Using the Crystal Report Engine API

The Crystal REAPI provides two options for processing and producing reports from within an application:

The Print-Only Link is the fastest, easiest method for producing a report with the Crystal REAPI. A Print-Only Link, however, provides a very limited functionality. It allows a report to be printed on a default printer or previewed in a window on-screen. It does not allow you to customize a report in any way before printing it, though.

A Custom-Print Link, on the other hand, provides all the report processing power of Crystal Reports itself. By coding a Custom-Print Link into your application, you can change record selection, record sorting, group creation, group selecting, group sorting, exporting to disk files, e-mail, Exchange and Lotus Notes folders, ODBC data sources, selecting specific printers for printing, logging on to SQL servers and ODBC data sources, editing formulas, formatting report sections, and much more. A Custom-Print Link is, however, a more complex process to code than a Print-Only Link.

The first time you use the Crystal REAPI in your application project, you may want to start by coding a simple Print-Only Link to produce basic reporting functionality. As your project develops and you become more familiar with the Crystal REAPI, you can expand the reporting functionality with a Custom-Print Link.



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