If your company is using Crystal Reports, it is imperative that you have a good Crystal Reports Programmer to help produce the reports you need. At Reporting Guru, we believe a Crystal Reports Programmer should understand the business needs as well as be able to deliver a technical solution.
It is key to gather the report requirements before starting. What do you want the report to look like? Will the report be exported? Who is the report audience? What parameters will the report need? These are just a few of some initial considerations that should be discussed in the report requirements phase. Here is an article on the report requirement gathering process.
What makes a good Crystal Reports Programmer?
A good Crystal Reports Programmer is iterative in the report building process. Don’t program 50 reports without getting feedback, but instead, as reports are being built, continual feedback should be received from the end client. This allows the reports to be tweaked to ensure that in the end, all expectations and requirements are met.
Technical Considerations of a Crystal Reports Programmer:
From a technical standpoint, a good Crystal Reports Programmer will avoid overusing Crystal Syntax. It is better to let the database produce the dataset and simply use Crystal to display the report. Also, using queries or stored procedures allows the logic to easily be reused in other reports rather than custom Crystal Syntax throughout the report. Finally, if you ever convert from Crystal Reports to another reporting tool such as SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), all logic at the database level is completely reusable.
We can help!!
If your company needs a Crystal Reports Programmer, contact Reporting Guru. To discuss your needs or business requirements, give us a call at 1-800-921-4759, fill out our contact form, or email us at info@ReportingGuru.com