Crystal Reports has become a very versatile application for generating reports, particularly if you use Visual Studio. This video will guide you through generating a report using this tool. It is possible configure complete report using wizards. But I recommend you to avoid it.
- Click File > New project
- Select Windows under visual C#
- Select Windows application template
- Right click on project in solution explorer. Select Add > New Item
- Select
- Retain default selection and click OK. Let us avoid using report creation wizard. So click Cancel button in Standard report creation wizard.
- Now you are back into Visual studio designer with a blank report.
- Now open Field Explorer. Right click on Database Fields and select Database Expert.
- Please note Database Expert is same as Standard report creation wizard. I am using Microsoft Access database "Employee" for this sample. To create a new connection Expand Create New Connection > Access/Excel (DAO).
- Click ... button in the dialog box. Now navigate to the Access file location and select it. Click Open.
- Click OK in Access/Excel (DAO) dialog box.
- Now observe the new connection created under Access/Excel (DAO) with tables listed under it.
- Now click on any table node and press > to select a single table.
- Hold Ctrl button, click on any table node and press > to select multiple table.
- Press >> to select all tables.
- Click OK. Now you are again back into Visual studio designer.
- Expand Database Fields and also node listed under it.
- Click on any field and drag it to details section of report.
- Now open a windows form. Now open Toolbar > expand
- Open Properties of CrystalReportViewer object. Set ReportSource property to the crystal report we designed above.
- Now build and run the application.