• Broadcasting 'Gotcha!' CE Licensing Issue examined. - George Peck discusses CE broadcast licensing. Look for his words after newsletter highlights.
• I Didn't Know... - your Crystal knowledge resource. Look for tips and tricks from George Peck's Crystal Reports Professional Results and from you (when you send them in), our subscribers.
• User Group Forum. - New Feature! Send us information about your local user group. Each issue will feature a local user group, their website and current activities. See the News section for more.
• Crystal Reports XI: The Complete Reference On Sale NOW! - George Peck's seventh book, has hit the stores! Visit our Promotions section for details.
• Online Learning Series Rolls out December 8th - Learn from the experts - George Peck and Ablaze Group professionals - during live, online learning sessions. Our first session takes place December 8th. Go to our Promotions section for details and to register.

The Broadcasting "Gotcha", discussion by George Peck.
In a previous newsletter, we discussed various Crystal Enterprise licensing scenarios. Oftentimes, our clients (and many other CE customers no doubt) look for ways to trim their licensing costs while maximizing availability of their Crystal Enterprise and Crystal Reports output. One of the ways to accomplish this is by "broadcasting" CE or CR output by exporting it to an alternate file format (Adobe Acrobat, Word, Excel, and so forth) and placing the output in a shared file location, on a web server, or attached to e-mail.

With this method of report distribution, it's physically possible, for example, to use a 5-Named User License (NUL) version of Crystal Enterprise to automatically schedule a series of reports to be exported to PDF format on a widely-accessible web server on a daily basis. The PDFs may then be potentially viewed by thousands of users with only the expense of a 5-NUL copy of Crystal Enterprise being undertaken.

Well, Business Objects has thought of this! A glance through the CE license agreement will eventually find this issue addressed, however subtly it may be hidden in all the licensing jargon. For example, the CE 10 license agreement contains a mere single sentence in its "Installation and Use" paragraph prohibiting this practice without purchase of a "Report Distribution License". CE 9 actually contains an entire section in its license agreement addressing this issue (with slightly more liberal terms than CE 10, such as allowances for broadcasting to 10 times the number of Concurrent Access Licenses you possess). And, if you are creating Crystal Reports-based custom web or Windows applications that automatically distribute reports using CR-based developer components, you may fall under similar limitations as well.

In short, if you plan on automatically running report "batches" in alternate file formats using a Crystal solution, you'll be well served to look carefully through the CE or CR license agreement. While it's understandable that Business Objects should derive revenue from its products, you may suddenly find your costs significantly increased if you inadvertently fall under Report Distribution or Broadcast License requirements when attempting to distribute your report output.

We've dealt with this issue on several occasions with our clients. Feel free to call us if you'd like help in determining how to best approach this "gotcha".

Late Note: Interestingly enough, this issue does not appear to be referenced at all in the Crystal Reports Server XI/Business Objects Enterprise XI license agreement (which presumably indicates that you can broadcast freely with this latest version).

... how to create an "All or Specific Item" parameter.
Crystal Reports parameter fields allow several special choices to be made when they are created, such as allowing multiple values, range values, or a combination of both. However, there is no built-in way to allow an "all items" option to be declared with a parameter field that's used in the Select Expert. For example, if the report viewer wants to see all items in the database for a particular parameter field (in essence, the parameter will be eliminated from the Select Expert), or one or more specific values (the parameter will be included in the Select Expert), there is no default way of enabling that behavior.

By creative use of an asterisk parameter value and of the Like operator in the Select Expert, you can add this capability when using string parameters. Supplying an asterisk to a string parameter field, in combination with the Like operator in the Select Expert, will return all records for the database field used with the parameter.

1. Edit or create the string parameter field that you want to add an "all" option for.
2. If the viewer will be typing the value in directly (not picking from a list of default values), you may want to provide prompting text indicating that an asterisk will return all records.
3. If you are providing default values for the parameter field, add an asterisk as one of the default values. If you are creating descriptions for the default values, add an "All Records" description for the asterisk.
4. Display the Select Expert. Add a string database field that will be used with the parameter field.
5. Instead of using the Equals operator, use the Like operator. As the Like operator accepts question mark and wildcards, an asterisk value provided to the Like operator will return all records.
6. Because the Like operator may not properly expose the parameter field in the drop-down list of browsed sample database values, you'll need to type the parameter name into the field manually. Include the left and right curly braces around the parameter field name, and make sure to include the question mark character in front of the parameter name - example: {?States}.
7. Click OK to close the Select Expert. If you are asked to Refresh Or Use Saved Data, you'll probably want to choose the Saved Data option, as you'll need to manually refresh the report again to be prompted for new parameter values.
8. Refresh the report, selecting the option to Prompt For New Parameter Values. When prompted for the string parameter value, either type an asterisk in directly, or choose the default value that supplies the asterisk. Ensure that all records for that field are returned to the report.

email your favorite Crystal tip, trick or technique.

Local User Group News

The Ablaze Group believes in and supports local user groups.
Consider our newsletter your group's vehicle for getting the word out on what your user group is doing and where! Tell us about your meetings, special programs, most anything that will energize other user groups across the country, the hemisphere, the world! Then read about it in our next issue.

North Virginia SQL User Group SQL Server Launch Event in December
NOVA SQL's www.novasql.com SQL Server 2005 Launch Event is being held on Monday, December 19th, in Vienna, VA. Attendees will gain insight on SQL Server information from Microsoft, INETA and SQL PASS.

Crystal Decisions User Group of Idaho Meeting in December
Crystal Decisions User Group of Idaho www.cdugid.org will meet Thursday, December 1st. The main topic of discussion will be Crystal certification: its benefits and changes since the Business Objects/Crystal Decisions merger. The October meeting featured a user round table discussion. Members listed issues/problems, prioritized them, then started at the top and tackled items one by one. Participants came away excited, energized and educated. This kind of meeting proves the value and importance of user groups.

Tell us about your user group. email us today.

Special iPod Offer - iPod nano is yours FREE when you engage The Ablaze Group for support, consulting and/or onsite training before December 31, 2005! Call for details.

Crystal Reports XI: The Complete Reference

Online Learning Series Dates Announced!

FREE Introductory Session Thursday, December 8th, 2005
The Ablaze Group proudly announces the debut of our Online Learning Series. The free introductory session, Report Design Tips & Tricks #1, happens Thursday, December 8th, 2005.

This live learning experience features Ablaze Group technical professionals covering vital Business Intelligence topics with a follow-up emailed-in question and answer period. George Peck hosts the introductory session on Thursday, December 8th, 9:30a to 10:30a Mountain Standard Time. Remember, the introductory session is free. Attendance is limited. Call 800 773 3472 now to register.

Starting January 2006 you'll enjoy two tracks of online, interactive learning: Technical and Strategic. Interested in twelve monthly Technical Sessions? Great idea! There's no better way to discover the inner workings, the nuts and bolts of information delivery, data sources and reporting.

Strategic Sessions, presented every other month, concentrate on complete, unbiased tool overviews, industry insight, and valuable discussion and analysis of the state of the Business Intelligence/Information Technology world. It's time for a change, and you have questions about what's new, what's out there and what does it mean for your company or organization. But, you don't have time to research it all. Strategic sessions - a potent mix of in-the-trenches experience, multi-industry exposure, and straight-ahead analysis - arm you with the information you need to cut through corporate marketing babble-speak. You'll have a rock-solid information foundation on which to build your strategic decisions.

Look for a separate email with topics and schedules. You are invited to subscribe on an annual or by-the-session basis.

Attendance is limited. Want to register right now? Call 800 773 3472. email for more information.

Enterprise Upgrade services include:

• Planning
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• Migration
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• Custom ePortfolio/Web Desktop/Infoview replacements
• Training.