I can’t remember the number of times that I’ve heard a fellow programmer complain about Crystal reports, about how hard it is to develop with them, particularly to roll your own dynamic reports without hiring SAP, or previously BO, to get a server up and running for you.
They tell us, loudly, that all the power of the Crystal Reports Engine is right there for us to use. And it is, but anyone who has ever tried knows that the documentation is crap, and the object model is an enigma that eludes even the best of us. I had the opportunity this year to do a lot of work with automating the dynamic construction of Crystal Reports 2008 for on-the-fly report building. And now, I’m going to start bringing the insights I’ve gained to you, along with some code.
Please bear with me, I hope to have the first samples and framework up and running by the end of 2009.
