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Article:
Crystal Reports ' Heterogeneous databases: SQL Server, Oracle, Unidata, Btrieve, Ctree ' tips for developer by: Andrew Karasev There are different categories of reporting tools. If you look at the financial reporting ' you see such nice instruments as FRx or internal report writer of the financial application (ReportWriter in the case of Microsoft Great Plains). FRx has a link to Microsoft Great Plains or Solomon General Ledger (GL). Crystal Reports is rather universal reporting tool, which means that it doesn't have special setup to be used for something specific, as in the case of financial reporting tools. Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market and it has market recognition. Multiple software vendors offer Crystal Reports as the main reporting tool: Microsoft, Best Software, Oracle to name a few. Sometimes developers try to use Crystal directly to pull data from multiple database platforms - we understand the need to give you additional tips to increase Crystal report flexibility. Also common case when Crystal report should pull data from multiple database platforms. Assuming that you are creating Crystal Reports on Windows platform - we recommend you to use Microsoft SQL Server as a database access tool. 1. Use Crystal when you have your query tuned ' regardless how good Crystal Reports is - it is reporting tool - not querying environment. Tune your query first and be sure that you are pulling the right data. 2. Use SQL Server Linked Servers. Use professional tool, such as Microsoft SQL Server, where you can create linked servers to Oracle, Ctree, Btrieve, MS Access, Unidata, DB'2
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