RE: RES: Converting Oracle Reports to Crystal Reports

I had the displeasure of Crystal 2 years ago. It's hard and sometimes impossible to use some Oracle specific functions (decode, etc.) and the Crystal functions may not be as good. Tuning queries can really be a challenge. Sometimes it stores intermediate result sets in temp/swap files on the PC and it's hard to know what's getting done on the server vs. the client. And, like you could get the end users to follow SQL coding standards to make sure parsed statements are shared. But hey, it's a point and click tool and we shouldn't have to consider what's going on in the database just as long as the report works and looks nice, right?

Steve Orr

-----Original Message-----
From: root_at_fatcity.com [mailto:root_at_fatcity.com]On Behalf Of dgoulet_at_vicr.com
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 1:00 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Subject: Re:RES: Converting Oracle Reports to Crystal Reports

Clebert,

    Well, I will agree with you that an end user who is trained in Crystal can
do for themselves. It's when one gets into the complicated that Crystal nails
itself to the wall. If all you want is a single query with no fancy paper, no
graphics, no fancy breaks/interim results/summarization or totals, and no lookups (otherwise known as subqueries triggered off of the original query) then
Crystal does the job. If you want any of the above your out of their league.
My experience with both is rather and relatively deep. I've been around Crystal
for the last three years, but I go back 15 years with Oracle reports (and it's
predecessor rpt/rpf [smells like SQR now a days]). The learning curve with Reports is very steep, while Crystal is much easier (I wonder why). But on the
other hand, a trained Oracle Reports person can generate a much better report in
less time that a Crystal person. I wonder why that is???

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Author: Clebert Duarte Mattos <CMattos_at_americel.com.br>
Date:       6/16/00 10:54 AM

Hi Dick,

I have very little experience with Crystal Reports, and my experience with Oracle Reports are from training classes over five years ago, so I will not go into the subject of which one is good and which is not.

Our company has long ago set Crystal Reports as the reporting tool, end users are well trained on it and (thank god!) they are able to create and execute their own reports. That is the other reason why I won't question which is good and which is not.

We have many projects going on and deadlines are short (usual stuff). One of the projects require a set of over 40 reports, that we were able to loan from another company, only they are written in Oracle Reports. We have two alternatives: either we convert them to Crystal, or we stick with them in Oracle Reports and the company will have to cope with another reporting tool.

If we could find a way to convert them automatically to Crystal, we would spare time and work (a lot of ). At the end, however we will have them in Oracle Reports for two main reasons:

1. SeagateSoftware has told us this morning that there is no utility to convert a report written in Oracle Report to Crystal;
2. The consulting team which is involved in the project knows Oracle Reports and have no idea how / what / "when" Crystal works - and they will write the reports. So...

Anyway, thank you for your feedback!

> Clebert Duarte Mattos
> AMERICEL
> I.T. - Administrador de Banco de Dados
> email: cmattos_at_americel.com.br
> Fone: (61) 329 6836
> Cel: (61) 929 0638
> http://www.americel.com.br
>
>
>
> ----- Mensagem original -----
> De: dgoulet_at_vicr.com [SMTP:dgoulet_at_vicr.com]
> Enviada em: Quinta-feira, 15 de Junho de 2000 19:44
> Para: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Assunto: Re:Converting Oracle Reports to Crystal Reports
>
> Clebert,
>
> First question I'd have is "who is the dummy asking one to do this?".
> I
> know some of the other listers will disagree with me, but after the
> experience
> I've had with Crystal (and am still having) I believe it to be one of the
> worst
> products out there. Namely it's a toy like SQL*Server. Additionally you
> may
> not be able to convert your reports if they contain more than one query
> per
> report without a lot of re-write & delay in execution. In the end though
> you've
> got to re-write each report as there is no automatic conversion tool that
> I've
> ever heard of.
>
> Dick Goulet
>
> ____________________Reply Separator____________________
> Author: Clebert Duarte Mattos <CMattos_at_americel.com.br>
> Date: 6/15/00 11:40 AM
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone know if it is possible to automatically convert a report from
> Oracle Reports to Crystal Reports?
>
> TIA
>
> Clebert
>
>
>
> --
> Author: Clebert Duarte Mattos
> INET: CMattos_at_americel.com.br
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--
Author: Clebert Duarte Mattos
  INET: CMattos_at_americel.com.br

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