DataLink Viewer 2011 User Manual

DataLink Viewer 2011

View, Print, Export, Inspect, Schedule, and Auto-Refresh Crystal Reports

www.MilletSoftware.com

Version 6.9

August 2024

Millet Software

5275 Rome Ct.

Erie, PA 16509-3951

ido@MilletSoftware.com

(814) 825-6009

Disclaimer: This software is provided "as-is" by Millet Software without assuming any

responsibility for harm to computer systems, software, or data with which these files are used.

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

MAIN BENEFITS: .................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

INSTALL / REMOVE ................................................................................................................................................................................ 9

Speeding Up via Native Image ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

TYPICAL USE SCENARIOS............................................................................................................................................................... 10

SELECT REPORT WINDOW ................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Right-Click Report Row Menu ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

PREVIEW REPORT WINDOW: ................................................................................................................................................................ 12

After Export Action ........................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Email Exported File ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13

3 Print Buttons ................................................................................................................................................................................ 14

Refresh (auto-refresh) Button ......................................................................................................................................................... 14

Report Grid Help ............................................................................................................................................................................ 15

Report Preview Help ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Selecting a Report to View ............................................................................................................................................................. 16

COPYING OBJECT/TEXT FROM THE REPORT ........................................................................................................................................ 16

Object Copy (Ctrl-C) ...................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Text Copy (Alt-C) .......................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Tooltip Copy (Ctrl-Shift-C) ............................................................................................................................................................ 16

PARAMETER FUNCTIONALITY ..................................................................................................................................................... 17

REMEMBER PARAMETER VALUES FROM A PREVIOUS SESSION (VIDEO DEMO) ..................................................................................... 17

SELECTIVE PARAMETER REFRESH (VIDEO DEMO) ................................................................................................................................ 17

INITIALIZING PARAMETER VALUES WITH DATE EXPRESSIONS (VIDEO DEMO) ..................................................................................... 18

SAVE AND REUSE NAMED PARAMETER SETS (VIDEO DEMO) ............................................................................................................... 19

CLICK TO CHANGE A PARAMETER VALUE (VIDEO DEMO) .................................................................................................................... 21

Toggling Between 2 Parameter Values .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Special Date and DateTime Parameter Dialogs ............................................................................................................................. 21

Input Box Dialog ............................................................................................................................................................................ 22

ListBox Dialog ............................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Changing a Parameter by Clicking on a Related Formula.............................................................................................................. 22

LOAD INI VALUES INTO PARAMETERS ................................................................................................................................................. 23

SECURING REPORTS AGAINST UNAUTHORIZED USE ............................................................................................................................ 23

LOAD MACHINE/COMPANY/REPORT INFORMATION INTO PARAMETERS .............................................................................................. 24

DLV_Machine_Name .................................................................................................................................................................... 24

DLV_Registered_Company ........................................................................................................................................................... 24

DLV_HD_Serial_N ........................................................................................................................................................................ 24

DLV_Rpt_Path ............................................................................................................................................................................... 24

CONTROL DATA ACCESS ACCORDING TO PC LOGIN ............................................................................................................................ 25

DYNAMIC & CASCADING PARAMETERS (VIDEO DEMO) ....................................................................................................................... 26

Respond to Single-Value Live Prompts ......................................................................................................................................... 26

Link back in a Hierarchy of Live Prompts ..................................................................................................................................... 27

Respond to Multi-Value Live Prompts ........................................................................................................................................... 28

Manage Display & Data Values for Live Parameters .................................................................................................................... 29

View the Report ............................................................................................................................................................................. 30

DYNAMIC AND CASCADING PARAMETERS (DEVELOPER NOTES) ......................................................................................................... 31

Naming Parameters ........................................................................................................................................................................ 31

Designing Live Prompt Reports ..................................................................................................................................................... 31

Implementing a "Select All" Option ............................................................................................................................................... 32

Sharing Values Across Cascading Parameters ............................................................................................................................... 33

Requiring a Value for a Dynamic Parameter .................................................................................................................................. 34

Forcing Users to Select from the List of Values (No Direct Edit) ................................................................................................. 34

AUTO-REFRESH REPORTS .............................................................................................................................................................. 35

AUTO_REFRESH COMMAND LINE ARGUMENT .................................................................................................................................... 36

SAVED DATA AUTO REFRESH .............................................................................................................................................................. 36

SPECIFYING PARAMETERS WHEN USING SAVED DATA AUTO REFRESH .............................................................................................. 36

AUTO_PAGE_AND_REFRESH ............................................................................................................................................................... 37

VIEWMODE (REMOVE TOOLBAR/STATUS BAR/TITLEBAR) ................................................................................................................. 37

CYCLING THROUGH SEVERAL AUTO-REFRESHED REPORTS ................................................................................................................ 38

CLICK TO SET FORMULA VALUE (VIDEO DEMO) ................................................................................................................... 39

CLICK TO SET ANOTHER FORMULA TO CLICKED FORMULA VALUE .................................................................................................... 39

CLICK TO SET ANOTHER FORMULA TO CLICKED FORMULA NAME ...................................................................................................... 39

CLICK COLUMN HEADERS TO RE-SORT THE REPORT .......................................................................................................................... 40

CLICK TO SHOW HTML TOOLTIP (VIDEO DEMO) .................................................................................................................. 40

IN-PLACE DRILL-DOWN (VIDEO DEMO) .................................................................................................................................... 41

CONVERTING SECTION DOUBLE-CLICK TO IN-PLACE DRILL-DOWN ................................................................................................... 43

DYNAMIC GROUPING (GROUP SWAP EXPERT) (VIDEO DEMO) ......................................................................................... 44

OPTIONAL TECHNIQUE FOR GAINING FORMULA ACCESS TO THE DYNAMIC GROUPING: ..................................................................... 46

CHANGE LAYOUT & CONTENT WHEN PRINTING THE REPORT ........................................................................................ 47

DATA GRID ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 48

EXAMPLE ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 48

WHAT DATA IS INCLUDED? ................................................................................................................................................................. 50

DISABLING THE DATA GRID FUNCTIONALITY ...................................................................................................................................... 50

EXPORTING/COPYING THE DATA ......................................................................................................................................................... 50

SAVING/RESTORING GRID LAYOUTS ................................................................................................................................................... 50

DATA VISUALIZER ............................................................................................................................................................................ 51

ADDING HIERARCHIES ......................................................................................................................................................................... 54

AUTOMATED EXPORTING .................................................................................................................................................................... 55

REPORT INSPECTION & DOCUMENTATION TOOLS .............................................................................................................. 56

REPORT INSPECTOR ............................................................................................................................................................................. 56

REPORT DOCUMENTATION .................................................................................................................................................................. 57

LAUNCHING REPORTS & COMMAND LINE API ....................................................................................................................... 58

LAUNCH REPORTS FROM FILE EXPLORER ............................................................................................................................................ 58

GENERATE DESKTOP SHORTCUTS TO LAUNCH REPORTS ..................................................................................................................... 59

LAUNCH REPORTS FROM COMMAND LINES ......................................................................................................................................... 60

Examples: ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 60

Handling Saved Data ...................................................................................................................................................................... 60

CALL DATALINK VIEWER FROM ANOTHER APPLICATION ................................................................................................................... 61

VIEWMODE (REMOVE TOOLBAR/STATUS BAR/TITLEBAR) ................................................................................................................. 62

REFERRING TO SAVED ENCRYPTED PASSWORDS ................................................................................................................................. 63

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS FOR PARAMETER VALUES (OLD APPROACH) ........................................................................................ 64

Range and Multi-Value Parameters ................................................................................................................................................ 64

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS FOR PARAMETER VALUES (NEW APPROACH) ...................................................................................... 65

Specifying Subreport Parameter Values ......................................................................................................................................... 65

generating a command line with parameters .................................................................................................................................. 65

Optional Parameters with No Value ............................................................................................................................................... 66

Null Values ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 66

Ignoring Saved Parameter Values .................................................................................................................................................. 66

Date Constants................................................................................................................................................................................ 67

Custom Calendars .......................................................................................................................................................................... 69

Adjusting Data Constants for Day of Week ................................................................................................................................... 70

Number Constants .......................................................................................................................................................................... 71

ARGUMENT FOR USING SAVED DATA .................................................................................................................................................. 72

SPECIFYING PARAMETERS WHEN USING SAVED DATA ....................................................................................................................... 72

ARGUMENT FOR SETTING FORMULA EXPRESSIONS ............................................................................................................................. 72

ARGUMENT TO SET EXTRA RECORD SELECTION LOGIC ...................................................................................................................... 73

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS FOR TRIGGERING/SCHEDULING EXPORTING......................................................................................... 74

Interactive Use................................................................................................................................................................................ 74

Fully-Automated Exporting ........................................................................................................................................................... 74

Scheduling Exporting ..................................................................................................................................................................... 74

FULLY-AUTOMATED EXPORTING OF DATA VISUALIZATIONS .............................................................................................................. 75

To an Image File ............................................................................................................................................................................ 75

To Excel File .................................................................................................................................................................................. 76

Follow-Up Processing in Visual CUT ............................................................................................................................................ 76

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS FOR TRIGGERING/SCHEDULING PRINTING ............................................................................................ 77

Specifying Number of Copies ........................................................................................................................................................ 78

Setting Custom Text for Each Print Copy ...................................................................................................................................... 78

Scheduling Printing ........................................................................................................................................................................ 79

Scheduling Printing for Multiple Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 79

ARGUMENT FOR PRINTER SETUP ......................................................................................................................................................... 79

ARGUMENT FOR DOCUMENTING FILE LOCATIONS AND REPORT PARAMETERS ................................................................................... 80

LAUNCH A REPORT WHILE VIEWING ANOTHER REPORT ...................................................................................................................... 81

Current Report Path Token ............................................................................................................................................................. 82

Create a User Interface for Selecting and Launching Reports ........................................................................................................ 82

Embed Input from The User in the Command Line Call for Another Report ................................................................................ 83

LAUNCH ANOTHER APPLICATION AND PASS PARAMETERS TO IT ......................................................................................................... 84

LAUNCH AN APPLICATION BEFORE REPORT RUNS .............................................................................................................................. 85

Optional Arguments and Working Directory Elements ................................................................................................................. 85

LAUNCHING REPORTS IN A NEW WINDOW .......................................................................................................................................... 86

New Window On File Launch and/or On Double Click ................................................................................................................ 86

Right-Click the Grid and Select Preview Report (new Window) ................................................................................................... 86

Remove the Preview Tab from the Initial Window ........................................................................................................................ 87

DATABASE CHOICE FUNCTIONALITY ........................................................................................................................................ 88

CHANGING DATA SOURCE (SERVER/DATABASE) ................................................................................................................................ 88

SELECT ALTERNATIVE ODBC DATA SOURCES FOR THE SAME REPORT .............................................................................................. 89

RESTRICTING ODBC DSN CHOICES (DSN GROUPS)........................................................................................................................... 90

DSN Groups with Wildcards .......................................................................................................................................................... 90

FORCING LOGIN ................................................................................................................................................................................... 91

for DSN Group Members ............................................................................................................................................................... 91

For All Reports ............................................................................................................................................................................... 91

For Specified DSNs ........................................................................................................................................................................ 91

RESTRICTING ODBC DSN CHOICES (DATABASES WITHIN SERVER) ................................................................................................... 92

Facilitating Deployment ................................................................................................................................................................. 92

SPECIFY THE ODBC DSN .................................................................................................................................................................... 93

OVERRIDING THE DATABASE SPECIFIED IN THE REPORT OR ODBC DSN............................................................................................ 93

OVERRIDING THE TABLE LOCATION (ODBC) ...................................................................................................................................... 94

OVERRIDING THE XML FILE LOCATION .............................................................................................................................................. 94

STRIPPING TABLE QUALIFIERS WHEN CONNECTING TO A DIFFERENT DATABASE ............................................................................... 94

OVERRIDING THE SERVER IN NATIVE ORACLE CONNECTION .............................................................................................................. 95

SELECTING AN ALTERNATIVE SQL SERVER – OLE DB DATA SOURCE ............................................................................................... 95

FORCED LOGIN .................................................................................................................................................................................... 96

SELECTING FOLDER LOCATION FOR FOXPRO DBF FILES (MASTERBUILDER) .................................................................................... 97

CHANGING FOLDER LOCATION FOR ACCESS/EXCEL/PERVASIVE/PARADOX/ACT! FILES .................................................................... 98

Using Command Line Argument to Avoid Path Prompt ................................................................................................................ 98

CHANGING DATA SOURCE IN UDL FILES ............................................................................................................................................ 99

INTEGRATED AUTHENTICATION............................................................................................................................................... 100

INTEGRATED AUTHENTICATION ("REMEMBER ME") ......................................................................................................................... 100

SHARED MACHINE AUTHENTICATION................................................................................................................................................ 101

SHARED SECRET PASSWORD WITH WINDOWS USER IDS ................................................................................................................... 102

INTEGRATED AUTHENTICATION FOR INTERACTIVE ODBC DSN CHANGES ....................................................................................... 102

LANGUAGE TRANSLATION / LOCALIZATION ........................................................................................................................ 103

TRANSLATE BUTTON IN PREVIEW ...................................................................................................................................................... 103

PROTECT REPORT DESIGNS WITH RPZ FILES ...................................................................................................................... 104

MAKE_RPZ COMMAND LINE ARGUMENT .......................................................................................................................................... 105

CREATE RPZ FILES WITH EXPIRATION AND LICENSE KEYS ................................................................................................................ 106

Make_Rpz2 Command Line Argument ....................................................................................................................................... 107

MONITORING DATALINK VIEWER USE ................................................................................................................................... 108

RECORD PROCESSING TO AN ODBC DATABASE ................................................................................................................................ 108

Typical Use .................................................................................................................................................................................. 108

MS Access Data Structure ............................................................................................................................................................ 109

Oracle Data Structure ................................................................................................................................................................... 111

"Oracle" mode (Bind Variables)................................................................................................................................................... 112

How to Start Logging? ................................................................................................................................................................. 112

RECORD REPORT USE IN A TEXT LOG FILE ........................................................................................................................................ 113

SETTINGS & OPTIONS .................................................................................................................................................................... 114

CUSTOMIZING THE GRID LAYOUT ...................................................................................................................................................... 114

CUSTOMIZING THE GRID STYLE ......................................................................................................................................................... 115

DISABLING REPORT PREVIEW BUTTONS ............................................................................................................................................ 116

DISABLING DATALINK VIEWER BUTTONS ......................................................................................................................................... 117

DISABLING LOGIN DIALOG MEMORY OF LAST USER ID .................................................................................................................... 117

EXCLUDE EXPORT FORMATS ............................................................................................................................................................. 117

ADD YOUR COMPANY INFO TO THE ABOUT DIALOG .......................................................................................................................... 118

FILE LOCATION & REDIRECT LOGIC .................................................................................................................................................. 119

Checking and Navigating to Key File Locations .......................................................................................................................... 120

Citrix and File Location Functionality ......................................................................................................................................... 121

Setting Integrated Authentication for Multiple Machines (Citrix Farm) ...................................................................................... 122

Enforcing Settings in a Master DataLink_Viewer.ini File ........................................................................................................... 123

Updating DataLink_Viewer.ini via a Delta File ........................................................................................................................... 124

EXPLICIT ASSIGNMENT OF DEFAULT PRINTER ................................................................................................................................... 124

DEFAULT PREVIEW-ONLY WINDOW SETTINGS .................................................................................................................................. 125

SETTING ENCRYPTED PASSWORD ENTRIES ........................................................................................................................................ 125

KNOWN ISSUES AND LIMITATION ............................................................................................................................................. 126

UPDATE HISTORY ............................................................................................................................................................................ 127

VERSION 6.9.4002: ENTERED TESTING AUGUST 25, 2024 ................................................................................................................. 127

New Features ................................................................................................................................................................................ 127

Fixes ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 127

VERSION 6.9.1001: RELEASED SEPTEMBER 4, 2023 ........................................................................................................................... 128

New Features ................................................................................................................................................................................ 128

Fixes ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 129

VERSION 6.7.1001 [SP23]: RELEASED JUNE 30, 2018........................................................................................................................ 131

Fixes ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 132

VERSION 6.6.1001 [SP19]: RELEASED FEBRUARY 27, 2017 .............................................................................................................. 134

Fixes ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 135

VERSION 6.5.1001 [SP15]: NOVEMBER 25, 2015 ............................................................................................................................... 137

Fixes ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 138

VERSION 6.4.1003 [SP12]: NOVEMBER 29, 2014 ............................................................................................................................... 139

New Features ................................................................................................................................................................................ 139

Fixes ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 140

VERSION 6.3.1047 [SP7]: NOVEMBER 28, 2013 ................................................................................................................................ 141

Introduction

DataLink Viewer 2011 uses the Crystal 2016 runtime components and allows you to run Crystal reports from

version 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 10, XI, 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2016.

While the creation and design changes of Crystal reports (.rpt files) require the full Crystal Reports software,

you can let other PCs view, print, and export these reports by installing DataLink Viewer.

DataLink Viewer provides several useful features such as command line API (allowing you to schedule

printing and trigger viewing of reports from your application, task scheduler, batch files, or desktop shortcuts),

an intuitive Grid for organizing and selecting previously opened reports, reduced login frustrations via

integrated authentication, choice of alternative data sources, selective parameter refresh, dynamic and

cascading parameters even for versions prior to XI, auto-refresh, user-based row-level security, and more...

Main Benefits:

1. Refresh, View, Print, and Export Crystal reports

2. Schedule Report Exports or Printouts (using the free windows task scheduler)

3. Uses Crystal 2011 runtime components providing full support for new features such as

interactive parameter panel and advanced CrossTabs.

4. Group Swap Expert allowing allowing group changes on the fly

5. Data Visualizer adding OLAP and advanced charting capabilities

6. Intuitive Customizable Grid Interface to classify, organizing, and launch Reports.

7. Dynamic & Cascading Parameters (even for pre-XI reports):

 Select Live Parameter Values from linked Crystal reports that act as dynamic

pick list data sources or default to using Crystal’s static parameters.

 Restrict Live Parameter Values based on choices in a prior live parameter.

 Remember Values last used for each Live Prompt allowing the user to

accept or replace those values.

8. Command Line Interface: for launching reports from other programs and from other Crystal

reports.

9. Protect & Hide Report Designs by converting your rpt files into rpz files. Your users can run the

resulting rpz files in DataLink Viewer, but cannot view or modify them in Crystal. To completely

protect report designs, DataLink Viewer blocks exporting of rpz files to rpt or report definition files.

10. Filter Data based on User Login.

11. Export & Print Reports Directly (without previewing)

12. Remember Last Export Format and File Name for Each Report.

13. Auto-Refresh Reports

14. React to User Actions in Useful Ways (requires special formulas):

 In-Place Drill Down (https://youtu.be/3CmayJMAImE)

 Click to Group/Sort (https://youtu.be/oGbzdY1D7ZQ)

 Click to set a formula value

 Click to prompt for and pass a value to another process

15. Selective Parameter Refresh: When refreshing a report, users can select which parameters they

wish to change. This avoids tedious re-entering of values for the other parameters. The parameter

refresh choices are stored for each report and can be easily reused or changed at a later session.

16. Integrated Authentication: use Windows User Login and Machine ID to remove the need to

repeatedly authenticate to data sources.

17. Reduced Memory Requirements compared to Crystal and other viewers.

18. Select Different Data Sources for the same Report.

Install / Remove

The exe file you downloaded self-extracts to 2 files: a setup.exe and an msi file.

First, it will prompt you to provide a password:

It automatically triggers the setup.exe to check for and download/install any missing prerequisites such as

the .NET framework and the Crystal 2011 runtime components.

It then triggers the msi install of DataLink Viewer itself.

DataLink Viewer 2011 32-bit is installed under the "Program Files (x86)\Millet Software:

Avoid Installation on a Crystal Enterprise Machine:

Due to the risk of rare runtime component conflicts, you should avoid installing the software on a machine

that also runs Crystal Enterprise.

SPEEDING UP VIA NATIVE IMAGE

The application folder provides 3 batch files for managing a native image of DataLink Viewer:

NGEN_4DLV_Install.cmd to install a native image of the app for faster startup

NGEN_4DLV_Check_Status.cmd to check status of the native image

NGEN_4DLV_Uninstall.cmd to uninstall the native image

By installing a native image of the application, you avoid Just-In-Time compilation each time the

application starts.

You need Admin privileges to run these batch files. Depending on the operating system, you may need to

right-click and 'Run as Administrator'.

An easier method to generate/remove the native image is provided by a button in the Launch tab of the

Options dialog. This avoids the need to navigate and manually launch the batch files described above.

Typical Use Scenarios

In a typical scenario, you would select a report to view by double-clicking it. After prompting you for parameter

values, the viewer would display the report with all the preview functionality available within Crystal

(drilldown, tree view, export, zoom, print).

The report can also be invoked from a desktop shortcut, a batch file, or another program using command line

options.

Select Report Window

After starting DataLink Viewer, you would see a screen similar to this:

Use the button to browse for and open a report for the first time. Previously selected reports are listed

in a grid and can be launched by double-clicking or by Right-Clicking or by selecting and clicking the

Preview Tab.

Use the button to reload a report (if changed and saved in Crystal).

Use the button to access a dialog for setting various options. These options are maintained in the

file DataLink_Viewer.ini

Use the button to open this User Manual inside MS Word.

Use the button to compress & encrypt RPT files into RPZ files. This allows you to protect and

hide your reports designs (either as an intellectual property issue or as a tech support issue). See the section

on "Protecting Report Designs with rpz Files" for more detail on this feature.

Use the button to access a dialog with Version (and system) information. That dialog also has a

button that allows you to check for software patches on my web site and install them online. This patching

mechanism is very fast since the patches are typically very small (contain only file changes).

Use the button to exit DataLink Viewer.

RIGHT-CLICK REPORT ROW MENU

if you Right-Click a report row in the grid, the following popup menu is displayed:

To delete a report from the grid (but not from the hard drive) select ‘Delete Row’ from the popup menu or

select the report row and hit Ctrl-Delete. The grid information in maintained in a plain text file

(ReportList.txt).

The other options in the popup menu allow you to launch a report to a new window, force a login dialog

(allowing a choice of a different data source), and printing or exporting the report without previewing it.

When adding a report to the grid, DataLink Viewer populates the title and subject columns automatically if it

finds that information in the summary information for the report.

You set that information for the .rpt file in Crystal (under the file, Summary Information menu).

Preview Report Window:

The preview window looks similar to the preview window in Crystal except for a few enhancements:

Export Button (remember export format/file)

The export button "remembers" the last export format and file destination you used for each report. If this is the

first time you are exporting a report, the export format and folder will default to those used in the last export.

AFTER EXPORT ACTION

DataLink Viewer also prompts for (and remembers) the user choice of after-export action:

This can also be controlled via a global setting under the Options dialog:

EMAIL EXPORTED FILE

If you have Outlook as an email client, you can instruct DataLink Viewer to start a new email message and

attach the exported file by adding the following sections to the DataLink_Viewer.ini file (located from the

Version info button).

First, indicate what reports are targets for email-after-export action using this section:

[Email_After_Targets]

Reports=||Order_Confirmation.rpt||New_Application.rpt||

In the example above, 2 reports will be targeted for emailing via Outlook after they are exported.

Use ||ALL|| if you wish to target all reports.

Then, for each target in the Reports entry above, create an ini section to specify email options. For example:

[Email_After_Order_Confirmation.rpt]

Subject=Report Attached

Message=The attached pdf shows your order confirmation.

From[email protected]

To[email protected]

CC[email protected]

Here is an example of an Outlook message popped by DataLink Viewer after an export of a targeted file:

3 PRINT BUTTONS

Instead of a single print button, DataLink Viewer gives you:

1. a regular print button, which invokes a printer selection and setup dialog

2. a "Quick Print" button, which immediately sends the report to the default printer, or

3. a "Print Current Page" button, which immediately prints just the current page to the default printer.

REFRESH (AUTO-REFRESH) BUTTON

DataLink Viewer allows you to auto-refresh a report every N seconds and to selectively change the values of

only some parameters:

Interactive Parameter Button

Just like in Crystal, the interactive parameter panel allows you to change parameter values without refreshing

the whole report:

REPORT GRID HELP

If you hit F1 or Ctrl-F1 while on the Select Reports tab, the following Help window displays:

REPORT PREVIEW HELP

If you hit F1 or Ctrl-F1 while on the report Preview tab, the following Help window displays:

SELECTING A REPORT TO VIEW

To launch a report, you can:

1) Selecting that row and clicking the Preview Tab, or

2) Right-Clicking that row and selecting Preview, or

3) Double-clicking the row.

Note: the sample reports use the Extreme Sample Database. If you don't have that installed, you can elect to not

refresh the data.

Before displaying the report, DataLink Viewer would prompt you for any report parameters and logon

information required by the report. If the report was saved with data, the viewer would ask you if you want

to refresh the data or use the data saved with the report (in which case you would not be prompted for parameter

values).

Copying Object/Text From The Report

OBJECT COPY (CTRL-C)

Ctrl-C copies the selected object. For example, you can copy a chart, a map, an image, or text with

formatting into an email message.

TEXT COPY (ALT-C)

After a field/formula is clicked, pressing Alt-C copies the value of the field as plain text to the clipboard. You

can then paste that text (using Ctrl-V or right-click editing menu to a target of your choice.

TOOLTIP COPY (CTRL-SHIFT-C)

After a field/formula is clicked, pressing Ctrl-Shift-C copies the value of the tooltip of that field as text to the

clipboard. In Crystal, the tooltip can be set via a dynamic expression…

Use Scenario:

Imagine you have Customer Support Representatives (CSRs) who use Crystal reports to view order history

information for calling customers. Frequently, these CSRs need to grab order history information for a specific

order within the report, and email that information to the customer. You don’t want to display all that history

information inside a single field on the report because of formatting and space utilization considerations. But

you can accumulate that content using Crystal formula logic into the tooltip expression for a field or a formula.

After selecting that field or formula, the CSR can simply hit Ctrl-Shift-C to copy the content of the tooltip.

They can then paste it to an email message using Ctrl-V.

Parameter Functionality

Remember Parameter Values from a previous Session (video demo)

If you refresh or reload the same report, the values you specified last time for each parameter are already

selected, allowing you to accept or replace them.

Selective Parameter Refresh (video demo)

When refreshing a report that has parameters, a special dialog allows users to select which parameters they wish

to change. These choices are stored for each report for reuse/ change at a later session. Unlinked subreport

parameters participate in this process and are listed as [subreport name] -> Parameter Name.

Notes:

 To remove linked subreport stored procedure parameters from this dialog, the parameter name must

contain "_Linked".

Initializing Parameter Values with Date Expressions (video demo)

If a Date or DateTime parameter name ends with a _Set2_ followed by a date expression (using date constants),

DataLink Viewer initializes the parameter value accordingly. This means that a dynamic saved value for the

parameter is generated on the fly to match the date expression relative to the current date.

Here is a link to a sample report.

For detail about available date expressions, see the user manual section on Date Constants.

This functionality has two key benefits:

1. It allows users to avoid tedious entry of parameter values.

2. It can improve report performance compared to using formula logic to restrict record selection. This is

because formula logic might force Crystal to execute filtering locally, instead of passing the selection

logic to the database server via the SQL WHERE clause.

For example, the 3 date parameters shown in the image below get initialized by DataLink Viewer to

a) yesterday, b) today, and c) a date range ranging from start of the month to today, inclusive of the end points.

DataLink Viewer would then show the following dialog box allowing the user to either accept or change these

initial values (the displayed dates are relative to a current date of Sep 16, 2018):

Save and Reuse Named Parameter Sets (video demo)

If you click the refresh button for a report that has at least 8 parameters (Options dialog allows you to change

that number), a Save button becomes visible in the following dialog:

If you click Save, the following dialog allows you to save the current parameters value set to

DataLink_Viewer.ini under a unique name for this report.

The next time you load this report, you would get a dialog that allows you select and reuse any of the saved

named parameter sets for this report:

Double-clicking any of the entries (or selecting an entry and clicking the OK button) would launch a dialog

allowing you to reuse that set of saved parameter values or selectively change some of these saved parameter

values.

This functionality was designed to address scenarios where reports with many parameters are used in one of

several parameter patterns. By saving and naming these patterns, the user can reuse them.

Note: if you are a report developer, you can deliver these saved parameter patterns to a user machine by copying

the [Named_Parameter_Sets] section in your DataLink_Viewer.ini file to the user’s DataLink_Viewer.ini file.

Click to Change a Parameter Value (video demo)

If you place a main report parameter on the report layout, when a DataLink Viewer user clicks on that

parameter, DataLink Viewer prompts the user for just that parameter. That allows your users to simply and

intuitively select just one parameter to refresh. Note: avoid special characters in the parameter name.

TOGGLING BETWEEN 2 PARAMETER VALUES

If a user clicks on a parameter that has exactly 2 default values (no custom values allowed), DataLink Viewer

toggles the value of that parameter to the other value. This provides many useful behaviors. The sample report

demonstrates toggling between viewing Profit or Revenue by simply clicking on the {?Metric} parameter.

Another parameter allows toggling between expanding all top nodes or manually selecting which nodes to

expand.

SPECIAL DATE AND DATETIME PARAMETER DIALOGS

If a user clicks on a single-value Date or DateTime parameter, DataLink Viewer presents an enhanced date

entry/selection dialog. To quickly select a date, double-click a date on the calendar. Once the calendar is

selected, Page Up/Down changes the month and Ctrl+(Page Up/Down) changes the year:

INPUT BOX DIALOG

If a user clicks on a single-value parameter with less than 2 default values, where custom values are allowed,

DataLink Viewer presents a simple InputBox dialog, making it easier and faster for the user to change the

parameter value.

LISTBOX DIALOG

If a user clicks on a single-value parameter more than 2 default values, where custom values are not allowed,

DataLink Viewer presents a multi-row dialog, with one row for each default value designed for that parameter.

This allows the user to quickly change the value for that parameter. To quickly select an item, the user can

simply double-click it.

To quickly locate an item in the list, the user can type the first few characters and the list will automatically

scroll to the first item starting with these characters. To quickly select an item, the user can simply double-click

it.

CHANGING A PARAMETER BY CLICKING ON A RELATED FORMULA

In some cases, you may wish to invoke a parameter change by clicking on a related formula. For example, you

may wish to embed the parameter inside some text, or perhaps the parameter may have an empty value, making

it impossible to click on the parameter object by itself.

To use a formula as a proxy for clicking on a parameter, the formula name must start with

"DLV_Param_Click:" followed by the parameter name you wish to change when a user clicks on that formula.

For example, "DLV_Param_Click:Customers"

The formula itself may display any values you wish. For example, you may concatenate static text with the

parameter value, or you may wish to return "No Value" if the parameter value is null, and a nicely formatted

value if the parameter is not null.

Load ini Values into Parameters

Specially named parameters get loaded automatically from DataLink_Viewer.ini file entries. For example, you

may use this with parameters that change only once per quarter. Another case could be a situation where

you develop and sell reports (probably .rpt files converted to .rpz files) to clients in a vertical market. These

reports are designed to work against a known database structure, but each client may need to customize the

reports with text elements, conditional formatting, or record selection criteria without changing the

report design. Or perhaps you wish to restrict use of your reports to only paying customers by providing a

license code that must match (using secret logic) the company name in the customer’s database.

Instructions:

First, add to the [Options] section in DataLink_Viewer.ini (in the application folder) an entry with a key name

(Company) and value (Millet Software) of your choice. For example:

[Options]

…

Company=Millet Software

Then, add a String Single-Value parameter named "DLV_INI_Option_KeyName" to the report. DataLink

Viewer automatically sets the value of such parameters to the value found for the Key Name under the

[Options] section of DataLink_Viewer.ini. So, in the case above,

the parameter value of DLV_INI_Option_Company would be set to "Millet Software".

Notes:

 Within DLV, the user never gets prompted for the value of such parameters.

 If a matching key name can’t be found, the parameter gets the value of:

"Failed INI Lookup"

 You can have as many parameters like this as you wish, each with a different key name.

 To pass such parameters to subreports, create a formula in the main report that simply returns the value

of the parameter. Then, pass that formula as a link to the subreport.

 The ini file used by this process is always the MASTER ini file (the one in the DataLink Viewer

application folder), even if you redirect to a DataLink_Viewer.ini at a different location. This allows you

to enforce this type of parameters from a centralized location.

Securing Reports against Unauthorized Use

If you wish to secure your reports against unauthorized use, you can provide authorized users a License Key

string for the ini entry. Within the report (later distributed to clients as an .rpz file) you design a record selection

criterion that returns true only if the license key matches the company name in the database. As a simple

example, you could check the number of characters in the license key is equal to the length of the actual

company name (in the database) plus the number of R’s in that company’s name.

If you don’t have access to the company name in the database, or if you wish to issue per-machine licenses, use

the technique described in the next section.

Load Machine/Company/Report Information into Parameters

DLV_MACHINE_NAME

If a report has a single-value string parameter called DLV_Machine_Name, DataLink Viewer automatically

sets the value of such a parameter to the Windows Machine Name on which DataLink Viewer is running.

DLV_REGISTERED_COMPANY

If a report has a single-value string parameter called DLV_Registered_Company,

DataLink Viewer automatically sets the value of such a parameter to the Company Name specified when the

Windows operating system was installed..

In conjunction with the ability to load ini values into report parameters, this functionality allows report

developers to distribute rpz files and restrict their use to only those where a license code matches the company

to which Windows is registered.

DLV_HD_SERIAL_N

If a report has a single-value string parameter called DLV_HD_Serial_N,

DataLink Viewer automatically sets the value of such a parameter to the serial number of the current hard drive.

In conjunction with the ability to load ini values into report parameters, this functionality allows report

developers to distribute rpz files and restrict their use to only those where a license code matches the machine

on which the report is running.

DLV_RPT_PATH

If a report has a single-value string parameter called DLV_Rpt_Path, DataLink Viewer automatically sets the

value of such a parameter to the path to the rpt or rpz file. This is particularly useful in the case of rpz files.

Control Data Access according to PC Login

Assume you have several Sales Reps who need access only to their own sales information. DataLink Viewer

can limit the data shown in a report according to who is logged in to the PC.

To achieve this functionality you need two elements:

1. The report must have a String parameter named "DLV_User_ID" as shown below.

DataLink Viewer automatically sets the value of such a parameter to the User ID who is currently logged in

to the PC.

2. The record selection formula must include a condition that restricts the data

according to the User ID. In most cases, this would be achieved by creating a new table in your database

(or adding a new column to an existing table). For example, a new column in the Sales_Rep table (or a new

table) can associate each Sales_Rep_ID with his/her User ID.

The record selection formula would include a condition such as: {Sales_Rep.User_ID}={?DLV_User_ID}

This would ensure that as each Sales Rep logs into their PC, DataLink Viewer will show them only the sales

records associated with their own Sales_Rep_ID.

Note: using a table, you can use multiple records to map the same User_ID to multiple areas of responsibility

(Customer_IDs, Product_IDs, Region_IDs):

This allows you to give a single user (for example, a regional manager who should be able to see information

for all her Sales Reps) permissions to view information that is related to more than one entity.

In the table example above, ixm7 is allowed to view sales information for all three products, while ido is

allowed to view sales information only for Visual CUT.

Dynamic & Cascading Parameters (video demo)

This section explains the special dynamic & cascading parameter functionality provided by DataLink Viewer.

When a parameter name matches a report name, DataLink Viewer uses that report as a parameter

dialog.

The first parameter in our sample report was named (by the report developer) as:

"Prompt_Order_Year.rpt"

DataLink Viewer detects that such a report exists and "links" to that report as the basis for prompting the user.

Note: if a prompting report doesn’t exist, the regular parameter dialog provided by Crystal will be used.

DataLink Viewer always tries to locate and use Live Prompts before using the regular Crystal prompts.

RESPOND TO SINGLE-VALUE LIVE PROMPTS

DataLink Viewer detects that the Prompt_Order_Year.rpt parameter was designed to accept only a single

value, and hence it presents you with the linked report inside a dialog that allows you to click and select only a

single value:

Note that by linking to a live prompt report, the designer of the report doesn’t have to change the report design

every year in order to add one more entry to the default value list of the static parameter. Instead, the prompt

report dynamically presents all available years in the database.

LINK BACK IN A HIERARCHY OF LIVE PROMPTS

Once you select 2004 and hit OK, the viewer detects a second parameter in our sample report:

"Prompt_Products.rpt"

Again, DataLink Viewer detects that such a report exists and links to that report as the basis for prompting the

User.

However, before presenting this report to the user, the viewer detects that the Prompt_Products.rpt itself is

designed with a parameter of its own:

"Prompt_Product_Types.rpt"

What we have here is a hierarchy of links whereby the values selected by the user in response to the

Prompt_Product_Types.rpt parameter restrict the values available for selection in the Prompt_Products.rpt

parameter:

DataLink Viewer always starts from the bottom of the hierarchy for each parameter!

Hence, we are going to be prompted first for Product Types before we select Products within those Product

Types.

RESPOND TO MULTI-VALUE LIVE PROMPTS

DataLink Viewer detects that the parameter called Prompt_Product_Types.rpt was designed to accept

multiple values, and hence it presents you with the linked report Prompt_Product_Types.rpt inside a dialog

that allows you to click and select multiple values:

After clicking on Competition and Helmets to select those Product Types, click OK to progress to the Products

selection within those Product Types.

MANAGE DISPLAY & DATA VALUES FOR LIVE PARAMETERS

In this particular situation, the Product Type Name is used for both display value (what gets shown to the user

in the list of available values) as well as data value (what gets passed into Crystal as the parameter value). As

demonstrated in the following step, DataLink Viewer allows you to present the user with meaningful product

names as display values while passing Product IDs as the actual parameter data value.

Again, DataLink Viewer detects that the parameter called Prompt_Products.rpt was designed to accept

multiple values, and hence it presents you with the linked report Prompt_Products.rpt inside a dialog that

allows you to click and select multiple values. Note that only Products within the Selected Product Types

(in the previous step) are available for selection.

This demonstrates the power of cascading dynamic parameters:

While you can click on any field/formula to add its text to the selection list, it’s good practice to use color, font,

and box effects to highlight the column you intend the user to click..

The viewer always uses what you click on as the Display Value. However, if that field has a tooltip, the text of

that tooltip is used as the parameter Data Value. After clicking on some product names, move your cursor over

these items in the list of selected Display Values. Notice that a popup text reflects the underlying Data Value

(Product IDs for each product).

You can resize the dynamic parameter dialogs, select a zoom level, and turn the group tree on or off for each

dynamic report. DataLink Viewer remembers these settings and will apply them the next time the same

dynamic parameter dialog (for the same dynamic parameter report) is loaded.

VIEW THE REPORT

When you click OK, DataLink Viewer uses the selected values for both the "Prompt_Year.rpt" and

"Prompt_Products.rpt" parameters to display the requested report:

Dynamic and Cascading Parameters (Developer Notes)

DataLink Viewer can be used to run existing Crystal reports without any design changes.

This section reviews how report designers can activate the extra functionality of linking to live prompt reports.

NAMING PARAMETERS

If you want to link a parameter to a live prompt report, you need to name the parameter as the report name. In

our sample report, the live prompt reports and parameter names were:

"Prompt_Order_Year.rpt" and "Prompt_Products.rpt":

DESIGNING LIVE PROMPT REPORTS

The reports acting as live prompts should be placed in the same directory as the report to be viewed or in

the DataLink_Viewer directory.

These reports should contain at least one formula with the word "parameter" within its name. Formulas

named in such a manner can be clicked and selected within the prompt viewer.

You can place a formula on the report to let the user select a meaningful Display Value

(e.g., "@Product_Name"). If you give that field or formula a tooltip text or expression, that value would be used

as the parameter Data value.

IMPLEMENTING A "SELECT ALL" OPTION

If you run the report again and scroll to the bottom of the live Product Type selection prompt,

you would notice that you can select the "All Product Types" option:

This was implemented by adding a formula to the report footer with a static text value of "All Product Types".

The desired effect is obtained by specifying the following record selection criterion in Prompt_Products.rpt:

{Product_Type.Product Type Name} in {?Prompt_Product_Types.rpt}

"All Product Types" in {?Prompt_Product_Types.rpt}

SHARING VALUES ACROSS CASCADING PARAMETERS

Parameter values are automatically reused if the same Parameter name is used more than once in

the chain of cascading parameters.

The diagram below shows a situation where Prompt_Order_Year.rpt is used to first ask the user to

specify which orders should be shown in the report. That same parameter is then also used to limit the

dynamic list of products (Prompt_Products.rpt) such that only products that actually sold in that year

are available for selection.

DataLink Viewer now reuses the year specified by the user the first time Prompt_Order_Year.rpt is

invoked to avoid asking the user the same question twice.

To disable sharing parameter values from prior answers, open DataLink_Viewer.ini and change

the following entry from TRUE to FALSE:

[Options]

DataLink_Parameters_Share_Prior_Answers=TRUE

REQUIRING A VALUE FOR A DYNAMIC PARAMETER

This can be achieved by following these guidelines:

1. Add a string formula with the name of: {@DLV_PARAMETER_REQUIRED} to the Report Footer (of

the dynamic parameter report, not the main report).

2. The formula must return a non-blank string if you wish to enforce a required value for the parameter.

3. If the string returned by the formula is longer than 10 characters it would be used as the text of the message

box in cases where the user clicks OK without specifying a value for the parameter. Otherwise, a standard

message appears.

4. The formula, and even the report footer section as a whole can be suppressed.

5. You must place the "Page N of M" special field in the Page footer of the dynamic parameter report (even if

that field or the page footer as a whole are suppressed.

FORCING USERS TO SELECT FROM THE LIST OF VALUES (NO DIRECT EDIT)

By default, dynamic parameter dialogs for single-value parameters allow the user to enter a value directly

instead of clicking on the displayed list. You can force the user to select from the list displayed by the

dynamic parameter report under two scenarios:

1. You include the text ‘NoEdit’ in the parameter name.

- or-

2. The user double-clicked an item in the dynamic parameter report and that item has an associated data value

(tooltip expression). If the option to remember dynamic parameter values is turned on, from that point on that

parameter will force the user to select from the list.

Auto-Refresh Reports

When clicking the Refresh button, you can specify that the report should automatically refresh every N seconds.

As shown in the following dialog, when a report has parameters, the Auto-Refresh option is enabled only when

you elect to reuse the current parameter values:

When a report doesn't have parameters, the dialog is simpler and you can always elect to enable auto-refresh:

The auto-refresh process stops when you click the Refresh button again or when you select another report.

When auto-refreshing, a decrementing progress bar at the bottom of the page reflects the % of the refresh

interval remaining until the next refresh:

A click on that progress bar pauses/resumes the auto-refresh process.

If a user is on a drill-down tab, auto-refresh is placed on hold. When the user closes the drill-down tab or moves

back to the main report tab, auto-refresh resumes.

Auto_Refresh Command Line Argument

You can also trigger auto-refresh by using an "Auto_Refresh" argument when invoking a report from a

command line. Here’s how you would trigger a viewing of a report and auto-refreshing it every 5 minutes (300

seconds):

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v

"C:\temp\Report.rpt" "Auto_Refresh:300"

__________________________________________________________________

Saved Data Auto Refresh

Imagine a case where a huge report takes 30 minutes to run and 10 users wish to monitor the data in that report

by auto-refreshing it. Instead of each of the 10 users waiting for the report to retrieve data on their PC, you can

schedule the report (for example, using Visual CUT) to export to a Crystal Report format. The resulting rpt

file has all the information as Saved Data inside the rpt file.

The 10 users can then open the exported rpt in DataLink Viewer and elect to not refresh the saved data. If the

report was launched with an Auto_Refresh command line argument, the users can elect to keep loading the

saved data on each refresh cycle, allowing the latest exported data from Visual CUT to be reflected in the auto-

refreshed report within DataLink Viewer.

To tell DataLink Viewer to use saved data during Auto Refresh, use a command line like this:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v

"C:\temp\Report.rpt" "Auto_Refresh:600" "Auto_Refresh_Use_Saved_Data:True"

__________________________________________________________________

Specifying Parameters When Using Saved Data Auto Refresh

Some parameters don't participate in data selection. Such Non-Fetching parameters are typically used to control

how the data is displayed on the report (for example, grouping, sorting, and section suppressions). DataLink

Viewer allows you to specify values for such parameters when using saved data. For example:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v

"C:\temp\Report.rpt" "Auto_Refresh:600" "Auto_Refresh_Use_Saved_Data:True" "Parm1:Crew"

__________________________________________________________________

Auto_Page_and_Refresh

Using this command line argument, you can request the viewer to automatically advance to the next page every

N seconds. After getting to the last page, the viewer will next move to the first page and also refresh the report

data. The cycle then continues. Here’s how you would trigger the process with 20 seconds as the time

increment:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v

"C:\temp\Report.rpt" "Auto_Page_and_Refresh:20"

__________________________________________________________________

Note: to pause the auto-page & refresh process, double-click on the report -- Double-click again to resume.

ViewMode (Remove Toolbar/Status bar/TitleBar)

When you trigger a report from a command line using a –v (View Only window), you can also elect to remove

the toolbar/status bar/title bar in order to maximize the space available for the report itself.

The command line argument for controlling this behavior is "ViewMode" and it has these possible values:

…"ViewMode:NoStatusBar" - only the status bar at the bottom of the window is removed

…"ViewMode:NoToolBar - only the toolbar at the top of the window is removed

…"ViewMode:NoBars" - both the toolbar and the status bar are removed

…"ViewMode:NoBarsNoTitle" - toolbar, status bar, and window title are all removed

A typical scenario for using this option is in combination with the Auto_Refresh command line argument. For

example:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v

"C:\temp\Report.rpt" "Auto_Refresh:300" "ViewMode:NoBars"

__________________________________________________________________

Cycling Through Several Auto-Refreshed Reports

Assume you want your monitor to cycle through 2 different auto-refreshed reports every 15 seconds. You can

take advantage of the fact that as a report gets auto-refreshed its window becomes the active one. So, you can

trigger auto-refresh every 30 seconds for both reports, but separate the start times by 15 seconds.

Here’s how you can automate the whole process:

Step 1: Use notepad to create a batch file that can be called from within another batch file to delay processing

by a given number of second. Call it WAIT.bat

(if you’d like to understand the logic, see: http://malektips.com/dos0017.html):

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul

Step 2: Use notepad to create the following text file. Call it invis.vbs

(this allows us to call 1 report and progress to the next line in a batch file (no blocking) as well as avoid the ugly

DOS window):

CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """", 0, False

Step 3: Use notepad to create one batch file for each report to trigger its viewing and auto-refreshing. Here are

two batch files, one for a report with a parameter and one for a report without one:

Report_1.bat

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v "C:\DLV\Report_1.rpt" "Parm1:2004"

"Auto_Refresh:30"

Report_2.bat

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" -v "C:\DLV\Report_2.rpt" "Auto_Refresh:30"

Step 4: Use notepad to create a batch file, which silently calls the two reports, inserting a 15 seconds wait

between the calls. Double-click or schedule that batch file to start the processing:

wscript.exe "C:\DLV\invis.vbs" "C:\DLV\Report_1.bat"

CALL WAIT 15

wscript.exe "C:\DLV\invis.vbs" "C:\DLV\Report_2.bat"

Click to Set Formula Value (video demo)

DataLink Viewer reacts to user clicks on specially named formulas by setting the value of another formula.

Click to Set Another Formula to Clicked Formula Value

For example, if a user clicks on a formula called {@DLVSet_1:Sort1} that has as its string value the text

"Region" it will attempt to locate the {@Sort1} formula and set its string value to "Region". If, the user clicks

on another formula called {@DLVSet_2:Sort1} that has as its string value the text "Country" it will attempt

to locate the {@Sort1} formula and set its string value to "Country".

The name of the clicked formula has 4 parts:

1. DLVSet_ this is a constant that identifies the formula to DataLink Viewer as a click source.

2. Any number (not limited to a single digit) (1 or 2 in samples above). This allows for multiple formulas, each

with a different string value, to set the string value of the same target formula

3. a colon (:)

4. The name of the target formula (Sort1 in the examples above) whose string value would be set to the string

value of the clicked formula.

Note: avoid spaces and special characters (e.g. underscores) in the target formula names.

Click to Set Another Formula to Clicked Formula Name

Following the scenario in the section above, if the target formula name contains "ClickedFormulaName" its

value gets set to the name (rather than value) of the clicked formula.

If it contains "ClickedFormulaNameDrillDown", the click also triggers a DrillDown. This allows initiating a

drill-down while dynamically controlling visibility of elements in the drill-down. Make sure the group name

you are drilling on is not blank ("").

Click Column Headers to Re-Sort The Report

As a demonstration of what can be achieved with the "Click to Set a Formula Value" functionality, the sample

report (DLV_Column_Header_Sort_2011.rpt) reacts to clicks on column headers by resorting the report based

on the clicked column header. A short video demonstration is available at: https://youtu.be/QwyPQfQeY40

The four column headers are clickable formulas:

1. {@DLVSet_1:Sort1} (with a string value of "Customer Name")

2. {@DLVSet_2:Sort1} (with a string value of "Region")

3. {@DLVSet_3:Sort1} (with a string value of "Country")

4. {@DLVSet_4:Sort1} (with a string value of "Postal Code")

The target formula {@Sort1} starts with a design-time value of "Customer Name" and as its value gets changed

due to user clicks, the {@SortBy1}formula reacts by returning one of the 4 database columns (Customer Name,

Region, Country or Postal Code) . This in turn changes how the report groups are sorted.

Note: group rather than record sorting is used in this sample report because the Crystal runtime components

don't re-sort records unless the report data is refreshed from the database. The Group re-sort occurs all on the

client-side without hitting the database again.

Click to Show HTML Tooltip (video demo)

If the tooltip of a formula (or any other object!) begins with <HTML>, DLV assumes the tooltip contains rich

content that should be displayed in an independent window.

Crystal allows you to set the Tooltip property of any object to a complex expression, so you can easily

accumulate a lot of detail into nicely formatted HTML pages, including HTML tables. To see how Crystal

formulas can build an HTML table from report data, visit this video demo.

The key advantage of this technique is that in some cases, you want to display detail data side by side with the

main report. That is something that On-Demand Subreports or Drill-Downs typically can’t provide. You can

even click on several objects to open multiple HTML tooltip windows and arrange them side by side.

Notes:

 You can press Ctrl-P to print the content of any HTML tooltip window.

 DLV remembers the location & size of the last opened HTML tooltip window.

 If the tooltip HTML syntax includes a <Title>… </Title> tag, the tooltip window reflects that title.

 HTML Tooltip windows are automatically closed when you refresh or navigate away from the report

preview window. To automatically close the tooltip windows also on events such as drill-down, paging,

and parameter panel refresh, set the following entry in the DataLink_Viewer.ini file to TRUE:

[Options]

Close_HTML_Tooltips_On_Page_Events=True

In-Place Drill-Down (video demo)

Crystal's Drill-Down functionality is limited to opening the detail in a new tab. However, in many cases users

prefer to expand/collapse detail within the main report tab. By adding to the report a few formulas and using

them in the suppress expression of detail sections, DataLink Viewer allows you to achieve In-Place Drill-Down

functionality.

A report may initially preview with all details collapsed, like this:

The + "buttons" are actually a formula that return a plus or a minus sign. When the user clicks on the these

"buttons" the level-2 detail is revealed:

And when a + "button" (another formula) in level-2 is clicked, level-3 detail is revealed:

You are not limited to 1 drill-down path -- several branches can be expanded at the same time.

see video demo at: https://youtu.be/3CmayJMAImE

To learn how to create your own report with this functionality, open the sample report

DLV_Demonstration_12B.rpt and look at the comments and expressions in:

1. @DLV_Expand_Button_1 and @DLV_Expand_Button_2 formulas

2. @DLV_Current_Group_1 and @DLV_Current_Group_2 formulas

3. @DLV_Expanded_Group_List formula

4. Suppress expressions for the sections:

a. GH1b (acts as column headers for level 2) and GH2a

b. GH2b (acts as column headers for level 3) and GH3

The same approach can be extended to any number of group levels.

This functionality is enabled only in the main report view (not in Crystal's drill-down tabs).

Note: using my CUT Light UFL, you can "persist" to an ini file the information in

@DLV_Expanded_Group_List so that the report "remembers" its collapse/expanded state.

Converting Section Double-Click to In-Place Drill-Down

When you implement In-Place Drill-Down, as discussed above, you may wish to allow the user to trigger this

behavior by double-clicking anywhere in the section (rather than just by clicking the + / -

@DLV_Expand_Button_N formula placed in that section.

To override the default double-click behavior in Crystal (drill-down to a new tab) and divert the double-click

action to an In-Place Drill-Down, simply use all Upper Case when naming the button formula: for example

instead of

@DLV_Expand_Button_1

use

@DLV_EXPAND_BUTTON_1 .

Note: Verify that if you move the mouse cursor over the formula placed in the report section, the correct

upper/lower case is shown. If you already created the formula and you wish to change it to upper case, you may

need to propagate that change to the actual formula object in the report section by copying the formula (Ctrl-

drag) and then deleting the old clone.

Note 2: if only the 2

click on the button is recognized, you can correct that problem using the same procedure

as above: copy the button formula (using Ctrl-drag) and then delete the old clone.

Hiding the + / - Buttons

If you use an upper case formula name for any of your @DLV_Expand_Button_N formulas, you can hide the

formula by using the section background color as the font color. This would allow you to use double-clicks

exclusively for In-Place Drill-Down actions (the user will not see the + / - Buttons).

Dynamic Grouping (Group Swap Expert) (video demo)

When previewing a Grouped report, if you click or press Ctrl-G, the Group Swap Expert dialog open up.

Using Drag & Drop, you can change and reorder the fields/formulas used to group the report. For

example, instead of Grouping the report by Employee and by Product Type, you may group the report by

Country and Year.

The grouping change doesn’t require hitting the database again, so it is very quick.

DataLink Viewer also adjusts all formulas using group summaries, as well as the Group Selection formula, to

reflect the new grouping.

This feature avoids the need to create parameters and formulas in cases where you wish to provide dynamic

grouping functionality. A video demonstration is available.

Notes:

1. If you try to invoke the Group Swap expert for a report grouped on a date you get a detailed message

box like this:

2. For the same reason, date fields/formulas are not listed as candidates for change of grouping.

3. If you try to invoke the Group Swap expert for a report grouped on a field/formula that is not on the

report layout you get a detailed message box like this:

4. To make a field/formula participate in this dialog, it must be placed on the report layout.

Its name must not end with "_NOK" (an indication it’s Not OK to include it)

If the field/formula is suppressed or is placed in a suppressed section, it gets loaded into the list of

candidate Fields/Formulas only if it’s name ends with "_OK".

This approach is designed to avoid exposing suppressed information.

5. Conditional formatting formulas using group summaries are not adjusted.

6. Groups sorted Descending by total field may become sorted Ascending.

To avoid that behavior, use a TopN sort (with a large N) instead.

7. You may disable this functionality by adding this to the master DataLink_Viewer.ini

[Options]

Disable_Group_Swap=True

Optional Technique for Gaining Formula Access to the Dynamic Grouping:

If the report contains formulas names as: DLV_Group_L1, DLV_Group_L2, etc. DataLink Viewer will set

the expression of each of these formulas to return the grouping Field/Formula at that level after applying group

swaps. For example, you can design the report to have {Employee.Last Name} as the formula expression for

DLV_Group_L1 (reflecting the initial design of the report). If the user swaps {Customer.Country} for the

level 1 grouping, DLV changes the expression in the DLV_Group_L1 from {Employee.Last Name} to

{Customer.Country}. This allows you to build Advanced Charts (not limited to the Grouping Hierarchy)

and CrossTabs that reflect the dynamic grouping. The sample report

(DLV_2011_Change_Group_Demo.rpt) demonstrates this feature.

Change Layout & Content when Printing the Report

In some cases you may wish to use different layout & content when printing a report.

Here is a video demo demonstrating this technique.

This requires that you add a formula called Print_Mode to your report and set its value to “Preview”.

DataLink Viewer temporarily toggles the value of that formula to “Print” before printing, and restores its value

to “Preview” after printing. You just need to control the layout and content of the report using the value of that

formula.

Data Grid

You can click this toolbar icon to load the report data into an interactive data grid for ad-hoc grouping,

sorting, totaling, filtering, and exporting of the data.

Example

The sample report DLV_2011_Visualization_Demo.rpz was saved with data, so launch it and elect to not

refresh the data. Click the Data Grid toolbar icon to load the report data into the interactive grid:

As shown in the image above, the grid allows you to sort, group, size/move/remove/reinsert columns, auto-fit

column widths, filter, and search the grid.

As shown by the image below, you can drag column headers to the grouping area to group the grid by

Employee, Sales Rep, Product Type, and product.

You can also drag column headers sideways to change the order of the columns.

As shown in this image, summaries are added by right-clicking the area below a column and selecting the

desired summary type.

Filter conditions are displayed at the bottom of the grid and can be edited/suspended/reactivated via a checkbox:

What Data is Included?

To get loaded into the data grid, a field/formula must be placed on the report layout. Its name must not end with

"_NOK" (an indication it’s Not OK to include it). If the field/formula is suppressed or is placed in a suppressed

section, it gets loaded into the grid only if its name ends with "_OK". This is designed to avoid exposing

sensitive suppressed information.

Disabling the Data Grid functionality

To disable this option set the Disable_Data_Grid option to ‘True’ in DataLink_Viewer.ini.

Exporting/Copying the Data

Right-clicking the grid, provides a menu with options for selecting, copying, and exporting the data. Export

formats include Excel (xls or xlsx), HTML, PDF, Text, etc.

Saving/Restoring Grid Layouts

If the user has modify permissions on the report folder, when the grid is closed, the layout is saved to a .grd file

with the same name as the report. This allows the grid to remember its layout for each report. If the File

Locations options specified a path to visualization layouts folder, that folder is used for storing these .grd files.

Data Visualizer

When previewing a report, clicking the toolbar button loads the report data into a powerful data

visualization tool. The idea is to go beyond regular pivot tables or charts. The user can drag-and-drop to display

and drill-down into data patterns using effects such as multiple data panels, animation, filtering, sorting,

coloring, sizing, shapes, trend lines, and filters.

DataLink Viewer takes care of loading the report data into the visualizer, and mapping it into Measures

(numeric columns), Attributes, and Dates. Dates are treated as special attributes with Year, Quarter, Month, and

day hierarchy. Users can then create, save, and reuse visualization layouts. Please watch a 25-minute video

demo for more detail.

Notes:

 You may disable this functionality by adding this to the master DataLink_Viewer.ini

[Options]

Disable_Visualization=True

 Since the visualizer takes care of generating summaries from the data, it is best to use it with detail reports.

 To get loaded into the visualizer, a field/formula must be placed on the report layout. Its name must not end

with "_NOK" (an indication it’s Not OK to include it). If the field/formula is suppressed or is placed in a

suppressed section, it gets loaded into the list of candidate Fields/Formulas only if its name ends with

"_OK". This is designed to avoid exposing sensitive suppressed information.

 When a user launches a report that has save visualization layouts, you may want DataLink Viewer to

immediately launch the visualization, instead of the report preview. You can achieve that behavior by going

into the DataLink Viewer Options dialog, Launch tab, and selecting a Visualization Action:

 After creating a Visualization layout you can name and save it. What gets saved is only the layout, not the

data. So each time you load report data, the layout applies to the new data.

 Visualizations get saved into a.dlvv file, in the report folder (if the user has write permissions on that

folder). This allows you to easily distribute the visualizations with your reports.

 Using the Options dialog, you can specify a folder location for visualization files. You can give users Read-

Only, Centralized, or Distributed access to visualization files.

The logic is as follows:

1. If the dlvv file for the rpt is found in the rpt folder, it is used there.

2. If the user has no write permissions to that folder, the layouts get loaded as Read-Only/Embedded

layouts (surrounded by {…} to indicate the user won't be able to change/move those layouts. In such

Read-Only case, if matching dlvv file is also found where ReportList.txt is managed for the user or

under the Visualization Path folder (specified under the File Locations tab in the option dialog), the

layouts from that file are appended as regular layouts after the Read-Only layouts from the dlvv file

in the report folder.

3. If no dlvv file is found in the report folder, if it is found in the ReportList folder (the folder where

the ReportList.txt is located), it is used there. Again, if the user has no write permissions to that

folder, the user won't be able to save new Visualization Layouts.

4. Otherwise, if a location was specified in the Options dialog for the visualization layouts folder, the

visualization layouts for the report would be loaded from and saved to that folder. Again, if the user

has no write permissions to that folder, the user won't be able to save new Visualization Layouts.

5. So if you use Citrix or Terminal Services server and you wish to give each user their own

visualization files, you can specify the visualizations folder as something like H:\... (where H:\ is

the user’s Home folder.). If you wish to also include in the layouts for all users a set of protected

layouts, place them in the same folder as the RPT files and make sure users don't have write

permissions on that folder.

 When packaging an rpz file, a new checkbox option allows you to embed the .dlvv file inside the rpz file.

This makes it easy for professional report writers to develop, protect, and deliver not only reports but also

data visualizations to their clients.

 When loading the visualizer for a report that has saved visualization layouts, the 1

layout gets applied to

the current data automatically. A drop-down provides access to all the other named visualizations:

In the example above, the top 6 layouts are surrounded with curly brackets {…}, indicating these

visualizations were embedded inside the rpz file. The next 2 items were added by the user and are managed

in a local .dlvv file. Only non-embedded entries can be added, deleted, renamed, and sorted by the user.

 Hitting the F1 keyboard key provides the following reminders about useful function keys:

Adding Hierarchies

As shown for {Orders.Order Date} below, each date column automatically generates a dimension node with a

date hierarchy of Year, Quarter, Month, and Day. The dimension node also hosts these elements (plus Week

and Week Day) as separate attributes, in case the user wishes to use them independently (e.g. Revenue by

Quarter regardless of the Year).

However, you may want to add your own custom hierarchies. The Product and Market hierarchies shown to

the right, demonstrate how you can package attributes into a hierarchy node so that a user can drag the whole

hierarchy to a shelf and proceed to expand/collapse its branches.

Each custom hierarchy is located under its own dimension node. The dimension node also hosts the hierarchy

attributes as independent elements. By applying user-friendly names to all these nodes, the user can find these

attributes more easily.

You can add custom hierarchies for your visualizations by adding a [Visualization_Hierarchies] section to

DataLink_Viewer.ini. See example below.

The Top_Nodes entry in that section specifies what columns, if found in the report data, should be used as top

nodes in custom hierarchies. The column names are separated by ::: .

Each top node, such as {Product.Product Class} has an entry defining the following elements:

 Hierarchy Label followed by ^^^. For example: Product Hierarchy^^^

This label applies also to the dimension node that hosts the hierarchy and its components.

 This is followed by the sequence of attributes making up the levels of the hierarchy from top, separated

by >>> delimiters.

 Each level is specified as the column name and its friendly name, separated by :::

[Visualization_Hierarchies]

Top_Nodes={Product.Product Class}:::{Customer.Country}

{Product.Product Class}=Product Hierarchy^^^{Product.Product

Class}:::Class>>>{Product_Type.Product Type Name}:::Type>>>{Product.Product Name}:::Product

{Customer.Country}=Market^^^{Customer.Country}:::Country>>>{Customer.City}:::City>>>{Custome

r.Customer Name}:::Customer

Automated Exporting

See the user manual section on 'Fully-Automated Exporting of Data Visualizations' for detail

Report Inspection & Documentation Tools

Note: Visual CUT extends this functionality to allow mass updates of formulas, expressions, text, and data

sources.

Report Inspector

DataLink Viewer allows you to inspect report formulas, data connections, database tables, parameters,

text objects, field objects, sections, SQL expressions, running totals, selection formulas, and conditional

formatting expressions for one or multiple reports.

A right-click menu on a report grid row provides the following menu options:

The results are presented in a grid allowing grouping, sorting, searching, exporting, and filtering. Formulas that

fail to compile are presented with an error message.

See a full-sized sample image here: http://screencast.com/t/74ux1XgWRms

Note: to disable this functionality, set Disable_Inspect_Reports=True

in the DataLink_Viewer.ini [Options] section.

Report Documentation

After previewing a report, a click on the status bar panel displaying the report name:

provides a report documentation window such as this:

Launching Reports & Command Line API

Launch Reports from File Explorer

DataLink Viewer allows you to launch a report from the Windows File Explorer by

Right-Clicking a .rpt or .rpz file. The typical File Explorer menu provides the following extra options:

Open: launches a report to a Preview window.

Export: exports the report to a user selected export format and disk file.

Print: prints the report to the Default printer.

Print with…: prints the report to a user-selected printer.

These options allow users to invoke exporting or printing of a report without previewing it. This means users

don't have to wait for the preview to complete before providing exporting or printing choices. Similar choices

are available from the full user interface in DataLink Viewer (by right-clicking a report row in the 1

-tab grid).

However, some users may prefer to use File Explorer as a launch mechanism without starting DataLink Viewer.

Note: DataLink Viewer associates these file explorer actions with .rpt and .rpz files only on PCs where these

extensions are not already associated with other applications. This means that on a machine where Crystal

Reports is already installed (where .rpt files are already associated with the Crystal application) you will not see

these right-click menu options in File Explorer.

Generate Desktop Shortcuts to Launch Reports

Using the right-click menu on the report list grid, you can easily generate a desktop shortcut to launch a report.

See video demo.

Select the Command Line / Shortcut option:

And use the resulting dialog to ‘Create Shortcut’:

This creates a desktop shortcut that launches the report.

DataLink Viewer remembers the size, location, zoom level, and Group Tree panel status last used for each

report previewed from its desktop shortcut.

You can right-click the shortcut to edit its properties. For example, remove some parameter arguments (from the

Target property) to prompt the user for their values.

Launch Reports from Command Lines

DataLink Viewer allows you to launch a report from another application, from batch files, or from a shortcut

using a command line.

The general structure of the command line is:

1) the full path and name of the DataLink Viewer executable

2) –S or –V as a processing flag indicating we are requesting a report to be shown/viewed

-S shows the report and allows selection of other reports via the Report Selection Tab

-V is a View Only option that allows only viewing of the specified report

(the Report Selection Tab is not available to the user)

3) the report path and file name

4) Optional Parameter value arguments supplied as "ParmN:Value"

(where N is the position of the parameter in the parameter list within the Crystal report)

5) Optional User ID and Password arguments

6) Other optional arguments: Export, Printer, Print_Copies, ODBC_DSN, ODBC_DSN_From_To,

Oracle_Server, Connect_To_SQLOLEDB, Auto_Refresh, ViewMode, Disable_Print_Button,

Disable_Print_ThisPage_Button, Disable_Print_Quick_Button, Disable_Export_Button,

Disable_Search_Button, Disable_Refresh_Button, DB_Path_Use_Default, Disable_Group_Swap

EXAMPLES:

1. Invoke viewing of a sample report while passing 1997 as the 1

parameter value:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe"

-s "C:\Temp\DataLink_Viewer_Year_and_Product_Prompts.rpt" "Parm1:1997"

__________________________________________________________________

2. Invoke viewing of a secure report while passing User_ID and Passord:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe"

-s "C:\temp\Some Secure Report.rpt" "user_id:dba" "password:sql"

__________________________________________________________________

3. Invoke viewing of a report with only Preview tab (no Select Report tab) and specify an ODBC data source.

This is useful in cases where you have multiple database with the same structure. You create several ODBC

DSNs and can control via a command line which database is used:

__________________________________________________________________

"C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe"

-v "C:\temp\MyReport.rpt" "ODBC_DSN:Company1"

__________________________________________________________________

HANDLING SAVED DATA

You can force or avoid the use of saved data using a command line argument.

You can also use the Options dialog to set the default launch option (Refresh/Prompt/Display) for saved data.

Call DataLink Viewer from Another Application

Here's a code example of invoking DLV from a visual basic application with only a Preview tab (no Select

Report tab) and specifying a parameter value. Note that double quotes are "escaped" by using

instead of

__________________________________________________________________

Dim RetVal

ls_temp = "C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer 2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe " &

"-v ""c:\temp\Lab2_Chase.rpt"" ""Parm1:800"""

RetVal = Shell(ls_temp)

__________________________________________________________________

Here's a code example for invoking DLV from a vba event and dynamically setting the report path, name, and

parameter value:

__________________________________________________________________

Private Sub Combo0_AfterUpdate()

Dim rs As Object

Set rs = Me.Recordset.Clone

rs.FindFirst "[txtReportName] = '" & Me![Combo0] & "'"

If Not rs.EOF Then Me.Bookmark = rs.Bookmark

Dim myreport As String

Dim stAppName As String

Dim myvalret As String

' me.fullrep is a field that concatenates the report path and name

myreport = Me.fullrep

myvalret = Str(MyCaseno)

stAppName = "C:\Program Files\Millet Software\DataLink Viewer

2011\DataLink_Viewer_2011.exe" & _

" -s """ & myreport & """ ""Parm1:" & myvalret & """"

DoCmd.Close

Call Shell(stAppName, 1)

End Sub