserv/prcs/<dbname> for UNIX and in <PS_HOME>\appserv\prcs\<dbname> for Microsoft Windows.) Change Trace=YES and specify a location for TraceFile, supplying a full path and file name.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSpecifying the Path for Production of Crystal Reports

To specify the path for production of Crystal Reports, in the PeopleSoft Configuration Manager:

  1. Select the Profile tab.

  2. Select a profile to edit.

  3. Select the Process Scheduler tab.

  4. In the Crystal Reports [CRWRPTPATH] field, enter the path to your Crystal production reports.

    Note. CRWRPTPATH is a read-only directory that is intended to hold production reports.

See Configuring User Profiles.

See Configuration of Crystal Reports for Multilingual Environments, Translated Report Searches.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicRunning Client Setup

If you have installed Crystal Reports on your Microsoft Windows-based development workstation, use the Client Setup tab of the Configuration Manager to configure your workstation to run successfully with your PeopleSoft system.

Note. The Client Setup tab is not the only tab that contains essential values for the PeopleSoft workstation. You should make sure that all of the tabs reflect the correct values for your site, especially the Process Scheduler tab for the Default profile.

The Client Setup tab enables you to:

Important! These Client Setup functions are performed when you click OK or Apply on the PeopleSoft Configuration Manager only if the Install Workstation check box on the Client Setup tab is selected.

Note. Any files that are installed by Client Setup on the workstation from the file server, including ODBC driver files, use the paths that are specified in the default profile.

To run Client Setup:

  1. In the PeopleSoft Configuration Manager, select the Client Setup tab.

  2. In the Group Title text box, enter the name of the program group for the icons that you want on the client workstation.

    You can call the program group anything you want, but this book refers to it by its default name, PeopleSoft 8.

  3. Select check boxes to create shortcut links for any PeopleSoft applications that you want to access from the workstation.

    When you run Client Setup, it uninstalls any existing shortcuts in the PeopleSoft 8 program group and installs shortcuts for the applications that you have selected. If you subsequently want to install or uninstall shortcuts, you can always rerun Client Setup.

  4. Select the Install PeopleSoft ODBC Driver check box if you want to install the PeopleSoft ODBC driver and set up a user ODBC DSN required by PeopleSoft Open Query and by Crystal Reports.

  5. Select the Install Workstation check box.

    This check box determines whether Client Setup runs when you click Apply or OK in the PeopleSoft Configuration Manager. If this check box is not selected, Client Setup either creates or updates settings in the registry, but does not set up the PeopleSoft 8 program group or install local .dlls.

  6. Click Apply to run Client Setup and apply the other Configuration Manager settings.

  7. To view a list of the files that were installed and the actions that were taken by Client Setup, open the psinstal.log file in your TEMP directory.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSigning In to a PeopleSoft Database

You must sign in to a PeopleSoft database before you can generate a PeopleSoft report from Crystal Reports. When you open Crystal Reports and create a new report, Crystal Reports prompts you to sign in to a PeopleSoft database using the Crystal Reports sign-in dialog. When you run a preexisting report, you sign in to a PeopleSoft database using the PeopleSoft sign-in dialog. After successfully signing in to a database, you have full reporting flexibility.

Click to jump to parent topicCreating and Formatting Reports in Crystal Reports 9

This section discusses how to:

See Crystal Reports 9 documentation.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicCreating Reports in Crystal Reports 9

To create reports in Crystal Reports 9:

  1. Select Start, Programs, Crystal Reports 9.

    The Welcome to Crystal Reports window appears.

  2. Select the Using the Report Wizard option.

    The Report Wizard guides you through the creation of a typical report.

  3. Click the OK button.

    The Crystal Reports Gallery page appears.

  4. Click the OK button to select the Standard Wizard.

    The Standard Report Creation dialog box appears.

  5. Click the + sign to the left of the Create New Connection folder to display its contents.

  6. Click the + sign to the left of the ODBC (RDO) folder.

    The ODBC (RDO) dialog box appears.

  7. Select PeopleSoft PeopleTools as the DSN.

    Note. When signing in to two-tier, make sure that the Server Name and other three-tier fields are not populated in the PeopleSoft PeopleTools DSN. These will be picked up as defaults for the connection information that you enter.

  8. Click Finish.

    The PeopleSoft Signon window appears.

  9. Enter the database name, user ID, and password.

  10. Click OK.

  11. If needed, click the + sign to the left of the PeopleSoft PeopleTools folder under ODBC (RDO), and then click the + sign to the left of QUERY to display a list of queries.

    The list contains all the queries from which you can create a report.

  12. Highlight a query from the list, and click the > button.

    The query that you selected appears in the Selected Tables group box, indicating that it has been added.

  13. You can select additional queries if necessary.

    When you have completed your selections, click the Next button to navigate to the Fields dialog box.

    Note. If you have selected multiple queries, clicking the Next button at this point takes you to the Link dialog box.

  14. Highlight one or more fields and click the > button, or click the >> button to add all the fields from the query that you want to appear on your report.

    When fields have been added, the < and << buttons become active.

  15. (Optional) Click the Next button, and select from the following dialog boxes:

  16. Click the Finish button.

  17. Select the Design tab or Preview tab to format your report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicFormatting Reports in Crystal Reports 9

To format reports in Crystal Reports 9:

  1. Access your report in Crystal Reports 9.

  2. With the report opened, select the Design tab.

  3. Enter the appropriate values:

    Note. In most cases, you need to enter the appropriate field type (text field, and so on) before you can enter information.

  4. Select the Preview tab to preview your report.

    The page orientation is portrait or landscape by default according to the number and width of the columns that are in your query. If the query columns do not fit in landscape, Crystal Reports displays as many columns as will fit on the page and does not display the others.

    You adjust the formatting from within the print preview window. For example, you can resize headings or re-center the report title.

  5. Select the Design tab to return to the report template.

  6. Click the Refresh button to refresh your data after making changes.

  7. Click the Save button to save your report.

Important! If your reports contain numeric fields that are formatted to have single- or double-line borders at the top of the container, you may experience incorrect justification of numbers in the HTML output. To resolve this issue, either draw lines above the numeric fields using the line drawing tool or insert summary fields into a blank text object and then format the container text object to include borders above the text.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicModifying Default Settings in Crystal Reports 9

You can set a number of different defaults in Crystal Reports 9.

Note. If you modify a query to include additional fields, you need to modify the report definition in Crystal Reports 9 to include the new fields in your report. To modify the report definition, select Database, Verify Database.

Changing Default Column Headings and Report Titles

Access your report in Crystal Reports 9.

  1. Select the Design tab and, in the Page Header section, double-click the column heading or report title that you want to change. (You can also click the text object and select Edit, Edit Text.)

    A ruler appears above the text object and a hatched box appears around the text. The Crystal text formatting features (such as font, bold, italics, and so on) are available in this mode.

  2. Edit the text, and then click a blank area of the report to deselect the text object.

    The system displays the new text in the display window.

    Note. You can make the column headings as long as you want. However, if you make them much longer than the current heading, you will need to enlarge the text box to fit the heading.

Changing Fonts

Access your report in Crystal Reports 9.

  1. Select the items that you want to change.

  2. Select Format, Format Text.

    The Format Editor dialog box appears.

  3. Select the Font tab.

  4. Select the appropriate font, style, size, and color.

Adding a Print Date Field

Access your report in Crystal Reports 9.

  1. If the Field Explorer is not already displayed, select View, Field Explorer to display it.

  2. If necessary, click the + symbol to the left of Special Fields.

  3. Drag the Print Date field from the Field Explorer to the appropriate area of the report.

    Print Date dialog box appears where you dragged the field.

  4. To modify the format of the Print Date field, right-click the Print Date box and select the Format option.

Click to jump to parent topicRunning Crystal 9 Reports

This section discusses how to:

Note. If you want to run Crystal jobs in background mode, you need to update some values in the system registry. See the red paper “PS/nVision in the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture” on Oracle’s PeopleSoft Customer Connection web site for the details. The section “Running Multi-Concurrent PS/nVision Reports” covers system settings that are relevant to all programs that you can run in the background—including nVision and Crystal.

Note. You can use the PeopleSoft RPT Conversion utility pscvtrpt.exe to repair .rpt files when you are experiencing problems with a report that has already been converted to PeopleTools 8 format as part of the upgrade procedure. See The Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 Installation guide for your database platform, Installing and Configuring Software for Crystal Reports, Converting Crystal Reports, Converting pre-PeopleTools 8 Crystal Reports to PeopleTools 8 Crystal Reports .

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicRunning Crystal 9 Reports from PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Crystal 9 reports can be run from PeopleSoft Process Scheduler in the following ways:

For any of these run methods, a process type and process definition must exist for each report. To run a process definition or a job, a system process request must be created. This request creates a run control to associate the selected items. After items are selected to be run and are queued in the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, Process Monitor shows the status of the processes. You can view completed reports in the Report Manager.

If you submit a process request, you can run the report on a client workstation or on a Microsoft Windows server without having to quit the PeopleSoft system or use a third-party scheduling program. If you schedule processes to run on a Microsoft Windows server, you can run the report at a future date and time.

When Crystal reports are run through PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, you can do one of the following actions:

Note. You cannot run alias Crystal reports from the Crystal Reports 9 application or from PeopleSoft Process Scheduler if the alias name contains certain characters. If your alias Crystal report does not run, check the InvalidAliasCharList entry preceding this directory of the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Crystal Decisions\9.0\Crystal Reports\Database\. If any of the characters in your alias tablename are listed in the entry, either change these characters to characters that are not listed in the entry or change the entry to remove any characters that you want to be able to include in your alias tablename. The entry must contain at least one character.

Note. When running Crystal 9 reports through PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, you are prompted for parameters if the PeopleSoft ODBC driver for the version of PeopleSoft PeopleTools that you are running is not installed.

Note. If you use PeopleSoft Process Scheduler to run a report and you select the File/XLS option, the totals may not align with the detail columns that the totals represent. In this event, you can address these alignment issues by following the guidelines that are provided in the appropriate documentation.

See Submitting and Scheduling Process Requests.

See “Exporting to Microsoft Excel” http://www.businessobjects.com

Formatting Reports in PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

You can format Crystal reports that will be run through the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler by specifying output options for:

Formatting System Settings

System settings are system defaults that are related to all processes.

To format system settings:

  1. Select PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, System Settings.

  2. Select the Process Output Type tab.

  3. Choose the active and default output types for each process type by selecting the appropriate Active and Default Output check boxes.

  4. Click the Save button to save your changes.

    Note. The Process Output Format Settings page uses information about output types; therefore, save any changes made to output type settings before attempting to change an output format setting.

  5. Click the Process Output Format tab.

  6. Select the active and default output formats for each combination of process type and output destination type by clicking the desired Active and Default check boxes.

  7. Click the Save button to save your changes.

See Defining System Settings.

Formatting Process Type Definitions

Process type definitions globally define the command line, parameter list, working directory and other general parameters for a specific process type.

To format process type definitions:

  1. Select PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Process Types.

    The Type Definition page appears.

  2. In the Parameters List field, enter the %%OUTDESTTYPE%% value for the -OT variable and the %%OUTDESTFORMAT%% value for the -OF variable.

  3. Click the Save button to save your changes.

See Defining Process Type Definitions.

Formatting Process Definitions

A process definition needs to exist for each Crystal report that is to be run or scheduled using PeopleSoft Process Scheduler.

To format process definitions:

  1. Select PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Processes.

    The Process Definition page appears.

  2. Select the Destination tab.

  3. In the Output Destination Options section, select the output options in the Type and Format drop-down list boxes.

    These drop-down list boxes display only those output types and output formats that were made active on the System Settings page. Output options set on the Process Definition page cannot be overridden on the Process Scheduler Request page.

  4. Click the Save button to save your changes.

See Defining Process Definitions.

Formatting Scheduled JobSet Items

Jobs can be created if the user needs to run a series of processes.

To format scheduled JobSet items:

  1. Select PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Schedule JobSet Definitions.

    The Schedule JobSet Definition page appears.

  2. Select the Schedule JobSet Items tab.

  3. Select the Output Settings sub-tab.

  4. Specify the output type and output format from the Type and Format drop-down list boxes.

  5. To specify options for individual jobs or processes, expand the hierarchical view of the job and select the output type and output format for the required items from the Type and Format drop-down list boxes.

    Note. Individual jobs and processes options override the output options that are specified for the parent job. Output options set at the job level apply to all items of that job.

  6. Click the Save button to save your changes.

See Defining Scheduled JobSets.

Formatting Process Requests

To format process requests:

  1. Select PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, System Process Requests.

  2. Select a run control ID and click the Run button to submit a process request and be routed to the Process Scheduler Requests page.

  3. Select the output type and output format from the Type and Format drop-down list boxes.

  4. To specify output options for jobs or processes within a job, click the Description of the main job to access the Job Detail page and select the output type and output format from the Type and Format drop-down list boxes.

    Note. Individual jobs and processes options override the output options that are specified for the parent job. Output options set at the job level apply to all items of that job.

See Scheduling Process Requests.

Runtime Prompts

When you are running a Crystal report that has runtime prompts in PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture, the prompt values need to be passed using the command line. You can do this either by hard-coding static values in the Process Definition page or by creating a PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture page to gather values from the users and dynamically pass them into the command line.

Note. The number and order of the prompt values must be exact.

For example, if you have a report whose query prompts on Business Unit and you want the report to run only for business unit BU001, you could hard-code that prompt value in quotes into the process definition:

The resulting command line would look similar to this:

C:\PT848\BIN\CLIENT\WINX86\PSCRRUN.EXE -CTMICROSFT -CDPT849 -COUSER1 -CPOPRPSWD -I45 -RP"Employees by Department for BU001" -OT5 -OPDistribution List -LGENG -OF8 -ORIENTL "BU001"

Note. The executable program for Crystal Reports 9 is PSCRRUN.EXE. The executable used with BusinessObjects Enterprise XI is PSBOERUN.EXE. The command line executable changes when you convert your reports to the Crystal XI format.

See The Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 Installation guide for your database platform, Installing and Configuring Software for Crystal Reports, Converting Crystal Reports, Converting Reports from Crystal Reports 9 format to Crystal Reports XI format.

To allow users to dynamically select prompt values at runtime:

  1. Using PeopleSoft Application Designer, create a PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture Run Control page.

  2. Insert an edit box for each prompt field.

  3. Click the newly inserted edit box to display the Edit Box Properties dialog box.

  4. Use the drop-down list boxes to select the record and field that you are prompting on.

  5. Save your changes.

  6. Access PeopleSoft Process Scheduler and modify the process definition parameter list to include your prompt field using the format :RECORD.FIELD.

    See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler.

Note. The resulting command line would look the same as the preceding example except, instead of BU001, it would contain the selected value.

This is an example of a PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture Run Control page in PeopleSoft Application Designer:

This is an example of the Override Options page, where you can modify the Process Scheduler Process Definition parameter list to include your prompt field:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicRunning Standard Reports from Within Crystal Reports 9

To run standard reports from within Crystal Reports 9, the system uses a query that is created in PeopleSoft Query and a report definition that is created in Crystal Reports. All the elements are predefined; you can only view and print the reports.

Use these steps to run standard reports from within Crystal Reports 9:

  1. Select Start, Programs, Crystal Reports 9.

    The Welcome to Crystal Reports dialog box appears.

  2. Select the Open an Existing Report option if it is not already selected.

    Crystal Reports displays a list of report files, which use the .rpt file extension.

  3. Double-click the name of the report that you want to open, or highlight it and click OK.

    Crystal Reports opens the selected report template and displays it as it is formatted for printing.

  4. Select File, Print Preview or click the Print Preview button on the Crystal Reports toolbar to view the report before you print.

    When you've signed in to your database, Crystal Reports displays a print preview containing the rows of data that will appear in the printed report. You can perform the following actions:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicLaunching Crystal Reports 9 with Microsoft Windows-based PeopleSoft Query

If you have access to the Microsoft Windows version of Query Designer, which means that if you have a Microsoft Windows-based workstation set up as a PeopleTools development environment, you can run queries directly to Crystal Reports 9 from Query Designer. This option is not available from web-based Query Manager or Query Viewer. However, users who do not have access to Windows Query Designer can schedule a predefined Crystal Report to run on a Process Scheduler server, and the results can be routed to PeopleSoft Report Manager.

You can export queries to Crystal Reports 9 to create default reports. Default Crystal reports are generated in the following ways:

If you want to run your report directly from Microsoft Windows-based PeopleSoft Query, the query and report names must match to use the formatting that you have created in Crystal Reports every time you print the report. If you always update and print the report from within Crystal Reports, name-matching is not a concern.

When using Microsoft Windows-based Query Designer, any modification to a previously saved query needs to be saved before downloading query results to Crystal Reports 9. A message will appear in Query Designer reminding you to save your work to ensure accurate data are displayed. New ad hoc queries that have never been saved before in the database can be downloaded to Crystal Reports 9 without having to save after every modification.

Note. End users should create and maintain reports in Crystal Reports. PeopleSoft Query is used to create and maintain the queries that generate report contents.

To run a query with Crystal Reports output:

  1. Launch Application Designer, and then select Go, Query.

  2. Select File, Open or click the Open Query button to display the Open Query dialog box.

  3. Click the down arrow to the right of the Name field to display a list of existing queries.

  4. Highlight the name of the query that you want to base the report on and click OK.

    If none of the saved queries meets your needs, you can create a new query.

  5. Click the Run Query button to run the query.

  6. Click the Run to Crystal Report button to run the query to Crystal Reports.

    The system automatically opens the Crystal Reports application and creates a new Crystal report.

  7. Use Crystal Reports to format your data, add a report title, modify column headings, and so on.

Repeated Query Prompts

PeopleSoft Query cannot supply values to Crystal Reports at runtime. Crystal Reports stores the default values as NULL and does not allow you to change stored procedure values, so you must enter the prompt values twice.

When queries include prompts, you are prompted once at design time and once at runtime to enter the appropriate values. This behavior is related to the definition of a stored procedure.

Most databases can return any number of result-set columns based solely on the input to a stored procedure. For Crystal Reports to create a static report template, it must run the stored procedure with the default parameter values once before it can request the definition of the result set. Because of this, the stored procedure (the query) is run once at design time (to fill in the result set descriptions) and again at runtime (as expected).

Note. You will be prompted when verifying the database in the report. The issue is the same as the design-time prompt followed by the runtime prompt issue just described. Enter the appropriate values after choosing to verify the database.

See Also

Creating and Running Simple Queries

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPrinting Crystal 9 Reports

After running the Crystal 9 report and saving the file, you can print the report by clicking the Print button or selecting File, Print, Printer. As with many Microsoft Windows applications, you can choose to print the entire report or only a few pages, specify the number of copies to print, and indicate whether you want the copies collated.

Note. If you want to run your report directly from Microsoft Windows-based PeopleSoft Query, the query and report names must match to use the formatting that you have just created in Crystal Reports every time you print the report. If you always update and print the report from within Crystal Reports, it does not matter if the query and report names match.

Note. If you print reports using the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler, you must have the Windows service BEA ProcMGR Log On value set to This Account and the specified Windows user account should have printing permission to the printer where the reports will be printed. You must also define the appropriate paper size in the Crystal process type definition.

See Entering Global Definitions for Processes.

To print HTML reports from Crystal Reports, open the appropriate HTML file and print it from the browser. Crystal Reports uses the default page setting to print the report. Sometimes the right side of the report will be cut off when it is sent to the printer, even though it appears in the Crystal Report viewer.

To change your default page settings to print HTML reports:

  1. Select File, Page Setup.

  2. Change the left and right margin settings to create smaller margins.