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LECCION 10 USANDO EL DATAREPORT DE VB 6

With Visual Basic 6 there are two methods for developing reports. Reports can be created within the Visual Basic development environment by using Microsoft Data Reports, or by using the version of Crystal Reports included with Visual Basic by accessing Crystal Reports' .RPT file via the Crystal's ActiveX control. (Of course, you also can use another version of Crystal Reports or another third-party reporting program; however, Data Reports and Crystal Reports 4.6.1 both come with Visual Basic 6.) Microsoft Data Reports With the new Microsoft Data Reports, a developer can add a report directly to a Visual Basic project. The report can be designed, saved, and compiled with a project just as a form or class would be. This feature integrates well with the Visual Basic IDE, and you can create reports natively and intuitively as you would create any other form. There are two major differences between creating reports with Microsoft Data Reports and creating other forms within the project: The Data Report dimension is based on the printed page, whereas a form is based on twips. The Data Report does not use the intrinsic controls or ActiveX controls that regular Visual Basic forms use; they have their own report intrinsic controls. With Microsoft Data Reports, a report can be displayed to the screen in the form of a Print Preview window. From this window the user can print the report to a printer or export the report to a file (including HTML). The report can be printed to a printer or exported to a file without any user intervention by using Visual Basic code. Crystal Reports Crystal Reports is still included with Visual Basic 6. It includes the Crystal Reports Designer, ActiveX control, and necessary runtimes. Visual Basic 6 is backward-compatible with projects created with Crystal Reports with earlier versions of Visual Basic. Any Crystal Reports report must be created using the report designer. Although certain report elements can be changed at runtime through the Crystal Reports OLE custom control, the control does not have the ability to create a report from scratch. Running and Configuring Crystal Reports Designer The Crystal Reports Designer works as a separate process from Visual Basic and keeps the report definition in a report definition file with a .rpt file extension. You should try to save your report definition files in your Visual Basic project directory to make project management and program distribution easier. If you installed Visual Basic with the defaults, you'll find a Crystal Reports icon in the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 program group. You can also start Crystal Reports by selecting Add-Ins|Report Designer from the Visual Basic main menu. All the How-To's in this chapter assume that your Crystal Reports Designer program is set up the way ours is. Select File|Options from the Crystal Reports main menu. On the Layout tab, check the Show Field Names option. On the New Report tab (see Figure 9.1), check the Use Report Gallery for new reports option. You can also enter a report directory as the default location for report definition files.

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Figure 9.1. The Crystal Reports Designer File Options dialog box. Printing Reports

You have two printing approaches with Crystal Reports: Using the Crystal Reports report designer. This program must be used to design all reports, and it can print them as well. This means you don't need to run a Visual Basic application to print reports on data maintained by your application. The program, however, can't be distributed to users of your application. Using Crystal Reports OLE custom control (OCX). This OCX is included in the package and can be dropped into a Visual Basic form to control report printing. The control gives your application access to most of the more useful features of the Crystal Reports program. With this control, you can have the report displayed in a Print Preview window, printed directly to a printer, or exported to a file. Which Report Engine Should I Use?

With both Microsoft Data Reports and Crystal Reports included with Visual Basic 6, you have alternatives not previously available with Visual Basic. The tool you use will depend on your particular situation and personal preferences. You need to consider the reporting engines' different approaches to designing reports and how Visual Basic interfaces with the respective reporting engines. When to Use Microsoft Data Reports Data Reports integrates very well into the Visual Basic environment. The reports are generated directly in the Visual Basic IDE. There are no separate report files, and the report definitions are stored in an ActiveX designer form with the Visual Basic project. This means when a project is compiled, the report definition is compiled within the executable file (EXE). The report retrieves the data to be used from a Data Connection within a Data Environment. This enables the report to retrieve data from this powerful new feature in Visual Basic 6. Leccion 10 Usando el DataReport Pgina 2

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Microsoft Data Reports integrates well with Visual Basic by using the new powerful Data Environment and enabling the programmer to create reports with similar methods in which forms are created. Data Reports is great for basic reports; however, it does not have the options or advanced report features of the mature Crystal Reports and is not backward compatible with Crystal Report .RPT files. When to Use Crystal Reports Crystal Reports takes a totally different approach to creating reports to use with Visual Basic. A separate application creates the report definitions, and these reports are stored in a separate .RPT file that must be distributed with the EXE file. Also, additional DLLs and an OCX control must be included for the Visual Basic application to use a Crystal Reports report. The distribution requirements are therefore much heavier than those for Microsoft Data Reports. Furthermore, a Crystal Reports report uses ODBC to connect to a data source, not to the new powerful Data Environment. Crystal Reports is much more mature that Microsoft Data Reports. Many applications have already been written using Crystal Reports as their reporting engine. Also, Crystal Reports has a wider feature set than Data Reports. It can generate cross-tab reports and sub reports, and it has much more powerful formula and many number crunching features. Crystal Reports also has an upgrade path that provides new features and more power. Crystal is a mature and proven product. It might be heavier than Data Reports, but it offers a richer feature set and has upgrade options for scalability. CRYSTAL REPORTS UPGRADE OPTIONS Crystal Reports Professional 6 This version of Crystal Reports includes an updated feature set to Crystal 4.6.1, which is included with Visual Basic. An updated report designer and an ISAPI module is included, which allows reports to be placed on a IIS Web server. Java, ActiveX, and pure HTML viewers can be used to display a report on the Web server. This version of Crystal Reports enables you to export a report in various formats including HTML, MS-Excel, MS-Word, and Lotus 1-2-3. Crystal Info Crystal Info is a server-based solution that enables multiple users to view, schedule, and manipulate shared reports. It can be used as a central storage for reports, for multiple users to view. It can be used to schedule when complex and time consuming reports will be run so data can be viewed without having to run the report each time. What SQL Server is to Microsoft Access, Crystal Info is to Crystal Reports. Crystal Report Designer This is an ActiveX designer that works in the same vein as Microsoft Data Reports. It gives you 100% functionality of Crystal Reports 6 with the Visual Basic IDE. Take the way Microsoft Data Reports integrates into Visual Basic and add the power of Crystal Reports 6. WOW! Prior to the release of Visual Basic 6, the only version of this tool available was for Visual Basic 5, but keep an eye on the Seagate Software Web site (www.seagatesoftware. com) for a Visual Basic 6 version.

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