Talk:Crystal Reports

Article and External Links
I removed the mention and links to one specific viewer in the section on running reports locally. There are at least a dozen viewers out there. This is too many to start mentioning them all by name. Besides, This one is 'free' but at least three other viewers are free (and without ads), so I am not sure why this one viewer and vendor should be mentioned by name.

I also removed the external link to the front page of that same vendor, because that page provides no useful content and is purely promotional. There are hundreds of businesses that provide useful Crystal Reports services and I don't think that we want links to all of them here. External links should be to pages that have at least some useful content.

Please reserve the top external link for the Crystal Reports product page. That is what the article is about. Kendataman 14:05, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Criticism section
I don't think a single persons opinion is appropriate for the article. Just saying it is 'poorly designed' or 'buggy' is a matter of opinion - unless he can provide references. Kendataman 19:13, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

They are careless with the product, for example one of the latest versions has a reference NUnit, that does not speak very well of their professionalism but at least implies that they do some level of automatic tests. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hrumayor (talk • contribs) 19:46, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

I am not saying there aren't any bugs. All programs will have bugs. But that isn't the same as saying it is buggy and poorly designed. Kendataman 23:17, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I diden't write the buggy and poorly designed part, what I wrote was about the bloated HTML code it produces. But I agree that the buggy and poorly designed comment is not backed up by examples of what is wrong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hrumayor (talk • contribs) 14:12, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I can give a few examples. They released a new version of the merged modules for .Net development.  The new version was on their site for a while, but the install of them didn't register the forms.  Meaning, if you distributed a product using those modules, then your clients got error messages.
 * Also, if you open a report using the .Net form, and that report accesses an XML data source, and you close the form, you are going to get an error saying that the program closed incorrectly. They don't disconnect from XML correctly.  This is a known problem, but they won't fix it.
 * It also doesn't support recursion, which is a major drawback.
 * Very buggy software, indeed. Slipgrid (talk) 13:20, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

The statement that the program can only return 1000 results is a bit misleading. The program was designed that way to reduce strain on the resources being used to run the report. However, by making simple registry changes you can increase the 1000 figure to a user-defined number. Also, in my experience, the occurance of multiple returns for the same entry is the result of poor report design.-Jamskatelake 11/29/07

I just removed the following opinion: Do not trust Crystal Reports. The outputs are generally wrong. I believe that it obviously violates Wikipedia's guides. --AdjustablePliers (talk) 17:38, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest adding a section with versions and product release dates. Surprisingly, this is difficult to find, even on the SAP website. I was researching release dates because our custom application's current deployment is being questioned with regard to supported versions. Release date information would help explain our past decisions.

Crystal report & Pivot Table
Please tell me in what way is my article opportunistic and how to make it non-opportunistic?


 * Articles about how to not use the product such as replacements, competitors, different approaches, etc, are un-encyclopedic. And oh, I read your article. It is a good article, but and I really don't think you have enough grounds to say you could substitute CR by using your method. --Pinnecco 16:57, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Crystal Reports & BI
Please, explain why Crystal Reports is not related to Business Intelligence? Being a former employee of Crystal Decisions/Business Objects, I believe I have enough knowledge about such application to give a brief description about it. Crystal Reports is used to gather data and generate reports - this is what Business Intelligence is all about. --Pinnecco


 * Let's first note analysis as being separate from reporting. It's analysis that exhibits levels of intelligence. While the product provides comprehensive reporting capabilities, the same cannot be said for its data analysis capabilities, which are relatively limited (and probably rightly so). It therefore provides a very basic level of intelligence, compared to all that is possible in the field of business intelligence, such as by data mining. While reporting may be used as a means of communicating (presenting) intelligence, it is certainly not what business intelligence is all about. --Amit 02:32, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I disagree. According to Wikipedia's own article about business intelligence, it says that business intelligence software "aims to help people make "better" business decisions by making accurate, current, and relevant information available to them when they need it". This is exactly what Crystal Reports does. I am not disputing your understanding of Business Intelligence, but I am arguing about your understanding of Crystal Reports. --Pinnecco 15:08, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


 * CR can be used for BI, but any complex BI analysis using CR would probably require lots of intensive algorithm/formula development and code writing, which isn't worthwhile, as there are other products available by Business Objects and also other vendors, specifically geared towards BI - with additional built-in analytical formulas. There are degrees of complexity in the relevant info that can be provided using BI. In any case, basic BI seems clichéd and overrated. --Amit 23:47, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


 * That's what Crystal Analisys is for, but this doesn't mean that CR isn't a BI product. :-) --Pinnecco 10:39, 9 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Amit, Pinnecco, strictly speaking Crystal Reports is a 'Report Writer' and not a business intelligence tool, search for 'Crystal' in this press release and also . (I am aso a former employee (core development 1996-2003)). (hint) this is the only true BI tool Crystal Decisions ever owned


 * Beep! Wrong. By creating a CR report and publishing it on a delivery platform. I can get dynamic reports which could, say, give me the latest sales numbers based on geographic location, or top selling products. Perhaps I would like to drill down into the report and get information about demographics such as age and gender of my customers . This is what BI is all about. And quoting the article Business Intelligence:


 * [...] Therefore, in this sense, business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data for the purpose of helping enterprise users make better business decisions.

Company Name
Please Reffer to Crystal Decisions for the company name.


 * "Seagate software has relaunched itself under the moniker of Crystal Decisions and released version 8.5 of its reporting software, Crystal Reports, and the next generation of Seagate Info, which it has renamed Crystal Enterprise." --Pinnecco 20:28, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Origins

 * The product was originally created by Seagate Software ...

The above statement in the article is false as Seagate Software did not originally create Crystal Reports. My memory is a little hazy but from what I can remember; Seagate bought Crystal which was already producing Crystal Reports.


 * As per, Crystal Decisions, formerly known as Seagate Software, was an information infrastructure company founded in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1984. Assuming this is true, the article is correct. I will later see if I can get any secondary confirmation. --Amit 00:33, 9 March 2006 (UTC)


 * As a former eployee of Crystal Decisions / Business Objects, I can confirm that Amit is right. --Pinnecco 10:37, 9 March 2006 (UTC)


 * The following is from page 3 of the book "Crystal Reports XI: The Complete Reference (2005)" by George Peck:


 * In 1984, a Canadian shipping company wanted to produce custom reports from its accounting system. When the vendor said "We can't help you," the company created Quick Reports, the precursor to Crystal Reports. Crystal Reports' first "bundle" was with that vendor's next version of its accounting software.


 * The above info would probably benefit from being incorporated into the article. Also look at Holos for some interesting info. --Amit 02:10, 10 March 2006 (UTC)


 * As also a former eployee of the company (1996-2003) I can confirm Amit, Pinnecco & George Peck are very mistaken. As I originally stated when I started this thread Seagate did not 'originally create' Crystal reports . Seagate bought the company 'Crystal' which already produced Crystal Reports, to this Seagate added a company called 'Holistic Systems' see &  forming 'Seagate Software IMG' this was later re-branded as 'Crystal Decisions' and then finally sold to 'Business Objects'. Those were the days :)


 * Here is a site for exchanging old software:, and they credit "Crystal Services" with Versions 1.1 to 3.0 and Seagate Software with versions 4.0 to 8.5.


 * DBMS Magazine 1995 lists: Crystal Reports (Crystal Services, a Seagate company), which adds support for the unsigned comment above. -- RayGates 21:27, 5 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Further confirmation from The Ablaze Group that Crystal Services originated Crystal Reports. -- RayGates 21:37, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I have reversed the change by an anonymous user of Crystal Services Inc. to Jeffry Cabrera as the originator, pending supporting evidence. If Jeffry owned or worked for Crystal Service Inc. or created the product and sold it to them, please specify and provide a source for this information. RayGates 01:27, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I joined Crystal Services in 1991, after Quik Reports for Accpac had been developed and before we started developing Quik Reports for Windows (later called Crystal Reports for Windows). Despite the claim on the indicee website that Mark Cunningham was involved in the original development of Quik Reports (either incarnation), he was not on the scene in 1991. I don't believe he ever worked in the product development group of Crystal, although he was indeed an employee for a while later on. Should I just correct the History section? Rbc tn (talk) 06:19, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Welcome, Rbc. I reverted your original change, which removed two external sources, but after reviewing one of them, I see that it didn't quite state what the article claimed, so I removed Mark's name. Thanks for pointing this out! -- SarekOfVulcan (talk) 06:59, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

Crystal Reports Server
I'm still a little unclear on this. Should Crystal Reports Server be a part of this article, or the Business Objects Enterprise one (if any)? It seems like the documentation is fractured all over the place to make sure we need their help to figure anything out....--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 20:00, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Verify source
The statement

Crystal Reports became the de facto standard report writer ...

does not seem to be substantiated by the citation

a) the article does not mention "de facto" b) the source probably does not meet WP:SOURCES criteria for reliability

--Artemgy (talk) 10:46, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Visual Studio Discontinuation / Unbundling
Microsoft discontinued this practice and later released their own competitive reporting too...

doesn't seem to be true considering that it can be found in Visual Studio 2010

--Pghans — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pghans (talk • contribs) 20:22, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

SAP/MS are making Crystal Reports available for free non-registration download for users of Visual Studio 2010, saying they are decoupling the product release schedules. I added a cite to the VB team blog page describing this and a cite for the SAP link that provides information and the download. My only concern is I don't know where the link to info and download should be placed. For now I listed it both as a citation and as a separate link in the links section. If someone knows how this should best be done, I would appreciate it if they would fix it. I expect normally Wikipedia isn't oriented toward download links, but I think it's important to have since the link is info and download and since many people will be looking for it, since anecdotal reports indicate some people have trouble figuring out where Crystal Reports went when they're using VS2010. Paultparker (talk) 14:29, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Versions and Editions
Could someone create a section detailing the various versions and editions of Crystal Reports there have been please.Caltor (talk) 11:49, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

Is it discontinued?
From the development pace, and the afct that as of 2020, it's at least ~4 years old w/o development, can we conclude it's been discontinued? Perhaps any official announcements? Tabdiukov (talk) 09:04, 18 February 2020 (UTC)