1. The data in the crystal report can be read only from a data
source i.e. tables. Therefore there is a need to create some
table for reports.
What else would you expect for #1?
2. The reports needs to be presented in such a manner that the
rows needs to be converted into columns. (Transpose) The
transpose logic makes the reports response time very slow.
My CR experience dates back to 7.0 (pre java tools) but what I would do
is try to get the database to help me out here.
I always found that a reporting tool was only as good as the database
query you gave it. If you pull 80 bazillion records from the database,
your transpositioning is going to be slow no matter what.
Ideally you want Crystal (or any reporting tool) to generate query
results that are already digested into something close to the report
format. This is good because 1) The database can typically do it faster
than Crystal can and 2) It means Crystal _should_ have less data to
digest and the report should come out faster (and your report machine
might not run out of #@*#@ memory again).
Anyway most reports I found broke down to something with mathemical
operations (often summations) of various fields, broken down by some
other combinations of fields.
So, whenever possible I tried to use the Crystal CrossTab report
format. Failing that (it didn't always look pretty in excel), I
structured my report in such a way that Crystal could generate smart
SQL.
You want to massage the report such that instead of it generating SQL
like SELECT f1, f2, f3, f4 from table where criteria you want it to
come out Select f1, f2, AVG(f3), SUM(f4) from table where criteria
GROUP BY f1, f2, f3, f4
You could get version 7 to make SQL like that on a good day.
Failing this, you want someone (assuredly NOT a junior level report
designer) available to look at the explain plan for the query Crystal is
going to use and can tweak the database indexes as neeeded. I found that
rarely do suits want to look at the database in the way the database
design anticipated.
HTH
-Joe
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